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We didn't stay long at Dulag; we were loaded into cattle railway cars and sent to Stalag VlllB, the worst camp of all. it was very cold and we only got one blanket each. I've never been so cold and the ration per day was a thin watery turnip soup, 5 men to a loaf of bread, 2 oz. horse meat per week and not much else. What kept us alive was the Red Cross parcels, sometimes 1 a week or 2 per man per week. If it hadn't been for those parcels not many would be alive today.
Black Bread Recipe
This recipe comes from the official records office of the Food Providing Ministry
in Berlin Dated 24 May 1941. the directors of the Ministry, at the time, agreed that the best mixture to bake "Black Bread" was as follows:
50% bruised rye grain
20% sliced sugar beets
20% tree flour (sawdust)
10% minced leaves and straw
We didn't go on work parties because we were either sergents or officers but the slave laborers, Russian, Poles, etc. worked with no food and just dropped dead. We used to hear the death carts go by at night.
After a year or so at 8B we moved to Sagan or Luft 3, it was much improved over 8B. The rations, sleeping quarters and recreation facilities supplied by the Red Cross were really superior.......
We had many nationalities in Luft 3, all the Commonwealth nations and Americans who had joined the R.C.A.F. one day the Gerries tried to round up all the Jewish prisoners and segregate them, so the whole camp became Jewish. We never lost a Jewish prisoner that way.
There was a big escape at Sagan and 50 men were shot by the Gestapo.....
I won't go into detail as it has been written about so much......
I didn't take part in the escape because my German was terrible and it was better to let men who had a good chance of escaping go than for me who was sure to be recaptured.......
The Allies opened a second front in Europe and the Russians were on the move so the Germans were being chased back to Germany, still the war went on for us and as the Allies advanced we were moved to various camps. In our last camp most of the Germans departed and we took the rest prisoners. Some showed resistance and were shot.
During the last days of the war I went outside the camp and stole a horse and saddle and rode around finding food-- some I traded for and some I just took, eggs and chickens ect. The Russian slave workers tried to get my horse to eat.
The British 7th armoured division finally released our camp............ |