World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, American; World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German
Stallag VII-A at Moosburg was a very large camp as prisoners were
moved here from al1 the other prison camps to keep them from being
liberated. We found some of the men here who had dropped out from
that first march from Sagan. All the barracks were full, and large
tents were put up between the buildings and that is where Bruce and I
found ourselves a place. They were large tents and we slept in rows
down each side on the ground. We were on an incline and when it
rained the water ran right through the tent sometimes in a real river
when the rain was heavy. We finally gathered rocks and piled them up
about three inches high and slept on top of them. One night I woke up
during a downpour and found that my shoes were floating away down the
small trench we had dug around our beds. I decided that between that
and the water coming through the bullet holes in the tent I had
better find a dry place for the rest of the night. I felt my way
around in the darkness until I found a barracks building, then
crawled around on my hands and knees in the pitch black among the
bodies on the floor. I found a place and squeezed in between two
bodies and fell asleep. When woke up I was back to back with someone
and we both sat up at the same time. He was a big guy from India with
all the robes and turban on his head, a big black beard on his face.
He smiled (half his teeth were missing), I smiled, said "good
morning" and got out as fast as I could.
There were prisoners of all nationalities here: Scots, Turks and
Indians as well as English and American. There were about 27,000 of
us so it was a large camp. Some of the Scots had their kilts and
bagpipes and they would march around the open area we had for a
softball diamond, playing the bagpipes. We played softball again here
and I got a baseball uniform which I carried all the way home with me
for a souvenir. I played third base because it was next to the
latrine, which I needed again as I was once again suffering from
diarrhea and dysentery. When I wasn't batting or playing third, I sat
in the latrine and came out only when they needed me. My problems
were probably caused by the bad water gotten on the last march and it
was so bad that I had to run for the latrine every time I started to
eat. During the worst times I gave my food away to Bruce or someone
else who needed it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account