Dear Folks,
During these months as a POW I have not been permitted much freedom in corresponding with you. Correspondence has been limited and there was much that could not be written. Nevertheless, you folks were always on my thoughts and I know you were also thinking of me. When thinking of you, I had memories of home to serve as a background. However, I suppose you often wondered how I was living. With this in mind, I decided to record a bit of our life here – may it help you to better understand how we lived as POWs.
I will not discuss the events of my capture and imprisonment. It is military information not to be recorded. Besides we refer to these events as “horror stories” and there is much we would like to forget.
Our prison camp was Stalag Luft I located near Barth, Germany. Barth was a small town on the shores of the Baltic north of Berlin. The camp itself was on a small peninsula northwest of the town.
Food was the most important single item in our existence. Food seemed to take on a new meaning and meal time was the most enjoyable part of the day. Naturally we ate many things we would have refused to eat at home, but for the first time we were eating to live. Food preparation was hardly equal to that at home, but, with inexperienced cooks and primitive facilities, the meals were better than you might think.
A great share of our food stuffs came as a gift of the American Red Cross through the International Red Cross. At times we were issued the British Red Cross parcel. The American parcel was designed for one man. We combined our parcels and cooked for all fifteen men from them. We were supposed to receive one parcel per man each week, but due to shortages we were not always that fortunate.
