Authors: Leon Uris
“What other accomplishments did your underground achieve?”
“We improved conditions with more rations and medicine and the building of more sanitation facilities. Mainly, twenty thousand prisoners worked in factories outside the camp and the underground on the outside smuggled things to them which they brought back into the camp. In this manner we got vaccine which stopped another typhus epidemic.”
“Would you say this saved many lives?”
“Yes.”
“Thousands?”
“I cannot estimate.”
“By the way, Sir Adam. You mentioned a radio for contact to the outside. Where was it hidden?”
“In my surgery in Barrack XX.”
“Hummmmm,” Highsmith mulled. “What were your hours in Jadwiga?” he continued.
“Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. After regular out patient hours set by the SS we continued to work in surgery and the wards. I took a few hours sleep here and there.”
Abraham watched the jury as Sir Robert and Adam Kelno piled a mountain of heroism, courage, and sacrifice before them. He looked to O’Conner, who was all business, to Bannister, who was totally relaxed and fixed on the witness. Below, Jacob Alexander’s secretary, Sheila Lamb, wrote feverishly. At the associates table, the shorthand writers chanced periodically. The London
Times
law reporters, both of whom were barristers, were accorded a special place in the courtroom removed from the overcrowded press rows. These were jammed with more and more foreign journalists arriving on the scene.
“We have gone through the administering of anesthetic by you in the operating room,” he repeated to ensure the point. “Now did you in any way pride yourself in performing operations quickly?”
“No. But in Jadwiga there was so much surgery I trained myself to work fast but never so fast that it endangered a patient.”
“Did you wash your hands before every operation?”
“Of course.”
“And saw to it your patients were properly scrubbed.”
“My God, of course.”
“In the case of an ovariectomy, those performed on orders of Voss, what surgical methods did you adhere to?”
“Well, after the spinal took effect, the patient is taken off a trolley and strapped to the operating table.”
“Strapped? Forcibly?”
“For the patient’s own safety. “
“Would you strap someone down for the same operation today in London?”
“Yes. It is standard procedure.”
“Continue, please, Dr. Kelno.”
“Well, the operating table may be tilted.”
“How much? As much as thirty degrees?”
“I don’t think so. When performing an operation in the lower region such as the pelvis if you tilt the table, the intestines roll back by themselves to give the surgeon an area to operate free from the loops of the intestines. I would make an abdominal incision, insert the forceps to lift the uterus, place a forceps between the tube and the ovary and cut the ovary off.”
“What do you do with the removed ovary?”
“Well, I can’t keep it in my hand. It is usually put on a dish or some sort of receptacle held by an assistant When the ovary is removed it leaves a pedicle or stump. This stump is covered to prevent it from hemorrhaging.”
“The stump or pedicle is always covered?”
“Yes, always.”
“How long does such an operation take?”
“Under normal conditions, between fifteen and twenty minutes.”
“And all of this is done with sterile instruments?”
“Naturally.”
“And you are wearing rubber gloves.”
“I prefer to wear sterile cotton gloves over the rubber gloves to prevent slipping. It is an optional matter of the individual surgeon.”
“Would you tell my Lord and the jury if the patient, who is semiconscious and without feeling, is able to observe all this?”
“No. We place a screen made of a sterilized sheet so the patient is unable to observe.”
“What on earth do you do that for?”
“To prevent the patient from coughing or spitting into an open wound.”
“So then, the patient cannot see or feel. Would the patient be in a state of extreme distress?”
“Well, Sir Robert, no one is happy to be on an operating table, but they are not in what you would term, ‘extreme distress’ at all.”
“And even though these operations were conducted in the Jadwiga Concentration Camp, would you be satisfied that normal surgical procedures were used.”
“It was more difficult there in many ways but it was proper surgery.”
After the luncheon adjournment, Sir Robert Highsmith took Sir Adam Kelno through his earliest meeting with Mark Tesslar as medical students in Warsaw.
They met again in Jadwiga, where Kelno claimed Tesslar continued to operate on SS prostitutes and later collaborated with the Germans on the experiments.
