Evening star., 1944-12-26
Prisoners
Continued From First Page.)

Warner Kraus, %, speaks English,
wound scar on left arm; Jurger
Quaet Faslem, %, speaks English
and French; Artur Karstens, %,
speaks English; Walter Kozur, 81;
Johann Kremer, 81; Kurt Mohr-
dieck, %; friedrich Sternberg, %,
speaks English, French, Danish;
Heinrich Palmer, "a; Marten Peter
Reese, %, speaks English and
French; Jurgen Schroeder, 25, false
teeth, speaks English; Friedrich
Upzolino, 40; Hans Zundorf, %,
speaks a little English, and Rein
hard Mark, no age.
Disclosure that Prien is prisoner
lifts partly for the first time in
three and one-half years the total
mystery covering the fate of this
most famous of Germany'S U-boat
commanders.
1t was on October a. 1899, when
the war was less than six weeks old,
that Prien, lieutenant commander,
startled the world by slipping into
the closely guarded British naval
base at Scapa Flow and sinking the
29O00-ton British battleship Royal
Oak with torpedo. Eight hundred
and ten of the Royal Oaks officers
and men were killed.
Decorated by Hitler.
Prien then managed to get his
submarine safely out of the British
stronghold and returned to Germany
where Adolf Hitler personally deco
rated him with the Knights Cross
of the Iron Cross and promoted him
to the rank of commander.
For this ceremony, a special joint
meeting of the German and foreign
press-an unusual occurrence-wasI
called in Berlin, and Prien, then 80,
made a short, snappy but modest
speech. He didn't seem to relish his
role as hero.
His crew, group of young and
aggressive lads who stood behind |
him as he talked, seemed to enjoy
the sudden limelight.
Prien and his crew were taken to
several schools to INSPIRE" youth.
Editorials hailed him as a typical
product of Hitlerean superman
teachings.
Later when news came that
Prien's submarine was lost and the
commander and crew missing, deep
gloom spread over the youth of Ger
many. Propaganda Minister Joseph
Goebbels seized on the occasion to
again dramatic Prien as the ideal
German.
Was Nazi Hero of Heroes.
The propaganda ministry empha-
sized that Prien had preferred
danger and sacrifice to the safety
and comfort of an easy assign
ment.
Prien claimed to have torpedoed
and damaged the British battle
cruiser Repulse at the same time
he sank the Royal Oak, but this the
British denied.
How he got in and out of Scapa
Flow has never been satisfactorily
explained, although many legends
quickly grew up about the exploit.
Subsequently, during several
cruises in 1910, Prien was credited
by the Germans with sinking more
than $4,000 tons of British shipping.
He was the German underseas serv-
ices hero of heroes.
Then came a curiously anti
climatic denouement. On May 2,
1941, the British radio reported that
he had been missing since April 13,
l941. How the British knew this
never was disclosed.
Reluctantly the German high
command on May %, 1941, acknowl-
edged that Prien and his submarine
had failed to return from cruise.
Presumably he was dead. His name
never was mentioned publicly again.
Now it is disclosed that Prien,
the toast of the German Navy, suf-
fered a fate that many submariners
consider worse than death-he was
captured. How and when remain
secret