Stalag 344

Current Affairs

Collective Parcels

Hindu

Head-Doctor

Sergeant-Major SHERIFF

Sergeant-Major LOW

Sergeant MAHONEY

Major HARWEY

No.10775

No. 9379

No. 11887

No. 23901

(of whom 7484 in the Camp, 210 at the Infirmary, 21 at the Lazaret, 300 in other lazarets)

a) Industry

b) Agriculture

c) Forestry

d) Camp Maintenance

e) Urban Labour

f) National Defence

232 comprising

369 "

22 "

34 "

27 "

16501 prisoners

5652 "

777 "

1313 "

1220 "

25463

67%

20%

100%

1034 members of British medical personnel (of whom 884 in the Camp, 39 at the Infirmary, 95 at the lazaret & 16 in the other lazarets).

It is situated outside the danger zones, in a healthy locality; no prisoners work in a danger zone. The Camp is in the open country on sandy flat soil 500x800 metres in extent, quite close to a parade ground and a large fort. It is subdivided into five parts each one surrounded by barbed wire. The hutments are built of brick whitewashed both inside and outside; it would be possible to accommodate 360 prisoners divided between two dormitories if all the three-tier bunks were tenanted. Actually, the bottom layer is not in use and there are about 112 prisoners in each dormitory. There is a large tiled stove in each dormitory. Primitive latrines and washbasins supplied with a dozen taps are installed in roofless huts.

At the time of our visit the Camp has had no running water for three weeks, as the pumping apparatus which is situated outside the Camp was out of order. Designed to supply the fort, this apparatus cannot also supply the needs of about 8000 prisoners, the number (approximately) of those in the Camp.

The dormitories are adequately supplied with light and the cubic content of air is also sufficient. But the artificial light (electric) is faulty; supplied by three bulbs it does not make it possible for the prisoners to read in the evening. Broken bulbs have not been replaced.

The bunks are furnished with palliasses stuffed with wood-shavings. Each prisoner has two or more blankets which are in some cases his own and in others the property of the Red Cross. The prisoners have no German blankets. A few days after the arrival of 1544 prisoners from Dieppe, a new allotment of blankets was made, and each prisoner now has only one or two blankets.

A copy of the Convention is posted up in the Camp. Orders are given in German and translated into English.

Prisoners have three meals a day but the quantities are inadequate; they represent a total amount of calories of about 1500 per day. The prisoners would like to receive, each week, the official rations of potatoes, vegetables etc., and prepare them themselves, adding to them part of the contents of the collective parcels at last received, thus making up the necessary number of calories. Having discussed this with the Camp Authorities, we may hope that this favour will be accorded to them.

The question of sugar has also been discussed. The whole ration is used in the preparation of "German tea" which the prisoners generally refuse to drink (sometimes they use it as water in which to wash). We were not able to get it agreed that the sugar should be given to the prisoners for the preparation of their own tea. The prisoners have practically no possibility of preparing supplementary dishes for themselves as there are no cooking facilities available except the tiled stoves installed in the dormitories which are stoked with wood collected in the forest. The Camp Authorities assured us that 20 special stoves, each provided with a heated top-plate about 60 x 40 cms in dimensions should be issued in a proportion of about 1 to every 380 prisoners.

There were no indications, these last times, of collective punishment affecting food supplies.

The prisoners do not receive either outer clothing or underwear, or blankets from the detaining Power. According to the Camp Leader but very few of the prisoners in the Labour Detachments receive from their employers the wages due to them for their work, although 50% of them work in the mines or in heavy industry. Each of them has two uniforms; the caps were called in at the beginning of the summer in order to be chemically cleaned and they will be redistributed in the winter. Prisoners who leave the Camp to go into a Labour Detachment are issued with new caps. The Camp Leader has no control over clothing/

The latrines do not conform to the demands of hygiene. They are never disinfected either with lime or creosote. They are emptied by means of two carts which are inadequate for this job as one cannot prevent the trenches from overflowing. They have moreover, never been completely emptied.

The fitments for hot and cold showers, although rather primitive, would allow of each prisoner having one shower a week. But as we have stated before, the water supply is defective. Only non-commissioned officers who are under contract to work are allowed to bathe every Saturday in a little lake surrounded by trees, which is situated some kilometres from the Camp.

A hut is specially allotted for the purpose of "de-lousing" prisoners by a hot air method and, in case of necessity, it can deal with 400 men per day.

The Infirmary is extensive enough for the treatment therein of 210 patients. Some civilian internees from the "Ilag" which is nearby are also received for treatment. Serious cases are sent to a Lazaret situated 1 kilometre from the Camp.