“Did Dr. Tesslar treat any patients or look after them in the general medical compound?”
“He lived in Barrack III in private quarters.”
“Private quarters you say. Not like yourself sharing with sixty others.”
“In Barrack III many of the victims of the experiments were kept. Tesslar may have looked after them. I do not know. I avoided him and when we met I made such meetings brief.”
“Did you ever brag to him about doing thousands of experimental operations without anesthetic?”
“No. I am proud of my record as a surgeon and may have mentioned the thousands of operations performed in Jadwiga.”
“Proper operations.”
“Yes, proper. But my words have been distorted. I warned Tesslar about his own activities and told him he would have to answer for his crimes. It was like signing my own death warrant for when I returned to Warsaw he was already there and to cover his crimes, he brought charges against me and I had to flee.”
“Sir Adam,” the judge interrupted. “I would like to offer a bit of advice. Try to answer Sir Robert’s questions and not volunteer any other information.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
“How long did you remain in Jadwiga?”
“Until early in 1944.”
“Would you tell my Lord and the jury under what circumstances you left the concentration camp?”
“Voss left Jadwiga to take over a private clinic of the wives of high German naval officers in Rostock near the Baltic and he took me with him.”
“As a prisoner?”
“As a prisoner. I was referred to as Voss’s dog.”
“How long were you in Rostock?”
“Until January of 1945 when Voss evacuated into the center of Germany. I was not taken with him. There was confusion among the Germans. I stayed in the area to treat many slaves and prisoners now roaming free. In April the Russian Army arrived. At first many of us were put into compounds for lack of papers, then I was released and made my way back to Warsaw. I arrived on Easter Sunday of 1945 and immediately heard rumors of charges against me. The Nationalist underground was still in existence so I was given false papers to work as a laborer in a cleanup gang. I fled to Italy to join the Free Polish Forces as soon as I could.”
“What happened then?”
“There was an investigation to clear me. I came to England and served in the Polish Hospital in Tunbridge Wells. I remained until 1946.”
“What happened then?”
“I was arrested and put into Brixton Prison while the Polish Communists tried to extradite me.”
“How long did you remain in prison?” Sir Robert said, with a voice growing acid over the British treatment of his client.
“Two years.”
“And after two years in Brixton following nearly five years in Jadwiga Concentration Camp what happened?”
“The British government apologized and I joined the Colonial Service. I went to Sarawak in Borneo in 1949 and remained for fifteen years.”
“What were the conditions like in Sarawak?”
“Primitive and difficult.”
“Well, why did you choose that place?”
“Out of fear.”
“Then your testimony is that you have spent twenty-two years of your life either as a prisoner or in exile for crimes you did not commit.”
“That is correct.”
“What rank did you attain in the Colonial Service?”
“That of senior medical officer. I rejected higher positions because of my work with malnutrition and lifting the living standards of the natives.”
“Did you write papers on this subject?”
“Yes.”
“How were they received?”
“I was eventually knighted.”
“Hmmmmmmm ... yes ...” Sir Robert glared at the jury almost in defiance. “After which you returned to England.”
“Yes.”
“I’m curious, Sir Adam. Now, as a knighted British doctor, why you chose to practice in a relatively obscure clinic in Southwark?”
“I can only eat two chickens a day. I do not practice medicine for money or social standing. In my clinic I can serve the greatest number of needy people.”
“Sir Adam. Did you then or do you now suffer ill health from your years in Jadwiga, Brixton, and Sarawak?”
“Yes, I have lost almost all my teeth from beatings by the Gestapo and SS. I suffer from varicose veins, a hernia, stomach disorders from excessive recurrences of dysentery. I have neurological symptoms of anxiety and high blood pressure. I have insomnia and a bad heart.”
“How old are you?”
“I am sixty-two.”
“No further questions,” Sir Robert Highsmith said.
5
S
AMANTHA BACKED INTO THE
door of the Colchester Mews with both arms filled with groceries in bags marked Harrods. A polite cabbie brought in the rest.
Abe was stretched out an the couch, a pile of newspapers strewn on the floor near him.
