by David Thibodeau
In January 1945, I was a Kriegsgefangener, a prisoner of war in Stalag IV-B, a huge, bleak, treeless prison compound near Mühlberg, Germany, east of Leipzig and north of Dresden in Saxony. Surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by very old men, we did not play tricks on the Germans a la Hogan's Heroes. Somebody had the misfortune to come down with cholera, and that was good fortune for the rest of us, as we were quarantined all of January and weren't sent out on work Kommandos. There was no heat in the barracks and we slept on straw, as there were no bunks Body heat from the 100 or so men in the room provided what warmth there was. We were at 51° north latitude and the winter was not kind.
Stalag IV-B Mühlberg, Germany
Above: Main Entrance, Changing of the Guard
Below: Aerial photo of the camp superimposed in Google Earth
click here for location of former Stalag IV B
We were processed into the camp by English prisoners, who had worked their way into some clerical jobs, as many were long-time prisoners captured by the Afrika Korps or in the fall of France in June 1940. Hitler regarded Americans as a mongrel race and had more respect for the British, who were originally Angles and Saxons from north Germany who settled in Britain and gave the island its name "Angland," or England, and its language Anglish, or English, as we call it now.
We were kept alive by the sparse German rations, which were very poor in protein, and the Red Cross parcels, which we got about once a month to divide among 5 or 6 men. The parcels contained highly concentrated energy and protein foods, such as Spam and chocolate.
Cigarets were money in the camp, and you could buy a wristwatch or a day's ration for from one to three cigarets Non-smokers were relatively prosperous. The American Red Cross parcels had 11 packs of Camels, Lucky Strikes or Chesterfields in them. The British parcels had one pack of Sweet Caporals. The Australian parcels had one pack of Riverhead Glories. We Americans always got British, Canadian or Australian Red Cross parcels The difference of 10 packages of cigarets represented substantial monetary value. Were the Germans "in cahoots" with prisoners of other nationalities? The only American cigaret I ever smoked in six months was given to me by a Frenchman driving by on a tractor after I was transferred to a work camp at Lilienstein on the Elbe
We Americans always seemed more grubby and dirty than the British, who managed to stay natty with pressed jackets and a fresh shave, and who even booted a soccer ball around the compound at times.
Anyhow, life wasn't that bad at Stalag IV-B, and we even had a wind-up phonograph with Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas," furnished also by the Red Cross, Russian prisoners in the next compound were real free-enterprisers, and they had a kind of market where they stood all day trying to sell lacquered boxes they somehow had fashioned. One Russky held up a loaf of bread sidewise. The price was a wristwatch. A guy sailed his watch over the fence and the Russky tossed over the "loaf," which was two slabs with the middle cut out of it. This was the first incident of the Cold War that was to start right after V-E Day.
