Camp 020
Camp 020 at Latchmere House in south London was a British interrogation centre for captured German agents during World War II.[1] It was run by Lieutenant Colonel Robin "Tin Eye" Stephens.[1][2] Although other wartime interrogation centres were alleged to have used torture to extract confessions, Robin Stephens denied claims that torture had been used at Camp 020.[2]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/Latchmere_House_from_Latchmere_Lane.jpg/220px-Latchmere_House_from_Latchmere_Lane.jpg)
In 2012 Ian Cobain in the book Cruel Britannia claimed that documents obtained at The National Archives proved that torture methods had been used at Camp 020 to extract information from German prisoners of war and that 30 rooms there had been turned into cells with hidden microphones, further that there were mock executions and several inmates were brutalized by the guards. Members of the British Union of Fascists had been held at Latchmere House during this period.[3][4] They included the environmental pioneer Jorian Jenks.
A German inmate claimed he was told by a British officer that
"We are not bound by any rules or regulations. We do not care a damn whether you leave this place on a stretcher or in a hearse."[3]
There was a Reserve Camp, Camp 020R, at Huntercombe, which was used mainly for long term detention of prisoners.[5]
Inmates
Known wartime inmates included:
- Hugo Bleicher
- Gösta Caroli
- Eddie Chapman
- Jacques de Duve
- Josef Jakobs
- Werner von Janowski
- Chrisiaan Linxemans
- Karel Richard Richter
- Wulf Schmidt
- Duncan Scott-Ford
In popular culture
- Foyle's War Series Seven, episode 2 ("The Cage") features a character called "Tin Eye" and a secret interrogation center he commands, similar to Camp 020.
See also
References
- ^ a b "History: Bad Nenndorf". MI5. 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
- ^ a b Macintyre, Ben (10 February 2006). "The truth that Tin Eye saw". The Times. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
- ^ a b Cobain, Ian (26 October 2012). "How Britain tortured Nazi PoWs: The horrifying interrogation methods that belie our proud boast that we fought a clean war". Daily Mail. London. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
Extracted from Cruel Britannia by Ian Cobain
- ^ Cobain, Ian (2012). Cruel Britannia. Portobello Books.
- ^ Hoare, Oliver, Camp 020: MI5 and the Nazi Spies – The Official History of MI5's Wartime Interrogation Centre, PRO 2000 ISBN 1-903365-08-2.