Living on Hopes and Prayers

My father and his crew that were captured by the Germans were eventually taken by train to Barth, Germany. Here they were marched through the town to Stalag Luft 1 prison camp. The term “Luft” refers to Luftwaffe or German air force, which managed all the prisons that held captured Allied air men. There were approximately 9,000 men, mostly American and British airmen, in Stalag Luft 1. These men were lucky, if you can say that because, although the Gestapo and the SS (the political wing of the Nazis) seemed to be involved on the periphery, it was the German air force that oversaw the camps. In 1935, Hitler had appointed Hermann Goring (Goering in German) commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, a position he held until the final days of the war. Fortunately, he had insisted that all captured airmen be treated under the rules of the Geneva Convention. The men were called Kriegsgefangenens or Kriegies for short, and they wore huge red “KGF” letters across the back of their uniform jackets.

Barth is situated on a lagoon of the Baltic Sea, facing the Fischland-Darss-Zingst peninsula. The presence of the prison camp is said to have shielded the town from Allied bombing during World War II. Today the population of Barth (approximately 8,700) is less than the total prison population of Stalag Luft was at the end of the war.

According to Red McCrocklin, the camp was run with an “Oberst” (full colonel) and he and his staff had full responsibility for the overall operation. “. . . There was another authority in the camp in which the prisoners were subject. This was the allied command with the senior allied prisoner of war in charge. Even though you were a prisoner of war in an enemy prison, you were still an officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps and expected to act accordingly.” All air officers had been briefed on “The P.O.W. Code of Ethics.”

My father said very little about his time in the prison camp. Just a few comments here and there. The War Prisoners’ Aid of the Y.M.C.A. gave him, and probably all the other prisoners, a hand-bound wartime log where he kept drawings, notes, poems, lists of Red Cross package contents, and many other bits of information. My sister and I were always fascinated by this Army-brown, cloth-covered book when were growing up. I am guessing he wanted us to read “between” the lines to understand what it was like to be in Stalag Luft 1.  

My father got his first piece of mail from my mother on October 11, 1944 (Keep in mind he had been at Stalag Luft since April 1944). Actually, it was two letters, one dated July 8, 1944 (one day before his 28^th birthday) and one dated July 12, 1944. These two letters, typed on special stationery, marked on the front with “Prisoner of War Post (Kriegsgefangenenpost) and “U.S. Censor,” have a special page in the book. In the July 12 letter, Nita writes, “Really, darling, everyone has been so lovely to me I couldn’t help being brave. If you can take it, I certainly can. I try not to worry because I know you wouldn’t want me to. Do you ears burn sometimes? That’s because all the time people are saying the nicest things about you, and I just nearly burst with pride.” She closes this letter with, “There’s a popular new song, ‘I’ll be seeing you,’ which I have adopted as my favorite.”

We continue with a few comments from Dick and Nita:

Nita: I could send him packages ever so often. I sent candy. They would only allow you so many packages.

Dick: She didn’t send any cigarettes, but she did send pipe tobacco.

Dick: We got along pretty good when we could get a Red Cross parcel a week. (The photograph above shows lists and drawings of the American, Canadian and British packages). The Germans usually would give us potatoes when they had them, or eggs or cooked barley about everyday then. It’s a red barley. One time they brought a whole truckload of cabbage in there and at first they kind of were doling it out. Guys weren’t eating it so you could go up there and get all you wanted. Each one (barracks) cooked for themselves. Over in that North Compound I think they had a general kitchen.

(Can you believe that my father kept this tiny piece of German bread for almost 70 years? He always had cans of Vienna sausages under the seat of his truck or van. After looking over, the list of contents of the parcels from the American, Canadian and British Red Cross, which contained among many things Spam or corned beef, I wonder if this habit didn't come from his prison camp experience where food and water were always a problem. The Kriegies were indeed dependent on the Red Cross as all the Germans supplied were black bread, margarine, potatoes, barley, erstatz (artifical) jam, ground horse meat when available, cabbage, swedes (turnips) and Polish and French cigarettes.)