Conditions in Camp OFlag 64
by Captain Billy Bingham, 34th Inf. Div.
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by Captain Billy Bingham, 34th Inf. Div.
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At first (June 1943), Oflag 64 was a small camp consisting of only 150 officers. By the time it was
evacuated, the role call had reached 1400. This was still far less than Stalag Luft III, where more
than 10,000 shot down British and American officers were held.
There was no wholesale torture per se, unless you considered never having enough to eat and the
cold Poland winter was a torture. No officer was forced to work, as was the practice in Russian
and Japanese POW camps.
From the time the camp opened until the evacuation, the German rations were very poor in both
quality and quantity. The Red Cross parcels became the means of sustenance in the camp and the
difference between complete misery and tolerable existence. In the last few months, there were
no Red Cross parcels and the officers suffered accordingly.
For the first four months we had to live entirely on German rations. This amounted to only hot
or warm water for breakfast, nothing more; a thin barley soup for lunch and, occasionally, some
spoiled turnips and shriveled carrots for dinner. Sometimes, instead of the turnips and carrots,
we got three small potatoes. The Germans, in addition, gave us on loaf of German wartime black
bread, about 4 to 5 inches long, to last a whole week. The accepted technique was to slice the
bread as thin as possible, and toast it over the famous 'smokeless heaters' made from old Red
Cross powdered milk cans, if we had one.
The camp doctors figured that all this amounted to about 700 calories a day. We always appointed
a 'food master' for each table. His responsibility was to ensure that no one got more or less than
his share. No one relished this job.
This diet sapped the prisoner's energy, of course, and made the awful winter cold even harder to
take. The German stoves, one in each barracks, the tiles wouldn't get hot, only slightly warm. We
took turns huddling around the stove in winter. The cold and hunger re-enforced the urge to
escape and somehow get out through Russia and Poland.
I knew, after we stopped getting Red Cross parcels, that I wouldn't survive for another six to
eight months, and I figured it would be better to get away. The Poles seemed most friendly.
So, we started digging tunnels, some 40 feet deep, to get under the German so-called radar.
We 'Krieges' were guarded by a soldiers with dogs stationed all around the camp. They had flood
lights on towers about 30 feet high every 300 feet, with barbed wire 10 feet high. We had several
escapees, but not one officer got back.
We had a few Signal Corps officers who rigged up a bird (radio). One officer was chosen to
listen, and then go to each barrack and relay the war news from the BBC.
The latrine was a 16 hole in a board over a large pit that was emptied every two weeks. The
latrine was only about 50 yards from the 'White House,' and several hundred yards from the
wooden barracks. Once in awhile, in the summer, chemicals were used to reduce the odor.
After dark, you couldn't get out to the latrine, without getting permission from the German
guard, and only one man at a time was permitted to go to the latrine.
We arose at 6:00 a.m. and were counted by the Germans. Sometimes, it went rather quickly, but
other times we were kept outside in the cold and rain for perhaps two or more hours standing at
attention.
For breakfast, we got only one cup of hot to warm water, in which we ground up parched grain
to make 'ersatz' simulated coffee which always had a bitter taste. With a little imagination, we
could drink it as coffee.
At noon, we either got three small potatoes or Kasha soup, made from barley, which was quite
thick, but never the two together. Most of the time we got cabbage soup at the evening meal.
Occasionally, it was flavored with horse meat, complete with the worst part of the horse - the
head, the hoofs, and the guts. After being starved, anything tasted good even with its horrible
smell and taste. After a few weeks in camp, repulsive as it was, we soon considered it a treat.
We had no choice but to eat it or starve.
The Germans provided the camp (Oflag 64) with so many grams of meat per day for everyone;
but the weight was on the boof which meant the bones, horns, hooves, neck, and head were
weighed. The Germans took the good meat for themselves and saved us the head neck and
bony parts. Although we got the weight due us, as prescribed by the German Quartermaster,
it was mostly bone. The would just throw the head of a beef into a tub of soup - hair, eyes,
nose, everything. The Germans went through the motion of removing the hair, but we quickly
learned that we were better off to not look at what we were eating.
According to our doctors, the Germans provided us with 700 to 900 calories per day. In order
to maintain our weight we needed 1800 to 2000 calories. After about three or four months, we
started to get Red Cross parcels. Late in 1944, the Germans began to take all our Red Cross
parcels and claimed that our bombers had destroyed the box-cars that were supposed to deliver
them.
In addition to the German diet, we were alloted one small loaf of black bread, about 4 to 5
inches long that was supposed to last each man for 7 days - just two very thin slices per day.
We also got an addition to the bread. The Quartermaster issued about 30 grams of sugar,
made from sugar beets, about 1 ounce per day.
Telling stories was a great pastime in our first year of captivity. Most tales were chiefly
concerned with one's heroics in combat. At first it seemed to me that the tales were sticking
to the truth the first year but began to lie the second. It became impossible to distinguish
between truth and fiction. After six months as a POW, women were never the topic. During
the first year, we speculated when we would be freed and during the second year it was
politics and a lot of religion. I even started to go to Catholic Mass.
In the cold Poland winters our beds, 2 1/2 ft. x 6 ft., filled with straw, three beds one on top
of the other. Only one blanket per combat officer, which was totally inadequate for the
climate. Two officers were forced to sleep together and use the two blankets to keep warm.
We slept in our uniforms most of the winters to keep semi-warm.
A room 15' x 15' slept 26 officers. Our health, in spite of hardships; insufficient food; impure
water; poor sanitation facilities, remained surprisingly good even under these circumstances.
