Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-07-25

sions OF nature still best not talked
about.
Beaten by Gestapo
Won Ripper was arrested by the Ges-
tapo, brutally beaten to elicit a confess
sion, the only possible result of which
would have been beheading left with no
attention for three days with his skull
cracked by lead pipe. Finally, he was
moved to a hospital, where the doctor
who attended him was only a lukeWarm
Nazi constantly spied on by the nurses
and orderlies. The physician got rid Of
all of the watchers by a ruse one day
and told the artist:
Il think you are a very strong man.
You can confess noW-confeSs anything.
You will be executed. 1t will soon be
over. Or you can refuse to confess. You
will go back to prison and suffer such
fortunes as I cannot describe. You are
almost sure to confess in the end. Then
you will be killed. You will have stood
all the tourture for nothing. But if you
think you've got CUTS enough to confess,
you will have about one chance in
thousand of getting out alive. But you
will be a broken man"
The doctor told him some of the things
that would be done to him. So he went
back to prison foreWarned.
Cell Constantly Lighted
If I hadn't known what was coming
I probably would have confessed from
the shock of it." he says. Most people
did. The Gestapo had plenty on me,
but they couldn't prove it,
For three months he went through all
the psychological fortunes in Darkness
at Noon
The worst, he says, was the lighted
cell. A brilliant light shone all the time.
One never knew day from night. About
20 times a day guard came along the
corridor and looked through a peep
hole in the door. The solitary prisoner
within must be standing at attention.
Otherwise the guard would come in and
beat him up with a club.
Hour after hour" he SAYS, "I would
listen-listen for the footsteps which
meant that I must snap to attention
1t was the same for everybody. Do you
wonder that men went mad. that they
confessed anything they were asked to
confess to get away from that light and
the constant horror of dropping of to
sleep?"
Refused to Break
Won Ripper didn't confess. They gave
up at last and put him ION ice" in &
concentration camp outside Berlin. They
were waiting to get some evidence
against him. Any communication with
the outside was prohibited but the prs.
oners were allowed to have visitors once
a week and drink coffee with them 4
guard constantly watched to prevent an,
note passing.
He eluded this vigilance through hi
artistic training. In the camp he hat
been able to get hold of some paints
He wrote letter to the Austrian Am
bassador on a slip of paper, and painte!
the other side the exact color of tn
coffee cups used. During the first GU,
OF coffee he managed to slip the pape
inside the cup so that it looked exactl
like part of the wall of the utensil.
More coffee was requested When hi
cup was filled, he succeeded in pushin
it in front of a lady visitor whom he di,
not know. She drank the coffee, an
he remarked:
They're filthy swine here to serv
coffee in such a dirty cup You'd ough
to clean yours out with your handker
chief before somebody else gets it,"
Swallowed in Berlin
She did. Her face never changed ex
preston. Won Ripper did not knoy
whether or not she had the note or VIVA
she would do with it if she had. Sh
took it to the Austrian Embassy TIL
next day an attache was at the cam
and demanded to see him.
A few days later he was release,
through the personal intervention o
Chancellor Dollfuss, soon to be assasi
mated.
There were other adventures. He wa
Swallowed through Berlin. He carrie
secret documents sewed in the shoulde
OF his coat which he managed to delive
to their destination despite the constan
watchers. He returned to Austria an,
left again for New York three day
before the anschluss.
Won Ripper enlisted as private in tn
American Army shortly after Pearl Har
Dor. He now is an American citizen
He has his own ideas about peace afte
, the war; but, he says, ut seems to m
beyond debate that no member of tn
Gestapo should be allowed to live"
That was the story the sergeant toll
over a jug of wine at midnight in tn
. starlit grove. In the green boughs o
. juniper . night bird was singin
weirdly.