TRANSLATION

GERMANY

RESERVE LAZARET 128

STALAG III D

Visited March 20th, 1942

British Camp Leader: Lt. Colonel William BULL (From Stalag VIII B)

Strength: 345 patients, 27 of whom are British.

              1 British Doctor and 10 British medical orderlies.

        This Lazaret left the Delegates, at the time of their previous visit in November 1941, with a bad impression. This impression has unfortunately not been removed during the course of the present visit. From the outset the Commandant of the Camp formally refused to consider any remarks we made with regard to quarters, sanitary installations, food or medical matters. According to him none of them were justified and the camp was above criticism. He also refused us permission to speak to the British Doctor because he said that this Doctor had been attending typhus cases. In addition he refused to indicate the number of cases of exanthematic typhus.

QUARTERS

        This Lazaret is installed in a one-time school. See previous Report.

        The Hospital comprises 400 beds of which 345 are occupied at the moment. For some time the number of infectious cases has been increasing steadily. Only typhus cases are treated here, and for the moment these are all Russian, which explains the small number of British patients. The Opthalmic and Ear, Nose and Throat Sections have been closed down for lack of space. In the Surgical Section, operations are only carried out in urgent cases. Six French Doctors work with the British Doctor.

MEDICAL EQUIPMENT

        The Operating Theatre, the room for dressings, the Laboratory and the Radiological installation are the same as at the time of our last visit. They are excellent. The Doctors have facilities to have special examinations made in Berlin itself. The sterilizing system is perfect and the number of surgical instruments is adequate. The Doctors have sufficient medical supplies, and have a supply of insulin amongst their other supplies.

        The British receive about 70 medical parcels per month.

        The medical treatment received by the prisoners made a good impression on us. The Surgeon, as also the Nose, Throat and Eat specialist, is French. The British Doctor (whom we had met at Stalag VIII B) is also a surgeon, but he is not employed in this capacity and is attending the typhus cases.

        The Mixed Medical Commission has never visited the British in this Lazaret. Britons intended for repatriation are generally sent to Stalag VIII B.

QUARTERS

        The rooms in this former school vary in size. The smallest contain 5 beds. At the moment these beds are nearly all double-tiered wooden bunks, which is very inconvenient for the examination of patients. On the other hand, the rooms are not so crowded as formerly. About a dozen single metal beds are reserved for very serious cases or for operation cases.

        The straw in the palliasses was only changed for the first time a month ago. All the patients have two sheets which are washed once a month and whenever a prisoner leaves the Lazaret. Every patient has received 2 blankets supplied by the German Authorities and slipped into a cover. This hospital has never received any blankets from the Red Cross.

        The Lazaret is well heated throughout.

SANITARY INSTALLATIONS

        Every floor has a shower-room where there are also a dozen sinks supplied with running water. The patients who cannot leave their beds have basins provided for them.

        The latrines are rather insufficient in number, but they are clean and hygienic. There are sufficient bottles and bedpans for the patients in bed.

FOOD

        Meals are prepared by German civilians assisted by one British and one French cook. The regulation quantities are issued but the Camp Leaders have never been able to check it, as the Commandant of the Lazaret absolutely refuses to allow this to be done. At the time of our visit the menu was posted up, but it appears that this is not the general custom.

        Margarine has been replaced by "Schualz".

        The Doctors can prescribe three Diets with the assent of the German Medical Officer:

                1. Diet without salt: Soups, rice, apple juice.

                2. Diet of Purées

                3. Diet for Diabetics.

CLOTHING

        There is a small Clothing Store at the Lazaret for the medical personnel as well as for patients returning to Labour Detachments.

        Five British medical orderlies are still wearing French uniforms. The British prisoners have never received any consignments whatever of clothing from the Red Cross, and their linen is in a very bad state. They receive the regulation quantities of soap and of washing powder for their laundry.

MONEY AND PAY

        There is nothing to report on this subject.

CORRESPONDENCE

        The British are only allowed to write 2 cards a month instead of four. The Irish are only given postcards and not letter forms, for a reason which the Commandant refused to tell us. Corporal Robert Johnstone, No.14855, a non-recognised member of the medical personnel, has never received a parcel.

        Here, as in other camps, we heard many complaints concerning tobacco consignments from the Imperial Tobacco Company. (See Report on Labour Detachment E. 46 of Stalag VIII G).

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL NEEDS

        There is neither priest nor clergyman for the British and they have never had any opportunity to attend a religious service, although their prisoner comrades have the services of a French priest.

        The Library comprises only 40 English books, and the British have no games. There is neither an orchestra nor a dramatic troupe, and nothing has been done by the Lazaret Authorities to occupy the enforced leisure of the prisoners.

        The hospital has no Canteen.

WELFARE

        The British receive their standard parcels regularly. The Camp Leader arranges so that there shall always be 70 in reserve. Cigarettes from the Stalag arrive very irregularly.

TREATMENT

        The majority of the prisoners complain of the lack of understanding and sympathy on the part of the Camp authorities. No definite charge can be made against them, but it is rather a case of continual nagging, with the result that morale is very low, as it was at the time our previous visit.

        The Commandant did not appear to us to possess those qualities necessary for the good administration of a prisoner of war Lazaret. The Feldwebel, who seemed to be the real head of the Lazaret, does everything he can to make the prisoners' life miserable without infringing the regulations.

CONCLUSION

        The Lazaret is well equipped from the medical point of view, but the isolation of the typhus cases from the other patients leaves something to be desired.

        The double-tiered beds complicate the doctors' examinations. Correspondence does not conform to regulations. The morale of the prisoners is very low because of the vexations to which they are constantly submitted, although the Camp authorities do nothing on which a specific complaint could be made.

(Signed) DR. RUBLI

Requests: Games of all kinds

                Books

                Linen and uniforms.