Polhill, Other Americans in 1 Room : Ex-hostage: Freed professor, joined by family, says fellow Western captives were probably in same building.

Freed American hostage Robert Polhill spent most of his captivity in the same room as two fellow hostages and probably in the same building as other Western captives, U.S. officials said today.

Some details of Polhill’s captivity emerged as a special team of U.S. investigators began questioning him today about what he knows of other captives in Lebanon and the Shiite Muslim militants who hold them.

The 55-year-old business professor was reunited with his two sons today for the first time in more than three years. They shared a lunch of spare ribs and were serenaded by a German accordionist, the officials said.

Polhill, a New Yorker, has been staying in a VIP suite at the U.S. Air Force Hospital in Wiesbaden with his wife, Feryal. His sons, Stephen, 26, and Brian, 23, arrived this morning from the United States.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Polhill was held in the same room with American educators Jesse Turner, 42, of Boise, Ida., and Alann Steen, 51, a Boston native. All three were seized on Jan. 24, 1987, from the American University in Beirut campus, where they had taught.

Indian-born U.S. resident Mitheleshwar Singh, who was also kidnaped from the campus with the three professors, shared the room until his release on Oct. 3, 1988, the officials said.

“There’s a possibility he (Polhill) was held in the same building with other hostages,” one U.S. official said. “We’re fairly certain of that.”

The official said he did not know which of the 17 Westerners still in captivity might have also been held in the building. Seven Americans are among those held.

“We know from various sources where the hostages have been held,” the U.S. official said, explaining that they are moved regularly.

At the base hospital, doctors said Polhill appeared to be in good shape for a man who had been in captivity for more than three years, but he was malnourished, mildly dehydrated and quite tired.

Polhill’s diabetes, which he has had for 25 years, “is well under control,” the hospital said in a statement today.

The hospital’s medical director, Col. Dr. Kenneth R. Koskinen, said Polhill suffered “muscle wasting” in captivity. He added that Polhill is eating four meals a day to combat his malnutrition and “emptying our kitchen.”

He added, however, “He is intellectually very sharp, has a great sense of humor and, considering his ordeal, has a reasonably positive mental status.”

Polhill, an avid sports fan, has asked a lot of questions about the World Series and Super Bowl, U.S. officials said. During his captivity he had only sporadic reading material.

Asked whether Polhill ever felt there was a moment he would be killed, one U.S. official said: “My understanding is that he never felt that.”

Polhill will spend several more days at Wiesbaden before returning to the United States, Koskinen said.