On January 11, 1944, my father’s plane was hit by FLAK and lost two engines. Unable to keep up with their squadron, the crippled plane was attacked by German fighters who killed their radio operator. The nine surviving crew had to parachute out into the snowy fields of the German countryside below them.  They were quickly rounded up by locals who were watching for parachutes and taken to Gestapo headquarters.  The Gestapo transferred them to Dulag Luft, a transition POW camp where they were interrogated and eventually sent off to various Luftwaffe run prison camps.  My father, the pilot and co-pilot and bombardier were sent to Stalag Luft 1 in Barth Germany on the Baltic Sea, while all their aerial gunners were sent to other camps around the Reich.

Stalag Luft 1 was a Luftwaffe run POW camp for commissioned officers such as US Air Force pilots, co-pilots, navigators and bombardiers.  In addition to US Air Force officers, Stalag Luft 1 held RAF pilots from England and their Dominion compatriots.

By 1945 at the end of the war, there were approximately 8500 US Airman and about 1500 RAF and Dominion Airmen imprisoned there.

Stalag Luft 1 POWS posing at Liberation

Life at Stalag Luft 1
Eye witness interviews of POWs after the war, reports from the International Red Cross during the War and reports on The Conditions at Stalag Luft 1 by the War Departments Military Intelligence Services during and after the war give a good picture of what life was like for the POWs.
For the POWs, the barbed wire, guard towers, and sometimes brutal guards never let them forget they were prisoners. Being so far north on the Baltic Sea meant long winter nights without light, freezing barracks where prisoners had to wear all their clothing to stay warm, no soap, the rare shower with freezing cold water, clothes unwashed and threadbare. The International Red Cross supplied food boxes, some clothing and some medical supplies. The YMCA provided games, books, athletic equipment and musical instruments. The food situation was always precarious with the majority of food coming from the Red Cross weekly food boxes. However, when there were no food boxes delivered, there was no food. The Germans were (by the Geneva Convention) supposed to supply a certain number of calories per day. In reality the POWs bread that was sometimes made of sawdust, rutabagas, turnips and beets, coffee that was made from barley, butter that was an inedible oil of some kind. In the winter, the vegetables were rotted or frozen. The inedible butter was used to make candles for dark winter nights. In late 1944 and early 1945, the POWs received very few Red Cross food boxes and suffered near starvation and malnutrition. The POWs interviewed after the war called this “the starving time.”
But the biggest problem in the camp was just plain boredom. My father wrote my mother that “every day is just like the day before.” Good old Yankee ingenuity helped the POWs get through each day. The YMCA sent sports equipment and the POWs organized baseball, basketball and football games and tournaments. They had boxing matches and chess and bridge tournaments. My dad wrote my mother that he had made it to the finals of the Camp Chess Tournament. The YMCA sent band instruments and sheet music and there were bands and choirs formed and concerts for the POWs. The YMCA also sent books and the prisoners created a lending library. Yarn provided by the YMCA also produced some excellent knitters who made winter mittens and scarves for the price of a few cigarettes or chocolate bars. But no matter what the POWs did to make prison better, as my dad wrote, “I am still here, still behind barbed wire.”

 My father with a knitted scarf around his neck.

For young men used to listening to the radio and devouring newspapers, the information black out was depressing. No hit parade, no radio programs and no news of the war and what was going on. When new prisoners arrived in the camp they were mobbed for any news of what was going on.
Today you can visit Barth and the site of Stalag Luft 1. After the war the camp was bulldozed, but the site remains. A group of preservationists have placed a memorial there and a small museum in the town of Barth has a collection of books on the camp and a display of items.

The Memorial at Stalag Luft 1 Site

Map of the Site

Stalag Luft 1 site looking two miles toward Barth and the steeple of St

The town of Barth is a delightful village that is about 2 miles from the site of the camp. It does not look much different today from when it was home to over 9000 POWS.

Barth Germany with the steeple of St. Marys

A Barth Street looking toward the Baltic Sea

When the POWs were brought by train to the camp, they had to get off at the Barth train station and walk two miles through the town to the camp. According to ex POWs they walked through a medieval gate while townspeople yelled at them out their windows. Today you can get off at the train station and walk to the town under the Dammtor Gate and past St. Marys Church.

Barth Train Station today

POWs being marched through the Dammtor Gate on the way to the Prison Camp

The Dammtor Gate today

POWs marching past St. Marys Church in Barth and a view of St. Marys Church today