 The prisoners, however, used the singing as an opportunity to uplift their spirits and encourage prisoner unity and an anti-fascist spirit.In April 1939, he was sent to the Cologne prison, Klingelpütz, where he stayed in police custody till 6 April 1940.Returning to his family, then living at Goldbekufer 19 in Hamburg, he worked as a car washer and driver, then later in Altona, at Riepe-Werken, making ballpoint pens.