HERO OR MONSTER
—
Evening News
DILEMMA OF JADWIGA DOCTOR
—
Herald
HELL CAMP DOCTOR TESTIFIES
—Daily Worker
SIR ADAM KELNO CONTINUES
—
Times
I HAD NO CHOICE
—
Mirror, Standard, Telegraph,
Birmingham
Post, Sketch,
all careful to report accurately the events without editorial comment. Unlike some countries, the British press must be exceedingly careful not to try a man in the newspapers and magazines before he comes to court. In such cases when a newspaper becomes an accuser or prejudger, turning public sentiment, the paper can be named as a defendant to the action. It keeps journalism honest.
Abe yawned himself to his feet
“Pay the driver, Abe,” Samantha said.
“Three bob on the meter, sir.”
Abe handed him a ten shilling note and told him to keep the change. He liked London cabbies. They were polite. The cabbie liked Americans. They tipped well.
“What’s all this, Christmas?”
“The cupboard was bare and knowing you, you’d starve first. Did Ben get in all right?”
“Yes. He’s out on King’s Road probably hustling for a broad.”
Samantha set the bags down on the kitchen counter and began to empty them. “Well, how come old Dad isn’t out there with him?”
“I’m aging, Sam. I can’t handle this young stuff anymore.”
“Why, Abe. Vinny’s young man is up at Linstead Hall. I don’t see what she sees in him. Very argumentative sort.”
“Just a normal Israeli sabra. Most of them are defensively aggressive from too many years of living with their backs to the sea.”
“Abe, I heard a lot of the talk after court today. People are ... we ...”
“Wondering?”
“Yes.”
“There’s two sides to this story.”
“Scotch?”
“That would be nice.”
“Dreadful, dreadful business,” she said, wrestling with an old model ice cube tray. “There’s a lot of sympathy for Kelno.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Are you going to be able to overcome it?”
“I didn’t come to London to visit the Queen.”
The phone rang. Samantha answered. “It’s for you ... a woman.”
“Hello.”
“Hello, darling,” Lady Sarah Wydman beamed.
“Hi, good to hear you. Alexander said you got in very late last night.”
“Sorry not to be there at the beginning, but I simply got overbooked with theater in New York. Dreary season. When do I get to see you?”
“Like tonight.”
“We can do one of the little restaurants in Chelsea or come to my place,” she said.
“I’d better stick close to the phone.”
“Good. I’ll pick up something at Oakshortes and make dinner for you at the mews.”
“I didn’t know you could cook.”
“You don’t know a lot of things. Seven-thirtyish?”
“Deal.”
Abe hung up. Samantha was pouting openly as she handed him his drink. “Who was that?”
“Friend. Friend of the cause.”
“How friendly?”
“Lady Sarah Wydman. She’s very big in the Jewish community.”
“Everyone has heard of Lady Sarah and her charitable works. Will you be making love to her here?”
He decided to play her silly game. “The mews is too small, what with Ben in the next bedroom. I like to ball where I can yell and scream and run around bare-assed.”
Samantha turned crimson and bit her lip.
“Come on, Sam, we’ve been divorced for years. You can’t still be jealous.”
“Oh, I’m just a silly. I mean, Abe, no one has been quite like you. After all we did conceive Ben right here. I always have the memory, when I come down from Linstead Hall, about us. Do you ever get a twinge about me?”
“Truth?”
“I don’t know if I want the truth or not. “
“Truthfully, yes. Sam, we lived together for two decades.”
“I got quite excited when I knew you would be in London for a long stay. When Reggie and I offered you the mews I knew I’d come to London and ask you to make love to me.”
“Christ, Sam, we can’t do that.”
“Old chums like us? What’s so terribly wrong?”
“Reggie.”
“He suspects it anyhow and he’d never be convinced we didn’t. Reggie is a dear sweet quiet stout type. As long as we don’t throw it in his face, he wouldn’t dare bring it up.”
“I’ve stopped sleeping with other men’s wives.”
“Really, since when, darling?”
“Since I found out you can’t fool the old man upstairs. You’ve got to pay off. Sam, please don’t put me in the position of rejecting you.”