In Alsace we learned that a man from Selestadt in Colmar had been placed in the old people’s home because his family had stated that he was eighty years old, which was borne out by his papers; he himself, however, had constantly maintained that he was only sixty years old, until the family could stand it no longer and determined to hand him over to the old people’s home in Colmar. Indeed, the man had reiterated his claim day and night and had, in other ways as well, made his family’s life a horror. He is said not to have washed for years and to have always walked around barefoot and to have exposed himself, from time to time, totally naked on the street, all of which would have sufficed to have him committed to a lunatic asylum, which they did not want to do to him. And so they determined to send him to Colmar. After reaching Colmar with the greatest difficulty, he had broken away from the nuns who were taking him into the old people’s home and could only be recaptured several hours later. The nuns did, however, persuade him to enter the old people’s home without putting up any resistance. During the night, the man, whose name is stated to be Schluemberger, set fire to the old people’s home in Colmar, and all 478 inmates were burned to death. And so was he.

Discovery

DISCOVERY