Private J. D. Caves: The Long Journey Home

Denis' Remarks on POW Life in Germany

Related by Jean Caves and Michael Caves, December 2003

From his base at Stalag VIIIA, Denis worked at a sugar beet factory. He considered himself lucky to be working in a sugar factory, where he could eat the sugar. Some POWs even got fat eating the sugar. Denis said there was no point trying to escape, and if you behaved yourself and went with the flow it was Ok.

Some POWs died because they were too hungry to wait for rice to cook and ate it raw so that it swelled up inside them. Denis and others would catch and eat rats around the perimeter of the prison. They would fray the bulb of the grass and put it through the fence so that the rats would bite at it and get caught. Denis remarked that men would fight over rats. Red Cross food parcels kept the POWs alive and supply often got blocked. Denis was well disciplined with his Red Cross parcels while others gorged themselves and went hungry until the next delivery.

The POWs heard rumours of extermination camps but were disbelieving, respecting the Germans as an honourable race. Denis mentioned sighting factories and smelling an unusual smell somewhere in modern Poland. When Denis was in his 70s and in his last days in hospital, his nightmares returned and he remembered the 'factory.'

The Central Prisoner-of-War Museum In ŁAmbinowice

At the site of the former Stalag VIIIB/344 at Łambinowice in Poland, southwest of the city of Opole, is located a museum dedicated to the former POWs who died at Lamsdorf. 40,000 Russian prisoners died at the camp and the museum understandably focuses on Russian and Polish experiences. There is a growing interest in British POWs, however, amongst the Opole University staff who administer the museum.

The Stalag 344 complex encompassed a number of separate camps and covered a very wide area in rural countryside. The site was originally an artillery range in the 19th century and was first used as a POW camp to hold French prisoners during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. It was used as a POW camp again during WWI and resumed that role under the Nazis. In modern times, part of the area has returned to its original function as an artillery range, and is used by the Polish Army.

It is not possible to visit the exact site of the camp where the British prisoners were held because that area is now cordoned off for the artillery range, however visitors can drive part way down the tree-lined avenue that led to the British camp entrance. It was down this lane that Denis travelled to and fro.

Other museum sites include a POW cemetery, the site of the Russian POW camp which includes a reconstructed guard tower and the remnants of POW huts, a memorial to the Russian POWs who died at Lamsdorf, and the central museum building itself, which includes a number of displays and film available in different languages.

While the full records from Stalag VIIIB/344 are held at the University of Opole, the university staff at the museum are friendly and helpful and genuinely interested in the stories of their visitors.

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Notes from Our Visit to the Museum in October 2004

'Stalag' denotes a POW camp for enlisted men. Officers were held at separate camps called 'Oflags.' 'Luft' denotes a camp for airmen. The VIII in Stalag VIIIB indicates it is a camp in administrative region VIII, southeastern Germany. The 'B' indicates that it is the second camp in that region.

Only enlisted prisoners, those in Stalags, were put to work in labour camps called Commandos. This is consistent with the Geneva Convention and the POWs were paid, albeit in 'camp money' which had no real value.

The toilet blocks were called 'forty-holers' or 'newsrooms' because they were a place of exchange of information between POWs from different huts.

Of the 200,000 Russians at Lamsdorf, 40,000 died. Of the 56,000 British (which includes New Zealanders), 300 died.

Stalag VIIIB held British prisoners, Stalag VIIIF held Russian prisoners. In 1943 they were combined to form Stalag 344 and the 'VIIIB' name was reallocated to the camp at Teschen.

Major John Dodge was a famous POW at Lamsdorf. He escaped many times and was eventually sent to Colditz.

Douglas Bader was also in Lamsdorf - there was an RAF section - before he too was sent to Colditz.

The museum's copy of the Encyclopaedia of Nazi Camps on Polish Soil lists Commando E494 at Gliwice and mentions that in 1945 there were 52 British prisoners loading transport in a railway station. This may give a clue as to Denis' activities in Gliwice/Gleiwitz if he was deemed not well enough to work in the coalmines.