Passages to Freedom: A Story of Capture and Escape - Softcover

Frelinghuysen, Joseph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0897451317 ISBN 13: 9780897451314

Publisher: Sunflower Univ Pr, 1990

Synopsis

Passages to Freedom is the honest, unpretentious story of a captain in the U.S. Army, ambushed and imprisoned in Nazi German-occupied North Africa, and taken to Italian prisoner-of-war camps.

On 23 September 1943 Joe Frelinghuysen escaped from a German prison camp at Fonte d'Amore and spent the next seven weeks in the Italian mountains, running and hiding from the Germans, in "a world of cold, filth, and everlasting fear."

Joe Frelinghuysen presents the whole story -- his mistakes and his successes -- in a forthright and touching manner. Along with hundreds of other American escapees during World War II, he endured the agonies of war -- the death of comrades as well as the guilt of survival.

Passages to Freedom is an enlightening story of a gentle, compassionate man -- a man of deep strength, faith, and conviction -- set in a brutal epoch.

About this title

About the Author

Joseph S. Frelinghuysen is a graduate of Princeton University (B.A., English, 1934), he joined a New York insurance brokerage after college where he worked until he went on active duty in 1941. At the age of 57, in 1970, he ran the Boston Marathon and finished -- all 26.2 miles.

He is co-author, with Paul J. Kiell, M.D., of Keep Your Heart Running (1976), published in paperback as The Complete Guide to Physical Fitness (1978), and has authored articles on nutrition published in the Quarterly of the American Medical Athletic Association.

Reviews

In November of 1942 Frelinghuysen, a U.S. Army captain, was ambushed and captured by the Germans in North Africa. After a harrowing interrogation, he was moved to an Italian prisoner-of-war camp in Capua, and from there to a second camp in the ancient city of Chieti. A year later the relatively easygoing Italian guards were replaced by Germans, who proceeded to transfer the prisoner to Concentration Camp 78 at Fonte d'Amore, near Sulmona. From there, he and a fellow American escaped. The rest of the book chronicles their perilous trek as they made their way through enemy lines, avoiding German patrols and relying on the courage and generosity of the local Italian people, who assisted the escaped prisoners at considerable risk. Frelinghuysen writes in a pleasing, straightforward style, and his description of army life is honest and insightful. The telling of his escape, however, is far from unique, and the plethora of detail he provides about its execution and about the many people who crossed his path along the way offers little of interest to the general reader. Frelinghuysen is coauthor of The Complete Guide to Physical Fitness . Illustrated.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One: 9:00 a.m., 29 November 1942: The waiting began to get to me. I imagined every kind of beating and torture I'd ever heard of: red-hot wires under your fingernails, electrodes on your genitals. Suddenly I heard the prison guard call, in the old German accent, "Hauptmann Frelinghusen." The pronunciation was too authentic.

Struggling to maintain my composure, I strode into the office and halted before a sallow-faced officer sitting behind a small wooden table. I saluted smartly, as demanded by military courtesy, even between enemies.

Here was a man in his forties with short gray hair, wearing a blue-gray uniform bedecked with medals, colonel's insignia, and a high-peaked garrison cap. Hating him, I also loathed myself for being afraid of him.

He returned my salute with a corner of his mouth curling. "You may be seated, Frelinghusen; I want to ask you a few questions. Now, if you will be helpful, you will be back with your comrades in a few minutes and can look forward to a splendid trip to Germany." He spoke English with an Oxford accent. All this time the guard stood behind me with his machine-pistol at my back.

I stared back at him in silence, a lump tightening in my chest. His legs stuck out from under the table, and I could see the red trouser stripe of the German General Staff. This was to be a top-level interrogation. I forced myself to keep my face impassive.

"Frelinghusen" -- he pronounced it with an exaggerated German accent -- "you should be with us, not the Americans. That is a German name."

"It is not," I said, irritated. "It's Holland Dutch."

"You're wrong. The family came from Schwerte in Westphalia, not far from the Hollndische border." He paused a moment and leaned forward. "Now, Frelinghusen, you were with the artillery of the First Infantry Division, were you not?"

"My name is Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, Captain, serial number 0-313280."

Suddenly he smiled. "Here, have a Camel." He held out a package of cigarettes.

I declined the offer. "Where did you get those?"

"Oh, we get them through Tangier; in fact, we get any of your products that we want." The he added curtly, "You were sent over here from Oran, in general support of what the British call their First Army. We know you landed at Arzew with 105-mm howitzers. What was your armament here?"

I sat still without answering, feeling my stomach churn. The voice across the desk grew flinty. "If you wish to be stubborn, Frelinghusen, we have ways of making you talk, and I never hesitate to use them."

If I hadn't been so panic-stricken, the bastard might have been comical -- right out of a grade B movie. But his threat had sounded too damn believable. I recalled an old World War I story I had heard: a sadistic Hun who liked to experiment with interrogations made an offer to each American prisoner who refused to answer questions. The interrogator would point to two doors. The first, he said, led either to freedom or to their Chinese cooks, who would kill the prisoner with slow torture. The second door led to a firing squad. After only brief consideration, each prisoner had chosen the firing squad. I wondered what I would do if I were ever given such a choice.

But the German colonel was waiting. "I see my little suggestion gave you pause for thought," he said with a malicious smile. His voice rose, "Now, for the last time, what was your armament here?"

I sat there without speaking, the knot in my chest growing more unbearable with each question. Every time I either refused to answer or repeated my name, rank, and serial number, the German became angrier. The tension increased until I was unable to speak at all.

Then, surprisingly, he said rapidly, "Well, Frelinghusen, it's lucky for you one of your men broke down and gave me this information. I was merely looking for verification. If I don't get more from one of the others, I'll see you again. Then, if you persist in being stupid, you may not live to enjoy your vacation in Germany. Now get out!"

I stood up -- knees shaking -- saluted, and was waved out the door by the guard's machine-pistol. For the next hour or more, I sweated in a strange cell, wondering if I'd be called back, and if I would ever see the other prisoners again.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sunflower Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0897451317
• ISBN 13: 9780897451314
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 303