Wolfgang Langhoff: The peat bog soldiers (1935)
Wolfgang Langhoff: The peat bog soldiers (1935)
Wenn meine Liebe Deutschland gilt, warum habe ich diesen Bericht geschrieben? Weil das, was augenblicklich in Deutschland geschieht, nicht Deutschland oder doch nur ein Teil, der häßlichste Teil Deutschlands ist. Denn diejenigen, die heute Heimatliebe, deutsches Wesen, deutsche Art im Mund führen und deren Kampfwaffen Mord, Verrat und alle finsteren Triebe der Barbarei sind, nennen sich zu Unrecht die besten Söhne meiner Heimat. Die Zeit wird es beweisen.
[If I do indeed love Germany, then why did I write this book? Because what is currently happening in Germany isn’t Germany, or is only a part, the ugliest part of Germany. Those who talk about love of the homeland, the German character, German ways, and whose weapons are murder, betrayal and all the dark forces of barbarism, are wrong to describe themselves as the finest sons of my homeland. Time will show. (ed. trans.)]
Quote from Wolfgang Langhoff’s factual novel The Peat Bog Soldiers, 1935
Actor Wolfgang Langhoff spent 13 months as a “peat bog soldier” in the Börgermoor concentration camp before a failed attempt at starting again in Nazi Germany sent him into Swiss exile. Here he wrote his recollections of his time in captivity, which were released in 1935 by the Schweizer Spiegel publishing house.
The Peat Bog Soldiers was among the first sources to report on conditions in German concentration camps and so reveal the policies of the Nazi dictatorship. In a style which is both sober and realistic, Langhoff describes, on the one hand, the harassment and violence which was supposed to “break” the prisoners. On the other hand he draws attention to the solidarity and resistance among the prisoners. A testament to this resistance known throughout the world is the song “Peat Bog Soldiers”.
Consequently both the book and its author represented a threat to the Nazi system. Shortly after the book was published, Wolfgang Langhoff was stripped of German citizenship on the grounds of being a “public nuisance”, rendering him stateless. Furthermore the Nazis sent spies to Switzerland to defame him and track his movements. At the same time, authorities of some Swiss cantons prohibited him from carrying out a lecture series based on the book. This ban was later extended to the whole country.
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