H&H SERIES MAY 20 2010www.hamhigh.co.ukVIII BOOKS

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BYThere’s poetry and Motion

REUBEN Kandler wasn’tsure if he would survivethe inhuman conditionsbuilding the BurmaThai railway. But he

was determined the appallingtreatment of his fellow slavelabourers at the hands of theJapanese would be documentedfor future war crimes trials. Hishand-written list of 1,000 alliedprisoners of war – one third diedfrom disease, exhaustion andexecution – would have got himtortured and killed if discovered.But he concealed it until the

Japanese surrender in August1945, just days before campguards were due to execute allprisoners.When he returned to England,

Kandler married and moved toFrognal Lane, Hampstead, in1956. He later moved to GoldersGreen, where he lived until hisdeath last year, just before his93rd birthday.Now his son Richard has

documented those gruelling waryears in The Prisoner List(Marsworth, 95).It is based on a series of taped

conversations with Reuben, whorarely talked about hisexperiences in the Far East.Richard says: “I put his

survival down to luck and puredetermination.“In the face of the facts, and

through blind optimism, hewasn’t going to consider the factthat he wouldn’t be returninghome.”Reuben was born in London’s

East End in 1916 to a largeobservant Jewish family.He grew up on the same street

as his grandparents, uncles andaunts – his father made clothes ina workshop out back and hewitnessed the infamous battle ofCable Street when anti-Fascistprotestors prevented OswaldMosley’s black shirts frommarching through the East End.He did well at school and

qualified as a charteredaccountant in 1938. By the timehe was training as a radaroperator in 1941, his brotherHarry was captured by Rommel’stroops in North Africa. (Luckily,Rommel disobeyed orders toexecute all Jewish prisoners andhanded him over to the Italians.)In October 1941, Reuben was

hurriedly posted to Singapore,arriving in late November in timefor the first Japanese bombingraids on the island.From a Malayan rubber

plantation, he listened in onenemy movements and warned ofimminent attacks. When Britishtroops retreated back to theisland, he helped to protectSingapore’s Keppel Harbourwhere civilian women and

1. THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST by Stieg Larsson, The Book Service, £7.992. ALONE IN BERLIN by Hans Fallada, Penguin, £9.993. WOLF HALL by Hilary Mantel, Fourth Estate, £8.994. THE LACUNA by Barbara Kingsolver, Faber and Faber, £7.995. THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE by Stieg Larsson, Quercus,£7.996. BROOKLYN by Colm Toibin, Penguin £7.997. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Stieg Larsson,Quercus, £7.998. THE GLASS ROOM by Simon Mawer, Little Brown £7.999. A THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET by DavidMitchell, Hodder and Stoughton, £18.9910. JAMIE DOES… by Jamie Oliver, Penguin, £26.

Recommended ReadMY ANIMAL LIFE by Maggie Gee, Telegram Books, £16.99

EVENTS at the BritishLibrary in the coming weeksinclude the latest Poetry

Hour organised by writerJosephine Hart.Hart enlists a host of high-

profile literary and theatricalnames for her regular readings atthe Euston library.The latest on May 25 is a

tribute to Philip Larkin, who died25 years ago this year. Tickets forthe event in the conference centreare sold out but there are a fewavailable for the overflow room.The poetry hour starts at

6.30pm and tickets cost just £2.Novelist and critic Victoria

Glendinning, playwright RonaldHarwood, former poet laureate

Andrew Motion (pictured) andSherlock Holmes biographerAndrew Lycett take part in adebate on the importance ofliterary heritage.In a digital age, does it matter

whether British literarymanuscripts remain in this

country? Should libraries beproactive in acquiring the papersof living writers and how dowriters decide where to sell ordonate their archives?These are just some of the

questions which will be asked atthe free event on June 9,organised by The Royal Society ofLiterature and the UK LiteraryHeritage Working Group.Questions will be invited from

the audience and JoanWinterkorn, a director of QuaritchRare Books and Manuscripts, willtalk about the company’svaluation work on archives andmanuscript collections.Tickets for both events can be

booked at www.bl.uk.

children were fleeing to safety.But the Japanese bombing raidson the troops and civilianscrowded onto the island werealmost continuous, the bodiespiled up and the Britishsurrendered on February 15 inwhat Churchill called “the largestcapitulation” in British history.Reuben was among 130,000

allied troops held in Changibarracks, with more civilians, innearby Changi jail. But six weekslater he was among 1,000 POWssent to Saigon to work on thedocks unloading cargo.Conditions were overcrowded, thework hard, rations meagre,beatings frequent and dysenteryrife, but it was paradise, comparedto where they went next.The 700 fittest men arrived in

Thailand in June 1943 to build the

260-mile death railway toBurma. By the end of the firstmonth, 140 were dead fromdisease and overwork. Kept inawful conditions, they undertookbackbreaking work from dawn todusk, breaking stones, haulingrubble, cutting trees.Starved until skeletal, they

died in their droves from cholera,beri beri and malaria, enduredanesthetic-less amputations whenulcers became infected. Sickmen were beaten out to work.Those unable to stand worked ontheir knees.Once the railway was

completed in October, the paceslackened, but many continuedto die of disease.In January 1944 news of their

treatment reached the House ofCommons in a statement by

Foreign Secretary AnthonyEden. The same year Reubenand a fellow prisoner held amakeshift Rosh Hashanah,service, celebrating with ricecakes and rice coffee.Then, in early 1945 at a camp

within sight of the infamousbridge over the river Kwai,prisoners were ordered to dig ahuge pit and machine guns wereinstalled at four corners. Theylater discovered a massexecution was planned for 18thAugust, the expected invasiondate for Allied troops inThailand.While suffering from trench

foot, Reuben worked in the campoffice and there compiled a listof the original 1,000 prisonerswho started out from Changi,hoping to use it as a record in

future war crimes trials and toinform parents what hadhappened to their sons. Hecollected and compiled lists fromthe Sgt Majors and carefullyrecorded, occupation, armynumber, prisoner number, next ofkin, address, then cause, placeand date of death.When Allied officers were

transferred to another camp,Reuben became camp adjutantand successfully hid the listamong Japanese papers,retrieving it just before theguards burnt all evidence oftheir crimes.Upon liberation, Reuben

weighed six and a half stone andwould suffer recurrent bouts ofmalaria for the next decade. ThePoWs were referred to byGeneral Slim, (dubbed by one

emaciated wag; General-Not-As-Slim-As-Us-Lot), the “forgottenarmy” but a fund was set up tohelp them, which Reuben helpedto administer for many decades.He returned to Edgware

where his mother had movedduring the Blitz and headed aproject to build a new synagogue,serving as honorary officer of theUnited Synagogue for 24 years.Richard Kandler says: “He

was a very scrupulous,honourable stoical man, notgiven to outbursts of anger.“He came home determined to

get on with what was left of hislife and he didn’t allow hisexperiences to embitter him.”

❏ The Prisoner List (Marsworth,95) is available from

www.theprisonerlist.com.

Secrethorrorson listwith a1,000names

Face to face ... Reuben Kandler, in1941, aged 25, just weeks before hisposting to Singapore. Kandler, in 1961,aged 45.

A British soldier risked his lifeto document the inhumantreatment the workersbuilding the Burma railwaysuffered from the Japanese,writes Bridget Galton. If hewas found out, it meanttorture and death

A left-hand page: from his record book,which lists names, ages, occupations, in hisown handwriting.

A right-hand page: The entries in red ink relateto causes of death. There is a reference to anexecution at Saigon following a failed escape.