Were female Nazis kept within these walls?

Lindsay Jennings reports on a fascinating claim that dozens of German nurses, possible Nazis, were held in the North-East.

WROUGHT iron gates give way to a sweeping tarmac drive. At its head, stands the Grade II listed Windlestone Hall, all sandstone and faded splendour.

This 19th century hall near Rushyford, once one of the regions grandest mansions, is the former family home of the 1950s British Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden.

Today, it is a school for boys with emotional and behavioural difficulties, and is, at the time of Press, up for sale.

But the reason Ruth Atkinson is here today is for the fascinating secret its walls are said to have held for 60 years.

Ruth, 24, whose parents live near Crook in County Durham, has uncovered evidence stating that up to 150 female German prisoners were kept at Windlestone towards the end of the Second World War.

Built in 1835, Windlestone was one of ten sub-camps of Camp 93, otherwise known as the purpose-built Harperley Camp in County Durham.

During the war, several thousand male prisoners were held in the region out of around 500,000 nationally.

The men were dotted around camps, farms and stately homes, with most of them working on the land.

Ruth, who now lives in London, was training as a script advisor four years ago when her thoughts turned to making a documentary.

A family friend suggested looking into the rumour that female prisoners of war had been held in County Durham.

Intrigued, she began digging, only to find local historians were baffled. She had some success after placing a story in The Northern Echo asking if anyone recalled the women.

A couple of people replied to say they did, but couldnt say for sure if they were prisoners.Ruth, now a script supervisor who has worked on dramas and films such as the James Bond movie Die Another Day, contacted the Ministry of Defence, but found no answers.

She wrote to Kate Adie, the former war correspondent and author of the book Women and War, who called her out of the blue one day.

"She said 'its absolute rubbish, youre wasting your time.' It can't be", says Ruth. "But I just thought Im not letting this go. There was a time when I kept thinking is it true or not? But I got to the point where I was so determined, and I believed in what I was doing."

Then came a breakthrough. Ruth heard that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva held inspection reports on camps members had visited to assess whether they were operating within the rules of the Geneva Convention.Ruth flew out to Geneva.

Sitting in the documents room, she waited, hardly daring to believe what she would read. Fabrizio Bensi, an ICRC archivist, handed her a large envelope.

"I wasnt sure what was going to be in there but it was so exciting", recalls Ruth. "I was really nervous. When I read it I couldnt believe it."

There in black and white was confirmation that German nurses had been held as prisoners at Windlestone Hall during the war. Many had been captured in 1944 from across Europe, including Rostock, in northern Germany, Brussels in Belgium, and Brest and Normandy in France.

A few had arrived at Windlestone from the Channel Islands.

The documents revealed that Windlestone had been inspected every two months with reports taking into account the living conditions, amount of supplies, and the entertainment they had.

"They live in dormitories of different sizes on the first floor and have a superb view of the countryside", read the report.

"They are allowed to go for walks of one to two hours every day with the Womens Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS)."

Ruth discovered that the women were also allowed to go to church and that the Protestant women went to St Aidans Church, in Chilton, while the Catholics went to St Josephs in Coundon.

Although none of the locals she interviewed could remember seeing them, it also states in the reports that the women were dressed in ATS uniforms.

"It seems strange that the German women were issued with British ATS uniforms", says Ruth. "It's not known whether the nurses wore their ATS attire to church, but if they did it might explain why people couldnt remember them.

The men at Camp 93 had to wear patches to identify them as prisoners of war so why didn't they?" Ruth also came across another astonishing revelation some of the women had been pregnant while at Windlestone.

Luise Stretter, born on August 2, 1925, gave birth to Heinrich Josef Stretter on December 22, 1944, while held prisoner of war at Windlestone, said the report.

Hildegard Lindig, born December 23, 1916, had the prisoner of war number A372429. She was captured in Brussels on September 3, 1944.

Her report continued: "March 28, 1945 present in Windlestone Hall camp, requested to be repatriated as quickly as possible due to pregnancy."

But the reasons why the women were brought to Windlestone remains a mystery. Perhaps there was nowhere else for them to go or they were brought over to serve as nursing personnel to tend to some of the thousands of male prisoners.

According to a 1983 report in Darlingtons former paper, the Evening Despatch, Windlestone was used as a home for Nazis.

It ties in with a file marked secret that Ruth had uncovered in the Public Record Office in London about female nursing personnel within the German army. SHE found that the majority of DRK nurses the German Red Cross had been swallowed up into the army.

To qualify as a DRK nurse, members had to be of "German racial origin and have national socialist views."

So, could the women have been Nazis?

Ruth made another breakthrough after writing to the Channel Islands Occupation Society, which was set up to study all aspects of the German military occupation of the British Channel Islands during the Second World War.

The society provided Ruth with physical evidence of her claim a grainy black and white photograph of nurse Gretchen Killmann, who had been captured in the Channel Islands in 1945.

Ruth discovered her maiden name had been Jessen and that she had "married Jurgen Killmann by proxy over the telephone before leaving the islands as a POW." She was then taken to Windlestone.

But what happened to the women after the war? It appears they simply disappeared. Terry Charman, an historian with the Imperial War Museum in London, says hes never heard or seen evidence of female German POWs being held in Britain.

But he surmises: If they were, they may have gone back under the prisoner exchange programme, the last one being in March 1945. Ruth finished her documentary, entitled The Women of Windlestone, earlier this year. But she concedes she may never find the answers she is looking for.

"I tried to have an open mind as a film-maker but I definitely think theres something suspicious about it", she says.

"There are a lot of conspiracy theories and they could be true. I believe the women were Nazis as in the documents the women were said to have national socialist views." But everyone has different views.

"I made the film to question the British Government, to make people think, and also I think its important to record the memories of older people."

At Windlestone Hall, there is evidence that prisoners of war scratched their names on the roof. In the office of one teacher, there is a window pane. If you lean to catch the light just right, you can see a cartoon-like etching of what appears to be a German officer. It has always been assumed it was scratched by a male prisoner of war. But the truth is, the artist may be of a different sex entirely.

* Ruth is selling copies of The Women of Windlestone with proceeds going to Macmillan Cancer Relief in memory of her grandfather Joe Pinkney, who died of cancer. Copies are on sale at Harperley Prisoner of War Camp in County Durham, priced £8.

* If anyone has any knowledge of female prisoners of war in the North-East, contact Features Editor Lindsay Jennings on (01325) 505078 or by email: lindsay.jennings@nne.co.uk