Two interned dentists and 3 mechanics assure dental service and can attend 20 prisoners a day.

The Camp has in it, in fact, 850 who are unfit for service of whom a part ought to be re-patriated and have come back into Camp after having been taken to Havre. The English doctors state that the climate is unhealthy for those prisoners who are confined in a very restricted space. Twenty of the unfit for service are tuberculosis and three out of those actively so. These are isolated from the other patients. It is stated that one diphtheria case is now completely cured.

Three quarters of the drugs are supplied by the Red Cross. At the arrival of each fresh consignment the distribution of German drugs is almost completely stopped for a while.

The Head-Doctor who is German, and the English doctors are on good terms with one another.

Vaccine is asked for to combat exanthematic typhus, sufficient for 150 members of the medical personnel.

The question of work presents no difficulties at the Camp as it is essentially composed of non-commissioned officers unfit for work, prisoners who come from Detachments and who need medical attention: and administrative personnel.

Prisoners who work receive 18.20 RM a month. Non-commissioned officers who volunteer for work are amalgamated with the soldiers and draw the same pay. Prisoners cannot send money to their own countries.

The Camp actually has 1 Catholic Chaplain and 1 Baptist Chaplain although 3/4 of the prisoners are Anglicans. An Anglican Chaplain who officiated a week ago has been re-attached to another Camp, where, in fact, there are the 4 British "Bau und Arbeitsbattalione" and Detachment E.3., making a total of about 3000 men.

A well-arranged chapel in a hut allotted to the Chaplains can accommodate about 350 people. Up to 30 services a week are held there.

A Mahometan priest attends to the 98 Hindus from Stalag (of whom there are 44 in the Camp). These are all Mahometans. Their Camp Leader appeals for forty copies of the Koran.

Several Sports grounds are laid out between the huts (for football and Basketball) but they are insufficient for 7500 prisoners. The prisoners only have access to these at certain times as the Camp is split up into many subdivisions. For instance, 530 prisoners from the R.A.F. and 48 re-taken escapees and "incorrigibles" are confined in a section called "V" outside of which they may not go. These categories do not, therefore, benefit from such amenities of the Camp as Sports-grounds, Library, Theatre etc.

1100 students make up a College-University group within the composition of which 47 Professors teach various subjects. Four lecture-halls can accommodate fifty prisoners in each, which is hardly sufficient to satisfy the demand for attendances. The Professors also give Correspondence Courses to the Labour Detachments.

The Camp has enough games and musical instruments. There are three orchestras (philharmonic, trumpet, and jazz).

This is regular. The 800 Australians have received neither correspondence nor individual parcels for many months. Some of them have been without news of their families for twelve months. Camp Leaders' correspondence is unrestricted.

The Camp Leader states that the railway trucks of the International Red Cross are often sealed at such-and-such a German station. He has checked the Watson list of stocks despatched in June 1942 and found that it agrees with the articles and the quantities received. The collective parcels are very well housed in two huts and 40 prisoners are engaged in receiving them, taking stock, overlooking them and sending on supplies. During the months from February to April 1942, the period when the prisoners did not have their standard parcels, the Doctors state that prisoners lost weight at the rate of 3 to 12 kgs, say, an average of 8% in the last two months the number of parcels received has been sufficient to allow a distribution of half a parcel and 30 to 35 cigarettes a week per man.

The four Labour Battalions re-attached to Stalag last week apparently received 1 parcel and 50 cigarettes a week per man, a difference in treatment which has been strongly criticised.

The Camp Leaders and the Authorities in charge of the Camp have examined at length the possibility of building up a stock of standard parcels sufficient for a month. To render this feasible 100,000 standard parcels in excess of the normal quantity would have to be sent to this Stalag (inclusive of B.A.B.). There would be enough storage room for this amount.

This bore upon the questions raised by this Report and in particular on the following points:

(a) The Camp Leader would like to know the opinion of the British Government on the subject of the permissible employment for non-commissioned officers. The opinion of the Camp is divided on this point.

(b) The Doctor reports the hygienic conditions to be unsatisfactory: lack of disinfectants and brushes for the Infirmary and for the cantonments. The refuse from the huts is emptied into trenches which run in front of the doors and these are never emptied. One hut is overrun with bugs. The disinfection carried out by the Authorities has proved to be ineffectual.

(c) Forty-four prisoners who are unfit for service recently arrived from Stalag XVIII A and Stalag XVIII B. They travelled for 3 days in a cattle truck, from which they were never able to descend, and they only received one loaf of bread for the whole three days.

