Both photos Riethmaier Family Collection , restored T . Brunt 2013
These images show the start and end of a fishing expedition on Somes Island . Identities above ( left-to-right ): Unknown camp guard ; Mr Werner Jahnke , Mr Gregory Riethmaier , Mr Albert Wetzell .
Photo right : Mr Fritz Stünzner ( bending down ); Mr Berking , unknown ; Mr Riethmaier ; Mr Jahnke ; Mr Wetzell ; Mr Herman Retzlaff ; Mr Gustav Belin .
Conditions on Somes Island were comfortable , but the cold , windy Wellington weather and smaller land area meant that Somes couldn ’ t compare with the Motuihe Island environment of the First World War . New Zealand Prime Minister , Mr Peter Fraser , visited Somes in January 1940 to inspect the facilities . He was concerned for prisoner welfare as he had spent some of the First World War in Wellington Jail as an anti-war protestor . In a personal meeting with Berking he worried about German Samoans undermining the war-time situation in Samoa . “ There is not one of us here who would do a thing like that ,” replied Berking . Nevertheless , despite Mr Berking ’ s assurances the New Zealanders exercised caution . Over the following four years to 1944 , only three or four internees from Samoa were allowed to live off the island on community parole .
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