Stalag IIIE

The camp has been previously described in reports by representatives of the United States Embassy in Berlin. There has been no change in the general appearance of the camp since the last visit of November 12, 1941.

There are now 191 British prisoners including Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians and Poles, all of them non-commissioned officers of the R.A.F. The camp is now full to its capacity. The arrest cells are in the townhall, but on the day of the visit no prisoners was receiving disciplinary punishment. There was no complaint about the treatment of prisoners when serving a disciplinary sentence.

There are no working parties outside the camp and it seems that none of the prisoners want to do voluntary work.

As previously reported, the four sleeping rooms are now occupied, and the barracks can be said to be rather overcrowded owing to the fact that no recreation room is provided and that the prisoners have to use the sleeping quarters for indoor games as well as for lectures, reading, mailwriting and meals. The commander whose attention was drawn to the need of a special recreation room admitted the fact and told the representatives of the Protecting Power that a new barrack has been asked for several times from the German High Command. It seems, however, that there is little chance to have it built in the near future, the reasons being lack of material and the uncertainty about the future of this camp. As reported previously one of the barracks has only a stone floor and it seems quite impossible to obtain a wooden cover for it, owing again to the lack of material. This room, however, seems to be the warmest of all and there was no complaint about it. Each sleeping room is equipped with a stove, and on the day of the visit they were quite warm, but some prisoners complained that during the very cold days of January the rooms were not always warm enough.

These seem to be adequate in normal times when each man has an opportunity for hot baths every fourth day. However, owing to the lasting frost the outdoor washing facilities are out of order and all the men have to rely on those installed in the main barrack. Each prisoner can have a hot bath every tenth day.

Poor. Although, as reported previously, wooden shields have been built in front of the outside toilets, they are very cold in winter. Night toilets, said to have been ordered, have not yet arrived, and in the night, too, the men have to use the outside toilets.

The kitchen is well kept and clean. The rations of the week of the visit were as follows:-

Meat

Sausages

Fish

Fat

Sugar

Potatoes

Bread

175 gr. weekly

100 ditto

70 ditto

105 ditto

175 ditto

750 gr. daily

320 gr. daily

This represents 2000 calories. The rations have been slightly cut down like in some other camps visited. There seems to be a general order from the German High Command that in case of waste of the German food the Camp Commanders are entitled to reduce certain rations. This is, of course, contradictory to the Geneva Convention and the matter will be taken up with the German authorities.

There is still no "Revier" but just a small examination room in the camp, which is dependent for medical treatment on the town lazaret. The German Stabsarzt agreed that something ought to be done about this, but as long as no additional barrack will be built, there is no room available. Sick men whose condition requires special treatment, are still sent to the Reservelazaret of Spremberg. At the time of the visit only three prisoners were there, one suffering from influenza, another from wounds received when shot down, and the last one from gastritis. None of these cases was considered as serious.

There are still two British sanitary men in the camp working in that capacity but as yet not enjoying their full rights, as their certificates, asked for from the British Government, have not yet arrived.

In general health conditions in the camp are good and, although the medical arrangements are not yet sufficient, they seem to have somewhat improved.

Satisfactory, except for the lack of underwear and socks, each man being provided with one pair only. There are actually in stock 200 tunics, 200 trousers; 250 pairs of shoes have been received from the English Red Cross but could not be distributed as there is a new order compelling the men in this camp to wear shoes with wooden soles only - this to render escapes more difficult. This matter will be taken up with the German High Command, and if the order cannot be repealed it seems that a better solution would be the transfer of all the prisoners from this camp to another RAF camp.

The Man of Confidence complained that he had no sufficient control over the clothes sent by the Red Cross. The matter was discussed with the camp commandant who promised to let the Man of Confidence be present at all the monthly inventories of the stock. This will be checked on the next visit.

The Man of Confidence raised another question: he wanted to know if the Red Cross clothes distributed to the prisoners ought to be considered as their personal belongings and whether they were allowed to take them with them in case of transfer to another camp. The Swiss Legation acting as Protecting Power would be glad to know the view of the British Government on this matter in order to be able to inform the Man of Confidence.

Prisoners still do not receive any pay. The question of the exchange of foreign currencies has been satisfactorily settled but, of course, this provides money to a small proportion of the men only.

Still no canteen in this camp as the majority of the prisoners do not have any money to spend. Although some tooth-brushes have been received, there is still a need thereof as well as of tooth-paste.

The Church of England service is read every Sunday by a British prisoner-student, and the small proportion of Roman-Catholics are still brought every Sunday to church in town. For Christmas the town church was put at the disposal of the camp and a Church of England service was held there for the prisoners.

Recreation facilities limited owing to the above mentioned lack of adequate room. Table tennis is played in one of the sleeping quarters. A consignment of table tennis balls would be greatly appreciated. One sport box has been received from the British Red Cross and two others from the Y.M.C.A. They contain among other things footballs as well as boxing gloves. They are kept under the control of the camp authorities and delivered to the prisoners whenever they want to play. Leather shoes, too, are issued each time the prisoners want to play football. There is now in the camp a much better and larger field provided for games.

A vegetable and flower garden is planned for the spring and will be working up by the prisoners. Musical instruments have been asked for from the Y.M.C.A. but have not as yet arrived. There is no gramophone in the camp, but if one could be sent over, it would be greatly appreciated. Some playing cards have been received in Red Cross parcels and distributed to the men, but cards sent in private parcels are not handed over to the prisoners so as to prevent messages to be sent that way. It is thus quite useless to send playing cards in private parcels. There are now about 400 English books in the camp, among them the Pelican Books referred to in the last report. A list of studying books has been handed over to the Y.M.C.A. and some Polish books would certainly be appreciated by the few Poles in the camp.

The average time for letters and cards from England is 6 to 7 weeks. The Man of Confidence complained that there had been delayed up to 16 days between the arrival of mail at the camp and delivery to the prisoners. The matter was discussed with the camp commander who admitted that at some time in December there may have been such delays owing to the great amount of letters and the time required for the censoring. But he said that this was quite exceptional and that in normal times the average delay incurred for reasons of censorship was about 3 to 4 days.

Canadians have received no mail since Christmas and none dated after the 20th of November. Quite a number of prisoners complained that, announced private parcels have not arrived and a list of those men was asked for and will be forwarded to the British authorities. Red Cross parcels are delivered at the rate of one a week per man. At the time of the visit there were on stock only 382 Canadian parcels. 12 British Red Cross parcels, 5 tobacco parcels. Tobacco parcels arrived regularly except for a short gap after Christmas.

The camp has been regularly visited by representatives of the International Red Cross Committee and of the Y.M.C.A.

Regarding the mail there was a complaint that many private parcels were delayed having wrongly been addressed to the prisoners' names at Stalag VIII B. There must be some misunderstanding, and to avoid any delay the mail ought to be in the future still addressed to the old address (Stalag III E) as there is no definite plan for the removal of the prisoners to another camp.

The camp makes a good impression except that, as mentioned under points 3 and 5, a new pavilion ought to be built and the toilet facilities improved. The spirit of the prisoners seems to be high and the Man of Confidence stated that the distribution of parcels contributed greatly to the maintenance of that high spirit.

All matters subject to complaint in this report have been discussed with the local camp authorities. Defects which the local camp authorities refuse to correct or state they are unable to correct have been taken up with the German High Command in Berlin.