(d) The Camp Leader in charge of collective parcels reports that out of 350 Detachments with which he deals, about 40 can be supplied each week, but the others only receive parcels once a month or even, sometimes, once in two months.

(e) 1,544 prisoners taken at Dieppe arrived at the Stalag on the 1st September. They are actually confined in a special section of the Camp and we were unable to see them. They are of nine different nationalities and comprise among others 44 citizens of the U.S.A., French-speaking Canadians, 1 Red-skin, etc., but none of de Gaulle's men. They arrived without blankets, or any proper utensils for meals and for two days they are their meals from jam jars and packing boxes.

The question of table utensils is particularly serious in this Stalag where prisoners have only once been served out with an aluminium can made of very thin material and whose capacity is about half a litre. 60% of these cans are actually past use and prisoners have to make do with utensils which they make for themselves out of jam jars and packing boxes.

In spite of everything this Stalag cannot be considered as bad on account of the collective parcels sent. Its principal defect is overcrowding. The Camp Authorities and the Camp Leaders are crowded out, the installation is insufficient because the number of prisoners represents the strength of two divisions. The place is deficient in all those things that prisoners need. Order and discipline are obviously difficult to maintain in a concern which is on so vast a scale. The Camp Leader for Current Affairs, Sergeant-Major Sheriff is an excellent organiser. He takes much pains to achieve the well-being of his men, but he does not appear to have sufficient authority over them to maintain discipline or order as good as they which obtains in some of the other British Camps.

The prisoners inhabit a large building situated on the ground belonging to the sugar works where they work. Their quarters consist of 6 rooms of about 5 x 8m. each containing 15 double-tiered beds. In 15 days the seasonal work will begin and the strength of the Detachment will be raised to about 400 prisoners. A wooden hutment about 100 metres away will then be used as additional quarters, but this will not be enough and the prisoners will find themselves cramped.

An English head cook and two other prisoners do the cooking according to menus drawn up by a German civilian attached to the factory and who is an army quartermaster. The prisoners receive the ordinary rations and improve the meals by provisions which they receive from the Red Cross. The kitchen is well equipped. The prisoners can prepare their own provisions on stoves installed in each room.

The prisoners only possess one uniform and are given no working clothes. In summer they work in shorts and sometimes stripped to the waist. At present they are well shod. The prisoners working as stokers ought to be able to wear working clothes.

The latrines with water-flushes are adequate in number. The prisoners can take shower baths when they like in the factory. The rooms have running water. No vermin have been notified.

A kindly military doctor who lives in the town puts himself at the disposal of the prisoners every morning for medical examinations. Fairly serious cases and accidents are sent to the hospital of the Stalag where the prisoners also receive dental care.

The prisoners do their own laundry and for this purpose receive a little washing powder every week. During the busy season the laundry is done free by the factory.

The sports ground of the factory is available for the prisoners and they can play foot-ball and practice boxing and athletics. During the busy season they are too tired by the 80 hours of work per week which they are compelled to do to indulge in sport.

Some prisoners have musical instruments. The library of the Detachment, supplied partly by the Stalag and partly by the prisoners themselves, is very well equipped.

During their free time, the prisoners can bathe and fish in the river which flows at a few hundred metres from the Detachment.

An Anglican prisoner who is preparing for the pastorate conducts the weekly services, but the prisoners would like a visit from a chaplain from time to time.

At present the prisoners are employed in overhauling the machines and in repairing and cleaning in preparation for the coming sugar season. They work 48 hours a week, but during the busy season, the working day is 12 hours and Saturday and Sunday 18 hours altogether. The prisoners receive a fixed wage of 70 pf. a day. The English can send part of their earnings to their families, but this is not so for the New Zealanders and Australians.

The work which the prisoners are obliged to do does not entail any particular risks. However, one of them died as the result of a accident while he was working (a fall into the continuous chain feeding the boilers).

This is normal for the English and New Zealanders. Only one parcel has arrived from Australia since the capture of the Australians.

These arrive regularly from the Stalag and are stored in the factory in a room with a double lock: one key is in the possession of the camp leader and the other in that of the German guard. No thefts have been notified. The quantity is at present sufficient to distribute ½ a standard parcel per week to each man in addition to the provisions in bulk which are also sent to the kitchen.

The conversation had reference to the matters brought up in the course of this report.

The camp leader was afraid that prisoners undergoing disciplinary punishment (which is rare, as the discipline is good) might be sent to a civil prison. We were able to make sure that this was not so and the camp leader will henceforward be able to visit men in the cells.

At present the Detachment is a good one, but it is to be feared that the situation will grow worse when the strength has been considerably increased and the working hours almost doubled.