Evening star., 1945-02-23
American Civilians
On GripshoIm Given
Prolonged Gri|Iine
By the Associated Press.

oy Tue ASeOClhteo FfeSS.
NEW YORK, Feb. 23.-American
civilians-many of them relative
strangers to the country of their
citizenship-were being questioned
by security officials today aboard
the Gripsholm in a searching ex-
animation which has permitted only
fraction of the civilian passengers
to leave the exchange ship.
The prolonged grilling-recalling
the 1912 trip of the Drottningholm
when the FBI said it uncovered a
Nazi agent among the repatriates-
had permitted the release SO far of
only las to $50 of the 622 civilians.
Most of those kept aboard had
lived in Poland and Greece. There
also were number of Latin Ameri-
can citizens.
Many servicemen who were taken
from the Gripsholm at its Jersey
City pier to Halloran Hospital were
critical of the attitude of some of
the 548 American citizens, saying
they had no appreciation of the
United States.
Seamen Confirm Convoy Story.
Prince de la Torres Tasso of Italy
and his wife, the former Fannie
Goodyear, Buffalo, N. Y, with their
5-year-old son were among the last
to leave the boat Wednesday.
The prince said they left the
United States in 1888 to go to
Czechoslovakia, where he managed
a family estate. He said the estate
was seized by the Nazis.
A number of returning American
merchant seamen offered confirma-
ton OF the story of a wolfpack
submarine attack on a Murmansk
ship convoy, as told yesterday by
Walter StankieWicz, %, of Balti-
more
Stankiewicz and surviving men,
bers of the steamship Carlton and
the steamship Honomu said all but
1 of SO ships of the convoy were
sunk by the enemy after British
escort vessels left the convoy to
chase the German battleships
6charnhorst and Gneisenau in July, |
1912.
In London the Admiralty officially
Ignored the story and unoficially |
described it as "arrant nonsense"
Spent 20 Days on Lifeboat.
One repatriated seaman, Jerry
Petro, Houston, Tex, spent % days
In Ifeboat after his ship, the
Honomu, was torpedoed off Nor
way in 1912. He was captured by
the crew of a German submarine |
and spent two an da half years in |
q German prison camp
Wednesday was his fifth wedding |
anniversary and his wife was here
TO celebrate it with him.
II didn't shake when the ship was
torpedoed under me but I certainly
did when talked to my WIFE" he
said.
Commenting on German treat
ment of prisoners, Petro said: when
they were winning the war we were
just bunch of pigs but more re-
Gently we have become gentlemen
with them"
Potatoes Big Treat.
A civilian repatriate, 18-year-old
Fred Erotsieki, formerly of Des
Moines, Iowa, said the German food
was so bad that when we got po-
tatoes it was like Thanksgiving din
r1er to U.S." Erotsieki was interned
when the Germans invaded Holland,
where he had gone from Des
Moines in 1928 to live with an aunt
and uncle at Hilversum
I'm going to join the Army as
soon as I can and join the air
force" he said. Il want to kill few
Nazis before the war is over
1t. Guy c. Rogers, bomber pilot
from Missoula. Mont, who was
among the servicemen taken from
the Gripsholm to Halloran Hospital
said his plane exploded over Berlin
and he fell $4,000 feet in burning
part of the fueslage before he man