During WWII approximately 28,000 airmen from the US 8th Air Force had to parachute over Germany out of burning planes and most were immediately captured by the Germans and transported to various POW (Stalags) around the Reich. Many of these airmen spent up to two years in the camps, few were able to escape and spent the remainder of the war incarcerated, Most of these captured airmen spent more time imprisoned than time spent in combat. What was life for them once captured. My father spent 16 months at Stalag Luft 1 POW camp in Barth Germany, on the northern German Baltic Coast. During his imprisonment he wrote numerous letters to my mother at home with some hints at life in the camp.
By far the biggest problems were lack of food, hygiene and interminable boredom, As my father wrote, “ everyday is just the same as the day before.” However, good old Yankee ingenuity by the POWs created diversions and activities to relieve the boredom. Before joining the Air Force the pilots, navigators and bombardiers at Stalag Luft 1 were something else, They gave up their careers to enlist, but many had talents and they could use while in camp. Among the prisoners were mechanics, engineers, college professors, teachers, tailors, craftsmen, carpenters and would be playwrights and singers and musicians, These prisoners stepped up and created opportunities to involve prisoners in activities to relieve boredom.
Craftsmen and carpenters used everything they could find. The tin cans from the food boxes became cooking utensils and blowers attached to their small stoves to improve heating in the barracks during the winter. Wooden crates the Red Cross food parcels came in became church pews in their chapel. Seeds sent by the YMCA were used to try and grow vegetables in the summers in the sandy soil of the Baltic coast. My dad wrote my mother that he was nursing some radishes he was hoping would grow.
Sports at Stalag Luft I. Young men needed exercise options and the POWs did a lot of things. The YMCA set sports equipment including baseball equipment, basketballs, footballs and even ice skates for hockey. In a letter to my mother my father wrote that his barracks was in fourth place in the all camp baseball tournament, He also wrote that they had a football team in the fall of 1943 and were doing well.
The YMCA also sent board games and my father, a chess player, wrote that he had made it to the semifinals all the camp Chess Tournament. Within his barracks he wrote that there was always a Bridge game going on and that he had taught many of the men to play cribbage on a board my mother sent him. There were basketball tournaments, boxing matches and hockey games on a flooded and frozen water reservoir in the camp. For those who did not compete, there was a chance to watch,
Music. The YMCA also sent musical instruments and sheet music to the camp, The Stalag Luft 1 band director was a high school band director from Eagle River Wisconsin before the war and helped organize band concerts, glee clubs and choirs who presented concerts for the POWs. My father in a letter mentioned a Christmas Concert in the camp by the band and choir that was a joy to hear, My father also saved a playbill from a production by budding musical playwrights of a musical called “Hit the Bottle” performed at the camp in June 1944 complete with sets and costumes made by prison tailors.
A small “Big Band” at Stalag Luft 1 with instruments from the YMCA
The Prison Library. With books supplied by the YMCA, Stalag Luft had a library with 10,000 books. It was organized like any other lending library and my dad wrote that he worked in the library and he was his job to hunt down books that had not been returned.
Barth University. The prisoners also set up a University that taught courses for college credits. Within the camp were many college professors who put together syllabuses, course content and lectures for POWs. My father wrote that he was taking a trigonometry class and his friend one of the pilots of his plane also imprisoned was taking an English Literature Course.
The currency at Stalag Luft 1.
At the camp, the main unit of currency among the prisoners were cigarettes and chocolate bars. Although my father did not smoke, my mother was able to send him 2 cartons of Lucky Strike cigarettes every two months. Cigarettes were used for all kinds of things at the camp, A shave and a haircut for five cigarettes, or you could get your ragged clothes repaired by camp tailors for a few cigarettes. The YMCA sent seeing materials and yarn and knitting needles. IN the cold winter a POW could buy a scarf or mittens knitted by enterprising POWs for a few cigarettes.
My father sported a black knitted scarf in the only picture we have of him from Stalag Luft 1. Keeping warm for a few cigarettes, My father brought home with him a blue notebook supplied by the YMCA that prisoners could use as a diary or journal. My fathers diary was filled with poker games and raffles. He appeared to be the bookie of barracks 7. The raffles were for essential items, vitamins, tooth powder, soap, zippo lighters, underwear, socks etc. Entry to the raffles appeared to be 2 cigarettes. He also has pages of poker games with credit and balance statements for numerous POWs. They played poker for real money that would be paid after the war
Like a small city Stalag Luft 1 operated under the noses of the German guards, sometimes with their complicity, sometimes with punishment for their activities. One thing the German guards wanted was American Lucky Strike cigarettes and some would supply things for these. In one letter my father indicated he secured a bottle of fresh honey from a guard for five cigarettes.
Though the monotony of prison life was overwhelming most of the time the POWs tried to alleviate the boredom with a lot of effort, the assistance of the YMCA and the International Red Cross.
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