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Episodes & Studies Volume 1

Oflags

Oflags

THE GERMANS were extremely respectful to rank. In general, officer prisoners were given all the privileges accorded them by the Geneva Convention’s provisions, but they found the Germans harsh enough if they committed any breach of the regulations. Mass reprisals against officers included the removal of all furniture from their quarters and the suspension for several weeks of the issue of Red Cross parcels. With their greater leisure and greater resources of technical knowledge, officers had fuller chances than the men of engaging in secret or resistance activities,* and these chances were generally exploited. They had also better opportunities for education and recreation. This burden of time often made captivity more tedious for them than for men who were obliged to work.

Although undoubtedly better treated by the Germans than were the men, officers did not receive any better food and their accommodation could be very poor. At one officers’ camp (ofiag), in a former school which had held 150 pupils and now accommodated 450 officers, the sanitary system was hopelessly overtaxed. The medical treatment was unusually poor, being administered by German doctors described as ‘ignorant, indifferent, and frankly hostile’. Another oflag was in an old castle whose dry moat was the prisoners’ chief place of recreation. This camp had a good library, theatre, and orchestra. But the prisoners frequently came into collision with the German authorities, and in any case did not find the quarters comfortable.

Few features of life in oflags differed from those of other non-working camps, although cultural activities were perhaps more fully developed. As in the men’s camps, anything that was achieved in the arts or in education was due to the persistence and talent of the prisoners themselves, assisted by the International Red Cross, not to any indulgence on the part of the Germans.

page 11

INTO CAPTIVITY

Black and white photograph of soldier marching up a hill

ON CRETE
from a German publication

Black and white photograph of houses

AT SANDBOSTEL, NEAR BREMEN, GERMANY

page 12

REALITY

Black and white photograph of train

WORKING PARTY, SILZTHAL, AUSTRIA

Black and white photograph of soldiers carrying food

THE MIDDAY SOUP, LUCKENWALDE

Black and white photograph of barracks

UNDER CANVAS, LUCKENWALDE

page 13
Black and white photograph of bright lights

PERIMETER WIRE, CHRISTMAS EVE, 1943, STALAG 383, BAVARIA

page 14

RESOURCE UNDER ROUTINE

Black and white sketches on page

Drawing from a diary

Black and white sketch of soldiers sitting down

No food parcels for this Kommando

page 15
Black and white photograph of lights in the barracks

Stealing a sentry box by night to be used for fuel (pages 9 and 10)

Black and white photograph of soldiers standing

A new-model cooker at Stalag 383

page 16
Black and white photograph of houses

The old castle on the hill in the background was typical of Oflags in the early days of the war. The village below is Spangenburg

Black and white skecthes on food

The day’s German ration of ersatz food for an Oflag at Warburg

Black and white photograph of soldiers entering house

An inspecting party visiting the Red Cross store at Stalag 383

Black and white photograph of soldiers sitting down

Lunchtime. Prisoners prepare their midday meal from Red Cross parcels

page 17
Black and white photograph of officers at games

Visitors to a football match at Stalag 383 included the President of the Swedish YMCA, second from left

Black and white photograph of view of truck

The first Swiss Red Cross food relief convoy

page 18
Black and white photograph of group of soldiers

Gambling for cigarettes

Black and white photograph of soldiers in race

A sports day at a working Kommando attached to Stalag XVIIIA at Wolfsberg

page 19
Black and white photograph of soldier sitting

The early morning sun

Black and white photograph of play with soldier actors

A scene from a camp theatre production Night Must Fall

page 20

ON THE MARCHES

Black and white photograph of german soldiers

NAZI GUARDS

Black and white photograph of soldiers under a bridge

A HALT ON THE MARCH SOUTH AT ETEHAUSEN

Black and white photograph of soldiers beside house

FOREIGN WORKERS, GERMAN CIVILIANS, AND ALLIED PRISONERS MIX TOGETHER IN A BARNYARD. A British medical officer in the right foreground can be distinguished by his arm-band

page 21
Black and white photograph of soldiers marching

A COLUMN OF GUARDED PRISONERS MARCH EAST THROUGH THURINGEN FOREST

Black and white photograph of soldiers talking

THE FIRST AMERICAN SOLDIER ENTERS AN OFLAG AT BRUNSWICK, 12 APRIL 1945

Black and white photograph of group of soldiers

THE AIR RAID PRECEDING LIBERATION AT STALAG VIIA, MOOSBURG, BAVARIA

page 22
Black and white photograph of soldiers and planes

American Dakotas flew prisoners from Germany

Black and white photograph of group of soldiers

A transit centre in Brussels, whence the prisoners flew to England

* Most of this activity is described elsewhere in this account or in the surveys in this series dealing with escapes, but two incidents at one officers’ camp may be cited as typical. The first was an escape by twenty-seven officers in 1942, a most elaborately contrived affair. The escapers climbed out over the wire on ‘assault ladders’ whose three hinged sections were successfully thrown right over the compound fence. A sapper officer had fused the camp lights; the Germans, fearing a general mutiny, did not care to enter the darkened camp, and German-speaking prisoners added to the confusion by shouting contradictory orders to the German guards. Four of the twenty-seven escaped completely. The other incident occurred later: as the Germans had periodically run a heavy traction-engine round the compound to cave in any tunnels, the tunnellers in retaliation dug a broad underground chamber which, when the surface collapsed, completely engulfed the engine; it ‘came to rest well down, to the consternation of the German authorities’.