We Prisoners of War: Sixteen British Officers and Soldiers Speak from a German Prison Camp

By Tracy Strong

We Prisoners of War: Sixteen British Officers and Soldiers Speak from a German Prison Camp, first published in 1941, is a collection of brief essays written by POWs held in Germany during the early days of World War II. As noted in the Preface: Two years after the outbreak of hostilities, more than four million men are prisoners of war. They are living behind barbed-wire fences in all parts of the world … What thoughts are in the minds of these captured men? We Prisoners of War is a partial answer to this question. These sixteen essays were originally submitted in an essay contest suggested by a Y.M.C.A. secretary who visits the camps regularly. They were not intended for publication or the eyes of the censor. Because of their unique insight into the minds of those facing despair “in a sea of stagnant idleness,” they are being printed in the interest of the prisoners themselves.

Although these prisoners are shut in behind barbed wire in southern Germany, it is interesting to note the influence upon their thoughts of the life of the villages outside the wire. A bright carpet in a cottage, the visitors in the local beer garden, the glorious view of the Alps as seen through the barred windows, as well as the clanging of the church bells, the singing of the birds, and the memory of the young choirmaster, Mozart, who lived there—these are the prisoner's food for thought.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eumenes Publishing
• Release date: Dec 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9781839741418

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Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

We Prisoners of War

Sixteen British Officers and Soldiers Speak from a German Prison Camp

Edited by Tracy Strong

We Prisoners of War was originally published in 1942 by Association Press, New York.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

Preface 5

1. So, Hamish, He Was a Prisoner 6

2. Make Captivity Captive 11

3. A Thousand Hairless Pates 13

4. Teach Thy Necessity to Reason Thus 16

5. Living and Partly Living 20

6. Thoughts New, Thoughts Old, 23

Thoughts Wishful 23

7. Benefits There Certainly Are 25

8. A Crust Has a Flavor Unbelievable 28

9. Talents I Possessed 31

10. We Do Not Hate You 32

11. We Even Dream of Food 33

12. Only Part of Me Is in Prison 34

13. The Business of Living Now 37

14. The Meaning of Patience 40

15. Two Kinds of Loyalties 43

16. A Light in the Distance 46

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 50

Preface

Two years after the outbreak of hostilities, more than four million men are prisoners of war. They are living behind barbed-wire fences in all parts of the world. While in the hands of a hostile Power, they retain their full civil status as soldiers out of luck and live under conditions agreed to by forty-seven nations in the Geneva Convention relative to the treatment of prisoners of war. These conditions are not easy, but they are softened somewhat through the mediation of what the treaties call the High Protecting Powers of enemy interests in the belligerent countries and the humanitarian services of the International Red Cross and the World’s Committee of the Young Men’s Christian Associations.

What thoughts are in the minds of these captured men? We Prisoners of War is a partial answer to this question. These sixteen essays, written by British officers and soldiers in a German prisoner-of-war camp, were originally submitted in an essay contest suggested by a Y.M.C.A. secretary who visits the camps regularly. They were not intended for publication or the eyes of the censor. Because of their unique insight into the minds of those facing despair in a sea of stagnant idleness, they are being printed in the interest of the prisoners themselves, after permission was secured from them and from the German and British military authorities. No changes were made or suggested by the military censors.

Although these prisoners are shut in behind barbed wire in southern Germany, it is interesting to note the influence upon their thoughts of the life of the villages outside the wire. A bright carpet in a cottage, the visitors in the local beer garden, the glorious view of the Alps as seen through the barred windows, as well as the clanging of the church bells, the singing of the birds, and the memory of the young choirmaster, Mozart, who lived there—these are food for thought.

It is striking to observe how these twentieth-century prisoners of war, with their piercing insight, join the company of such famous prisoners of history as St. Paul, Bolingbroke in Richard II, the Prisoner of Chillon, and Robinson Crusoe—but with this significant difference: that the modern prisoner has the right and opportunity to study, to play, to pray, and prepare himself for the post-war period. This is made possible by the organization of activities in the camp, the generosity of friends, the co-operation of the enemy, and the direct help from international societies.

It is heartening, yet strange, to discover in these essays the absence of bitterness, cynicism, pride, and hatred. Even the shortage of food, forced privation, and lack of privacy do not harden these men’s hearts or quench their spirits. The suffering and danger through which they have lived does lead them to ponder on the triviality of human life, but their reflection usually leads to a determination to live in hope and faith, and to prepare for a new world.

TRACY STRONG

December, 1941

1. So, Hamish, He Was a Prisoner

So, Hamish, he was a prisoner. He had expected—death? Almost certainly yes. His mind had been made up on that at best; questionably, disfigurement or, if fate was very kind, a Blighty wound that might send him home for a time; but not this—what could he call it, how describe it? And as this first steaming day of shattering new experience drew to its close, finding Hamish exhausted, flat on his back, amongst hundreds of others (few of them, alas, his own comrades), with sleep still far away from him, he began to think and wonder, and a great thought that he had never had before came.

It struck him as strange that he, inconspicuous as he was (or at any rate felt himself to be), very much of an also-ran in the race of life so far, should be amongst the few of his fellows left alive. So many of them had been more worthy than he could ever be of attaining the good things that life had to offer, of returning to their own again, tested by the mighty fires of war, knowing themselves men. Why should he remain? What did it all mean? The outward forms of religion had never meant a great deal to him, though he supposed he had always had a deep-founded respect for the God his mother had taught him about, so that he quite believed that those odd people with peculiar convictions, chapel-goers, and others who appeared not quite normal might have some reason to expect God would provide especial protection for those who gave him special attention. But for himself? Slowly he realized, and the realization grew, that those passages he could recall in the Bible about being the children of God did really mean something very personal, that the Ninth Psalm was not