The Last Days Of
p. 39 · Read in the full issue
Otto Soltwedel
Formerly Of N. Guinea
WE have received from Germany some further details of the death of Mr.
Otto Soltwedel who, after six years’ imprisonment in a internees’ camp in Australia, was deported to Germany by the Australian Socialist Government, despite his appeals to be allowed to return to New Guinea. His nephew, Mr.
Ehrhardt Soltwedel —who was with him in New Guinea for a time—writes as follows from Frankfort-on-Main: “My uncle was not happy, during the short time he had left to him in Germany.
He never got used to the busy, bustling life in the ruined cities. His ideal was the old Germany of 1912, under the old Kaiser Wilhelm —a period of prosperity which no country has experienced since 1914. Solti, until he was sent back here in 1949, had not seen Germany since he left it for New Guinea 37 years before.
He seemed to be completely lost here tic spoke constantly of his desire to return to his beloved New Guinea. I am con vinced he would not have died so soon had they allowed him to return to New Guinea. His last words were about Rabaul. When I used to go to visit him, his eyes would light up—l was someone he could ‘talk place’ with.”
Editorial Note: The PIM tried many times to find out why Soltwedel. was deported, while most of the other older Germans were allowed to go back to New Guinea. Officialdom, however—as is usual in such cases—was remote and un helpful and would give no indication. It was a Star Chamber trial and verdict. We learned lately, however, that officialdom had somehow got hold of a letter which Soltwedel had written in 1939 to someone high in authority in Germany—Dr.
Goebbels, one of our informants said — and in this he had fiercely denounced and criticised certain aspects of the Australian administration in New Guinea.
That would not be surprising. Soltwedel was not a man who would conceal his convictions: and there was plenty to criticise in the Australian administration.
But we do not know how far Soltwedel carried his criticism ... However it does not matter, now. Soltwedel is dead —another decent man (even if of enemy blood) broken on the wheel of war.