Rolf Magener
Rolf Magener | |
---|---|
Born | Odesa, Ukraine | 3 August 1910
Died | 5 May 2000 Heidelberg, Germany | (aged 89)
Nationality | German |
Alma mater | University of Frankfurt |
Occupation | Business executive |
Known for | Prisoner's Bluff (1954) |
Spouse | Doris (née von Behling) |
Rolf Magener (3 August 1910 – 5 May 2000) was the first German prisoner to escape successfully from India during the
Early years
Rolf Magener was born in Odesa on 3 August 1910 to a German businessman father and a Russian mother.[1] He grew up in Germany, but his family spent significant time on the French Riviera due to the health of his mother. After completing boarding school at Hermann Lietz-Schule, he went on to study business management, spending several semesters at the University of Exeter, where he became fluent in English. Magener earned his doctorate from the University of Frankfurt in 1937, writing his dissertation on industry liquidity in economic trends. He then travelled widely around southeast Asia.[1]
War years
By 1938, Magener was working in Bombay for the German multi-national company
After the escape, the group split up. Harrer and Peter Aufschnaiter, both professional climbers, headed for Tibet. Harrer later recorded his adventures and friendship with the Dalai Lama in Seven Years in Tibet (1953).[2] They were accompanied part of the way by Hans Kopp, who later wrote Himalayan Shuttlecock. Magener and von Have decided to make their way to Japan. They travelled 1,500 miles (2,400 km) southeast across India, still disguised as British soldiers, to the Japanese lines in Burma. Along the way, in an effort to maintain their disguise, they shared railway compartments and restaurant tables with actual British officers. On several occasions they were almost caught by military police.[1]
At Calcutta, the pair changed their disguises, now pretending to be Swiss businessmen, and continued on by train and river steamer to Chittagong, from where they took a sampan to Cox's Bazar.[1] They continued on foot through the jungle, fighting hunger and the approaching monsoon. After more than a month on the run they crossed the Naf River into Burma, where they were captured and imprisoned by Japanese troops who were convinced they were spies.[1] Following two months on starvation rations, they were transferred to a jail at Rangoon, where they were appalled by the conditions inflicted on Allied prisoners. In September 1944, four months after their initial escape, news of their presence in Burma was released to the Press, and soon they were released and flown to Japan, where they waited out the war, working as honorary consuls at the German Embassy in Tokyo.[1]
Later years
In 1947, Magener returned to Germany, where he was again imprisoned by the Americans at the reception camp at
Magener remained an Anglophile throughout his life, regularly spending his winters in London, where he and his wife kept an apartment and collected English paintings and furniture.[2] In 1954, Magener published Prisoner's Bluff, an account of his wartime escape.[1]
Rolf Magener died in Heidelberg, Germany on 5 May 2000 at the age of 89. He was survived by his wife Doris (née von Behling), whom he married in Japan in 1947.[1]
References
- Citations
- Further reading
- Magener, Rolf (2000). Die Chance war Null. translator: Basil Creighton. Wein: Universitätsverlag Winter. ISBN 978-3825371173.
- Magener, Rolf (2000). Our Chances were Zero: The Daring Escape by two German POW's from India in 1942. London: Pen & Sword Books Ltd. ISBN 978-0850528442.
- Magener, Rolf (1954). Prisoner's Bluff. London: Hart-Davis. ASIN B0000CIY8Q.
Prisoner's Bluff, which had been translated from the original German by Basil Creighton was subsequently reissued as Our Chances were Zero