European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 23, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The incident in the late 1940s was buried in the Depths of Eldon Erickson when the hostages were taken in the memories surfaced photos by Stephanie James held captive 13 months in China by Chuck Freadhoff staff writer till revolution had swept an old and Formi Dable ally from the government had miscalculated the a consulate had been by the thousands of people marched outside the consulate shouting ant american they burned Uncle Sam in ii was 1948 in the nationalists and communists were fighting for control of the after weeks of a City of 2 fell to the communist the consulate was seized in the within weeks the temperature dropped to 30 inside the consulate there was no electricity and Little food or Eldon Erickson had not taken a Bath in each Day was just another like the hundreds he and other captives had already a Day to be filled with a Bridge or Reading one of the technical books in the United states information service that was More than 30 years ago but even today Frickson Doest speak easily of that time or what it took to survive during 13 months of now retired and living in Paris after a career in the foreign Frickson glanced through his Large Glass door to the Terrace his mind going Back to another then he started describing the fall of it was just overnight the communists came in and took he says in a quiet they were shooting All i was at the consulate and one of the put Telephone and Telegraph ministries was across the from our roof we watched the takeover of the put which was a key ministry when youre taking Over a still who worked in the economic Section of the and the including a German who happened to be in the and the foreign employees of the didst expect what was we thought we would have a working relationship with the communists or that we would be expelled the Consul general called on the All the other Consul generals did the communists were very cordial and then suddenly their whole attitude changed and we had to surrender our they threw a cordon of guards around us on the 20th of no vember 1948 and that was it from then suddenly hey were there and you  go they had guards around our whole about every 40 so if you looked Over the immediately they were aiming their guns right at that was a pretty persuasive there was no thought of going then the demonstrations thousands of people marched outside the consulate shouting ant american they burned Uncle Sam in soldiers entered the compound and searched room by taking they were Cut there was no communication with anyone outside again we didst think it would be of very Long Dura we knew something was up but we thought we would probably be rounded up eventually and sent that was really our but when they came in and searched the compound it was a bit they never As the Days passed Erickson assumed a determination to i Tore up my will because i decided that i want going to give in to there was total slowly time and the chinese Cut what few ties the captives had with the world outside the a radio in Erickson room had been overlooked by the and once a week the captives clustered in his room to they would have taken it away if they had so Only at night in the dark we would go and listen to it for 15 minutes so we  run the Battery we listened to the bbl he the memory filtered and made humorous by 30 but this was during the indonesian takeover and we were mentioned Only about once a it was primarily about the Battery died in their captors had already Cut the hint of visual con tact they had with two or three behind a building or some the British and who were our very close would see us and occasionally wave and then later the communists  let anyone walk on that Side of the in the first 20 Days the servants were in their quarters behind ours and they would sneak in eggs and put them in the basement and we would go Down and find they were actually forbidden to communicate with then they were All taken Erickson dresses meticulously his White hair is neatly a Blue and red tie provided a dash of color Between a dark suit and White but in Mukden i clothes fell we never had a Needle and you cant imag Ine How important a Needle and thread Are when your clothes Start falling isolated in their the captives turned inward for adopting a life where minutes and hours lose their you just live a Day at a time and you think of food and you think of water and just the Basic living becomes very actually we had rather fun not fun in the sense As you know but we got along Well with each joked with each other and had each other Back and Forth for we had five houses in the compound and we would Cook whatever we it sounds silly but you fill your we planted gardens in the Spring because we still had some they  give us but we had them left we played a lot of almost every Day we would play for an or two or we started off playing but after two or three Days we  stand then we started playing Bridge and maybe there would be a week when we  play but some How wed pass the we had our own they wore out totally until there was nothing on we washed them and put powder on then we made new cards out of pieces of we had a hand winding Victrola and that eventually wore then we had to make a Calendar for the next try to figure out when easter would be and All the i did read a lot but we had mostly technical i read