Poor Conditions of Starvation and Disease

Up in the front lines, we were okay. We got food like the Germans did, but later I near starved in the prison camp, when I went to the prison camp. All we got was turnips and soup and lots of tea and coffee. It wasn’t regular coffee; it was like (inaudible). And you know the worst thing was louse, lice, and dirt and we weren’t separated from the Russians that were in one part of the prisoner of war camp, hundreds and thousands of them and they were dying. They never had no inoculation for lice, there is a disease they spread, and we did and that saved a lot of us. And they were tough, they were very tough. I’ll tell you one time. They bring them in by truckloads from the front, and this one Russian just lost his leg maybe the week before or days before and they helped him into there. The next morning I seen him stumping around the prisoner of war camp. They whittled a stump; they took a stump, they whittled that down and they put old straps and strapped him and he was walking on that leg. I don’t know how long he lasted but it is just amazing to see him get around there.