Saturday, 25 July 2015

Poem ~ Aristocratic Women Hung - Sunday, 25 July 1915


Impression sketch of the hanging of aristocratic women - by Jamie. 

From Zurich was a warning -
Of no one being safe, with
A group of Polish ladies,
All of noble birth - these five
Ladies, being all well known
In Austrian aristocratic circles.

Yet such status did not serve
To save them - with details,
Not specified, in the second
Week of July 1915, the ladies
Were arrested - all on charges
Of espionage for Russia.

Retribution was swift for five
Aristocratic women, to go on
Immediate trial, then convicted
Of guilt in spying - all given
Immediate sentence of death.

Their execution to be following
Day, by hanging - this process
To be undertaken at Vienna
Arsenal. The judge was to be
Present, being compelled
To see sentence completed.

The final event, to see hangings
Of these five aristocratic ladies,
Was so harrowing to witness,
The judge was driven mad,
By the fact of his final decision.

Seen to collapse and lose
His complete reason this
Judge, conveyed to Steinlof
Outside Vienna, was placed
In an asylum for the insane.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. Polish Ladies Hanged  - Judge Goes Mad. The Daily Telegraph, [online]  23 July. P.10. Col.7. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11739275/Daily-Telegraph-July-23-1915.html [Accessed: 25 July 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 25 July 2015). 



#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Spies

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