Freud and air conditioning they had Little Contact with their one exception was the weekly visit to the front Gate by the chinese to take their food order for the next although most of the prisoners spoke Only halting we had to write in chinese what we wanted for the next they got which were usually and and Rice and similar they never discussed but Erickson they knew they  fight among  give their captors a Chance to turn one against we wondered what they were going to do with us All the time and we hoped for helicopters or something to come in and swoop but again its like its a City of 2 million and there right in the Middle of the they  have gotten away with but we talked about it a there was no no Contact with the world in their i started keeping a record of my one was a recurring dream of a motorcycle crashing the Gates of the compound loaded with for some the Strain was the punishment following a scuffle Between some americans and a former chinese employee found hiding in the five american bystanders were accused of assaulting a guard and put in solitary confinement for four we had a japanese american and he had his wife and daughter who was 24 or 25 and her two children with he was one of the five and they really gave him a hard partially because he was i and partially for being an you  be much they enacted All sorts of screaming and torture out Side his cell he lost his when he came after the four weeks he was released Back into our com they had told him that his had been killed by the Consul even though George was right there and we would Light a cigarette for your and then we would this is hed George is just like that really Erickson voice trailed the pain of that experience which was so far away and so Long ago intruding into the showing itself in his when youve been there a year already and that Hap pens he didst finish the the end of their ordeal began when the chinese tried them As Only the language officer was allowed to leave the compound ostensibly to attend the on Day in reality he merely delivered the sentences to the it was a trial of All the All the it was in japanese and chinese and they had the findings already printed and typed up and they just read some of us got three years and some economics want As bad As political so i Only got three its hard to reconstruct because it was such an Emo Tio filled we Soulant wait for him to get Back so we could hear the news and then when he did Tell us it of its going to be a lot longer than we had nobody it was going on and but at least then there was an if you know your re going to be someplace for three years you have a target Date before that you had nothing to look Forward to except an endless stay when you get in a situation that hopeless you really have More Hope than Ever that youll that my youre determined to survive when the situation gets shortly after they were the chinese came in the Middle of the night and told them to they were leaving in 24 they could take a Blanket and 22 pounds of things with in the end their captors even turned leaving into a painful then the worst thing for All of us was when finally the Day came and they said youre going to leave and you cannot speak to any of these people that have been locked up with the the the and they said they have to come with youre not allowed to say anything to after living with cooking eating together on that inti mate basis in the they said their govern ments had asked that they be delivered to even the Consul general was we just  help they were loaded onto a cattle car and sent shipped it took us 40 hours and at first they  open the windows so we complained that we didst have enough finally they opened them and then they  close so we froze All the but again the worst thing was no toilet facilities and they  let us off and so that was a bit women and women and Chil Dren and Here we were just stuck despite his imprisonment and deprivation he experienced he still insists i love the its the communists he the incident has a painful memory buried deep in his but when the hostages were taken in the memories were there not but it hurts understands in the end it was the slow Days filled with cards and gardens and cooking and dreaming that taught him lessons which fundamentally altered his he not going to the top is not the most important thing in its not really the its How you feel about what youre doing and the Pur poses of somehow time goes everything Doest have to be done time will be Here a Long time after were All by Chuck Freadhoff staff writer the 52 americans were hostages for than a year in Iran but they May be prisoners of the experience for a prominent dutch psychiatrist Jan a professor of psychiatry at Leiden University in the said such As the americans held in often develop psychosomatic phobias and fears that last for years after they Are Bastiaans was a member of the dutch under ground during world War ii and has studied prison ers and hostages since he has interviewed hundreds of world War ii prison Camp survivors and helped prepare a special report for the dutch government on the hostages taken by South moluccan terrorists who seized a dutch train in i the moluccas held More than 50 passengers hostage for 19 Days before dutch commandos stormed the killing six terrorists and two after being Many hostages were afraid of cer Tain sounds and some didst dare enter a train again because they expected a new terrorist he