by John McMahon
Humour, adventure, romance, laughter, Almost A Lifetime is a compelling page turner. He gives a very detailed account of life inside Stalag VIIIB and the march from the camp in Jan/Feb 1945. This mesmerizing biographical tale is at once engulfing and captivating. An unknown woman makes all of the difference between survival and death as a young man's spring time journey is engulfed in flames and becomes a terrible trek through a snowy landscape in the frozen winter of 1945. A profound testimony to the resiliance of the human spirit, this book has found its way into the hearts of multitudes as thousands of letters to the author testify.
ISBN: 0-96844-540-3
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by Arthur Evans
This is not just another war book. Neither is Arthur Evans’ account of the five years he was incarcerated in Stalag VIIIB just one of those epic, gung-ho tales involving tunnels, wooden horses and Great Escapes. No, Sojourn in Silesia is a prisoner of war story with a difference.
It’s a moving, yet vivid, account of a quieter sort of heroism - perhaps one that most former POWs will relate to - of the day to day struggle to survive despite nearly starving to death in sub-freezing conditions amid the cruel indifference of the German guards. How he and his colleagues, with one exception, escaped death in a pit explosion which killed almost two hundred miners; and of his connection with Wing Commander Douglas Bader's plan to escape by 'plane from Gleiwitz aerodrome.
Not that it doesn't have its lighter moments. The former Irish Guardsman's wry, humourous anecdotes about the small, day-to-day events of camp life betray his talent for recognising the absurdity of the human condition. And there's a real life Good Soldier Schweik, and a lovelorn chap who drives everyone in his hut senseless by playing the same romantic record over and over again.
Thousands of British men were in Stalag VIIIB, and Evans’ heartwarming, poignant but realistic account will strike a chord with them in a way that Steve McQueen's exploits with barbed-wire fences and motorcycles never could.
To order this book, click here.
by Sean Longden
At 2am on the morning of the 3rd of June 1940, General Harold Alexander searched along the quayside, holding onto his megaphone and called “Is anyone there? Is anyone there?” before turning his boat back towards England. Tradition tells us that the dramatic events of the evacuation of Dunkirk, in which 300,000 BEF servicemen escaped the Nazis, was a victory gained from the jaws of defeat. For the first time, rather than telling the tale of the 300,000 who escaped, Sean Longden reveals the story of the 40,000 men sacrificed in the rearguard battles. On the beaches and sand dunes, besides the roads and amidst the ruins lay the corpses of hundreds who had not reached the boats. Elsewhere, hospitals full of the sick and wounded who had been left behind to receive treatment from the enemy’s doctors. And further afield – still fighting hard alongside their French allies - was the entire 51st Highland Division, whose war had not finished as the last boats slipped away. Also scattered across the countryside were hundreds of lost and lonely soldiers. These ‘evaders’ had also missed the boats and were now desperately trying to make their own way home, either by walking across France or rowing across the channel. The majority, however, were now prisoners of war who were forced to walk on the death marches all the way to the camps in Germany and Poland, where they were forgotten until 1945. Praise for Sean Longden 'Forget The Great Escape. Forget The Colditz Story. This is the real thing.' Les Allan, founder of the ‘National Ex-Prisoner of War Association.’ ‘A powerful indictment of the crimes perpetrated against men who had surrendered in good faith....Never again, after Mr Longden's excellent work, shall we see the plight of POWs as anything other than unremittingly monstrous.' Andrew Roberts, Daily Mail ‘Longden’s a master at building the big picture detail-by-detail, using veterans’ memories to good effect, creating an absorbing history of the period in question. He’s a historian to read, regardless of theme.' Sue Baker, Publishing News
Published by Constable, May 2008. Price: around £12 (varies depending on supplier)
The Imperial War Museum in London has a large number of books by former POWs at Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf in its library.
Follow this link:
Various authors
A compilation, by The Royal Airforce's ex POW Association ( Australian Division ), of the stories of twenty-two Allied airmen shot down in World War II over Europe, their survival in prisoner of war camps, their attempts to escape, and their final liberation.
This link will tell you more about thebook and how you can buy it:
by James Coulter
When, at the outbreak of the second world war, in response to an appeal from his bishop, Devonian churchman Geoffrey Kestell-Cornish volunteered to become an army chaplain, he was not to know that virtually his entire career as such would be spent as a prisoner of war behind the barbed wire of Stalag VIIIB at Lamsdorf in Poland. In 1944 he was transferred to a POW working camp at Sosnowitch. In January 1945, with the Red Army making rapid advances into Poland, the inmates of E5-38 at Sosnowitch were forced to evacuate. Liberation this was not but the start of an epic journey of some 400 miles on foot from Poland throughout Czechoslovakia into Southern Germany. Written in pencil in a tattered school exercise book, Padre Geoffrey Kestell-Cornish's day by day account of the long march is a poignant tale of dogged courage and endurance in the face of grinding adversity when the human spirit was often tested to its limits and beyond.
Guests of Hitler's Reich is published and distributed by James Coulter in paperback format: 210x148mm with 97 pages, 12 b/w photos, 3 line figures and a map at £8.25 from booksellers or by post within the UK at £9 from the publisher. To order, contact James Coulter at somers3328@aol.com
by John Castle
('John Castle' was actually two former prisoners, Ronald Payne and John Garrod)
With many thanks to Stephen G. Esrati for the review.
Charles Coward was a British army regimental sergeant major who was
taken prisoner by the Germans in 1940. By insisting that the Germans
treat him in accordance with the Hague and Geneva conventions, he won
favorable treatment as a senior non-commissioned officer and as a
trusty. He constantly escaped, citing his rights under the convention
for the right of escape and pointing out that the conventions limit
punishment to a month of solitary confinement.
