Suicide in POW Camp

Interviewer: When the prisoners, the people your, your comrades died in prison, did they have any ceremony when they were being buried?

It all depends. I was in different camps, it all depends you know. The military camps were much more organized. You know, there was style and respect. But then the civilian camp was nothing, you know.

Interviewer: How did they bury them? What did they do?

It was a sack over the head and a sack over the feet and dump you in the hole, you know.

Interviewer: That's it?

Oh yeah.

Interviewer: No respect at all for them? Now with all this treatment in there, you'd think that a lot of people would consider suicide. Did many people commit suicide?

I, I heard about it and I knew that the, on the last day before we were freed actually. See we had boreholes we called it, you know were we used for latrines you know.

Interviewer: Yeah.

It was just drilled in, into the sand and there was about two feet wide I guess, and there was one man missing on the appel for the night and that man was found in a borehole. He drowned himself in the latrine actually.

Interviewer: Now I would think that a lot of people would consider committing suicide . . .

Oh I think there was quite a few, you know but . . .

Interviewer: They considered it, but . . .

Well yeah . . .