The plumbing or lack of plumbing was a constant source of concern to our American doctors.
evacuated, the role call had reached 1400. This was still far less than Stalag Luft III, where more
than 10,000 shot down British and American officers were held.
There was no wholesale torture per se, unless you considered never having enough to eat and the
cold Poland winter was a torture. No officer was forced to work, as was the practice in Russian
and Japanese POW camps.
From the time the camp opened until the evacuation, the German rations were very poor in both
quality and quantity. The Red Cross parcels became the means of sustenance in the camp and the
difference between complete misery and tolerable existence. In the last few months, there were
no Red Cross parcels and the officers suffered accordingly.
For the first four months we had to live entirely on German rations. This amounted to only hot
or warm water for breakfast, nothing more; a thin barley soup for lunch and, occasionally, some
spoiled turnips and shriveled carrots for dinner. Sometimes, instead of the turnips and carrots,
we got three small potatoes. The Germans, in addition, gave us on loaf of German wartime black
bread, about 4 to 5 inches long, to last a whole week. The accepted technique was to slice the
bread as thin as possible, and toast it over the famous 'smokeless heaters' made from old Red
Cross powdered milk cans, if we had one.
The camp doctors figured that all this amounted to about 700 calories a day. We always appointed
a 'food master' for each table. His responsibility was to ensure that no one got more or less than
his share. No one relished this job.
This diet sapped the prisoner's energy, of course, and made the awful winter cold even harder to
take. The German stoves, one in each barracks, the tiles wouldn't get hot, only slightly warm. We
took turns huddling around the stove in winter. The cold and hunger re-enforced the urge to
escape and somehow get out through Russia and Poland.
I knew, after we stopped getting Red Cross parcels, that I wouldn't survive for another six to
eight months, and I figured it would be better to get away. The Poles seemed most friendly.
So, we started digging tunnels, some 40 feet deep, to get under the German so-called radar.
We 'Krieges' were guarded by a soldiers with dogs stationed all around the camp. They had flood
lights on towers about 30 feet high every 300 feet, with barbed wire 10 feet high. We had several
escapees, but not one officer got back.
We had a few Signal Corps officers who rigged up a bird (radio). One officer was chosen to
listen, and then go to each barrack and relay the war news from the BBC.
The latrine was a 16 hole in a board over a large pit that was emptied every two weeks. The
latrine was only about 50 yards from the 'White House,' and several hundred yards from the
wooden barracks. Once in awhile, in the summer, chemicals were used to reduce the odor.
After dark, you couldn't get out to the latrine, without getting permission from the German
guard, and only one man at a time was permitted to go to the latrine.
We arose at 6:00 a.m. and were counted by the Germans. Sometimes, it went rather quickly, but
other times we were kept outside in the cold and rain for perhaps two or more hours standing at
attention.
For breakfast, we got only one cup of hot to warm water, in which we ground up parched grain
to make 'ersatz' simulated coffee which always had a bitter taste. With a little imagination, we
could drink it as coffee.
At noon, we either got three small potatoes or Kasha soup, made from barley, which was quite
thick, but never the two together. Most of the time we got cabbage soup at the evening meal.
Occasionally, it was flavored with horse meat, complete with the worst part of the horse - the
head, the hoofs, and the guts. After being starved, anything tasted good even with its horrible
smell and taste. After a few weeks in camp, repulsive as it was, we soon considered it a treat.
We had no choice but to eat it or starve.
The Germans provided the camp (Oflag 64) with so many grams of meat per day for everyone;
but the weight was on the boof which meant the bones, horns, hooves, neck, and head were
weighed. The Germans took the good meat for themselves and saved us the head neck and
bony parts. Although we got the weight due us, as prescribed by the German Quartermaster,
it was mostly bone. The would just throw the head of a beef into a tub of soup - hair, eyes,
nose, everything. The Germans went through the motion of removing the hair, but we quickly
learned that we were better off to not look at what we were eating.
According to our doctors, the Germans provided us with 700 to 900 calories per day. In order
to maintain our weight we needed 1800 to 2000 calories. After about three or four months, we
started to get Red Cross parcels. Late in 1944, the Germans began to take all our Red Cross
parcels and claimed that our bombers had destroyed the box-cars that were supposed to deliver
them.
In addition to the German diet, we were alloted one small loaf of black bread, about 4 to 5
inches long that was supposed to last each man for 7 days - just two very thin slices per day.
We also got an addition to the bread. The Quartermaster issued about 30 grams of sugar,
made from sugar beets, about 1 ounce per day.
Telling stories was a great pastime in our first year of captivity. Most tales were chiefly
concerned with one's heroics in combat. At first it seemed to me that the tales were sticking
to the truth the first year but began to lie the second. It became impossible to distinguish
between truth and fiction. After six months as a POW, women were never the topic. During
the first year, we speculated when we would be freed and during the second year it was
politics and a lot of religion. I even started to go to Catholic Mass.
In the cold Poland winters our beds, 2 1/2 ft. x 6 ft., filled with straw, three beds one on top
of the other. Only one blanket per combat officer, which was totally inadequate for the
climate. Two officers were forced to sleep together and use the two blankets to keep warm.
We slept in our uniforms most of the winters to keep semi-warm.
A room 15' x 15' slept 26 officers. Our health, in spite of hardships; insufficient food; impure
water; poor sanitation facilities, remained surprisingly good even under these circumstances.
The plumbing or lack of plumbing was a constant source of concern to our American doctors.
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