Missing The Boat: War Stories of Thomas Alan Dirkin

19 Frozen Stiff What do you do all day in a prisoner of war camp? Work details were assembled daily, to complete a variety of menial tasks. Working in stone quarries was particularly banal. The climate in Poland saw temperatures drop close to zero Fahrenheit in the winter. My dad was very critical of the short British uniform jackets that finished at the waist - “bum starvers”. While they may have looked neat and attractive when presented by the uniform designer, These wonderful pictures of the inside of a prison hut, were drawn by Keith Hayes, a prisoner at Stalag VIII B. They were posted on the Lamsdorf Facebook page by his daughter Susan Haynes. She said that her father had been in handcuffs, but had lost so much weight that he was able to slip his hands free when the German guards were not looking and draw these pictures.