He took it upon himself to assert the rights and privileges of his
men to the Germans.
Held first at a Stalag VIIIb at Lamsdorf, he was, at last, assigned to Auschwitz.
During his frequent walks into town under supervision of a German
NCO, he managed to buy guns and explosives which were intended for
the Polish resistance but which Coward decided to hand over to the
Jews in Birkenau. (Coward's account of these trips to town completely
baffled the unbelieving German defense lawyers at a later war-crimes
trial.)
He also worked out a scheme whereby he would buy Jewish corpses from
the Germans which he used to help an equal number of live Jews to
escape. The currency for all this was coffee, cigarettes, and other
things that he persuaded his British comrades to give up for a good
cause.
He complained through his chain of command about IG Farben's
mistreatment of Jewish slave labourers and later testified at the
war-crimes trial of the Farben criminals against Dr. Duerrfeld.
You will probably find a copy of this book by doing a search on the internet.
The book was made into a film, quite good - but leaving out much in the real story.
PS Have a look at this link: http://www.mqmagazine.co.uk/issue-17/p-47.php
by John McCallum
At the age of nineteen, Glasgow-born John McCallum signed up as a Supplementary Reservist in the Signal Corps. A little over a year later, he was in France, working frantically to set up communication lines as Europe once more hurtled towards war. Wounded and captured at Boulogne, he was sent to Stalag VIIIB, together with his brother, Jimmy, and friend Joe Harkin.
Ingenious and resourceful, the three men set about planning their escape. With the help of Traudl, a local girl whom John had met while working in nearby Bad Karlsbrunn, they put their plan into action. In an astonishing coincidence, they passed through the town of Sagan, around which the seventy-six airmen of the Great Escape were being pursued and caught. However, unlike most of those other escapees, John, Jimmy and Joe eventually made it to freedom.
You will probably find a copy of this book by doing a search on the internet.
by Oliver Clutton-Brock
RAF Bomber Command Prisoners-of-War in Germany 1939-1945
This extensive book is divided into two parts. The first, which has eighteen chapters, deals with German PoW camps as they were opened, in chronological order and to which the Bomber Command PoWs were sent. Each chapter includes anecdotes and stories of the men in the camps – capture, escape, illness, and murder – and illustrates the awfulness of captivity even in German hands. Roughly one in every twenty captured airmen never returned home.
The first part also covers subjects such as how the PoWs were repatriated during the war; how they returned at war’s end; the RAF traitors; the war crimes; and the vital importance of the Red Cross. The style is part reference, part gripping narrative, and the book will correct many historical inaccuracies, and includes previously unpublished photographs.
The second part comprises an annotated list of ALL 10,994 RAF Bomber Command airmen who were taken prisoner, together with an extended introduction.
The two parts together are the fruit of exhaustive research and provide an important contribution to our knowledge of the war and a unique reference work not only for the serious RAF historian but for the ex-PoWs themselves and their families and anyone with an interest in the RAF in general and captivity in particular.
To order this book follow this link:
http://www.grubstreet.co.uk/index.htm
ISBN: 1 904010 35 0
by Cyril Hamersma
In 1939 a young man, who'd lived a sheltered life, was called up to serve for his country. A minor health problem had prevented Hamersma from attaining the education he deserved; and anyway, his youth was spent in the years of The Depression. Nobody of his age had experienced the world. Traveling to 'the Holy Land' and Greece, seeing the sights we now regard as tourist spots, learning the ways of the world; it was exciting and stimulating. Hamersma sketched at every possible moment, as a photographer records every nuance of a scene.
As an orderly in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) Hamersma witnessed the ravages of war first-hand. Yet within months, he and many thousands of troops were captured by the Germans and shuttled, in death-defying conditions, to Stalag VIIIB. It was four years before he could return home. At the time, of course, nobody knew when the war would end, if ever. Sketching and painting on any scrap of paper helped him and provided interest to his fellow prisoners but no artwork survived when they were all released.
For forty years he remained quiet and humble about his traumatic experience as a POW, but in 1984 he was able to express himself through recreating the drawings and sketches that had been so cruelly lost when the prisoners were liberated and the camp dismantled. Unable to keep all these new sketches he took photos to make into a slide show and he made a tape recording to accompany the slides.
This book puts all the material together so that - as Hamersma said was his reason for uncovering the painful memories - it may help others.
ISBN 0 95444 659 3 This is a limited edition and all copies are now sold.
The publisher address for special requests is:
PO BOX 4065
BRAINTREE
ESSEX
CM7 9RJ
This publication, like all Writing Life® books, is a self-funding, non-profitmaking venture.
http://www.enjoybraintreedistrict.co.uk/museum/aboutmus.html
edited by JE Holliday, J E and DA Radke
Stories of the RAAF POWs of Lamsdorf including chronicles of their 500 Mile Trek. Compiled for the Lamsdorf RAAF POWs Association, Queensland, 1992.Includes a roll call. Record of the experiences of 84 Australian Airmen who lived together in one barrack in Stalag 8B/344, Lamsdorf. These stories have been written by the men themselves.
It's hard to find copies of this book, but do an internet search and see what comes up.
by Len Williamson
Len was sent to Stalag VIIIB and worked at a sawmill, E119 Mankendorf (Mankovice). This is the story of his experiences during the war, from the time he joined up until his release.
The book might be difficult to find now, but do an internet search - copies turn up on ebay from time to time, and some second-hand bookshops might have it.
Braunton, Devon: Merlin Books, 1988. ISBN: 0-86303-432-2