As time passes a former hostages reactions May Bastiaans during the first four weeks the hostage May have tension and unde fined in his studies of former hostages he found More than 70 percent of the people had feelings of not being understood and a preoccupation with the past Between four weeks and two years after being Bastiaans for some former hostages there were some experienced life More deeply and could see the relative nature of things More they we rent As easily upset by minor in Many ways the experiences of the americans hos tages Are More Akin to those of world War ii prison Camp survivors than the hostages held by moluccan Ter said the dutch were prisoners in their own country while the americans Are captives in the Middle of a hostile the dutch were freed after 19 Days of the americans were captives for More than a the intensity is greater the longer it Bastiaans Captivity can be hardest on women there were Only two american women held hostage and on the Young and the less they May have a harder time understanding Why they were there and May not be Able to relate it to other said John a psychologist teaching for the University of Mary land in people who have had poor adjustments before will not be in As Good they will not have developed As Good coping those who never adequately handled previous crises May find the hostage situation More threatening and have fewer resources to Call Clavadetsche the and less educated also May have More trouble than a seasoned Diplomat understanding the political forces that led to their thus their adjust ment May be More but predicting How a hostage will Cope in Captivity or adjust to Freedom is really a guessing game because so Many things Arent Clavadetsche the personality of each hostage before being taken prisoner May decide hard the adjustment will those who were Well adjusted Are Likely to be reason ably Well adjusted it will depend a lot on the person it really has to do with what kind of problems they have had in the someone who has survived stress in the past will have something to draw on during the Long months of captive Clavadetsche handling any stress will form a basis for handling it people who have had Success Ful experiences with stressful situations or personal crises Are Likely to have developed adaptive mechanisms and they have the memories to such successful resolutions to fall Back but those who maintained control during the Long months of Captivity actually May find the adjust ment harder to Bastiaans there seem to be More psychological consequences for those who held themselves in he after a year in Captivity some hostages May closely identify with their this is the so called Stock Holm named after an incident in the swedish City where two men held four captives in a swedish Bank for a after they were the captives sided with their captors and two women hostages became engaged to the while a hostage you try to make Bastiaans some make Contact with the some do it More or less unconsciously As a result of a deep frustrating feeling of wanting to make Patty Hearst is a classic the situation in Iran is different from the one in in Iran the guards we rent isolated with their As they were on the dutch Bastiaans we dont know How far your american people have been exposed to again information May be the Clavadetsche How Well did the hostages understand their role in Iran did they understand Why they were there can they put the arguments of their iranian captors in perspective the persons preconception or Early conceptions about what their role was in what their response should be and Why the whole process was occurring will strongly influence their lon term adjust this would be particularly important for hostages who were largely Cut off from outside information about ongoing events and the attitudes of people in the and the Clavadetsche while they were he any Contact will help relieve the any interaction will for visits by american clergymen May have been More of a morale builder than previously he if the hostages speak Farsi the language spoken in Iran that will be the More information they get the better adjusted they May adjustment problems Arent confined to the both doctors the ordeal is often As difficult for the families As for the Bastiaans for Freedom leads to marital there Are a lot of marital they could not understand what they had gone through on both for the hostages the most critical time May come after they Are Clavadetsche How the people react to them is going to be like the first few Days of the first few Days of Freedom May be friends and strangers alike must do every thing possible to assure them there accepted for their experience and give them assurances there not held responsible for he above All they need unconditional it is important to give the person in genuine affection and both Bastiaans and Clavadetsche said the hostages have to get continuous help not just from family and but from the after the moluccas hostages were we organized the Best help in the first Many refused Bastiaans they were afraid to be labelled psychiatric patients although it is quite Normal to get some after being the released hostages should have rather free they must take care not to Cut it off a few weeks the most stable people May compensate years Bastiaans it never leaves your it has a deep impression on your daily Page 14 the stars and stripes january 1981 the stars and stripes Page 15