Missing The Boat: War Stories of Thomas Alan Dirkin

29 trying to eat, hundreds of flies would want a piece of the stale bread that was key to my dad’s survival. The daily routine was a magnified version of the technique explained at the picnic. Get the bread close to the mouth, blow hard and take a bite. This way, only a minimal number of flies would enter the mouth when eating. The Russian POWs There were a variety of nationalities imprisoned at Stalag VIIIB. Some were Russian. As the war continued on both the Western and Eastern fronts, there was particular hatred for the Russians by the Germans. While none of the prisoners ate well or had satisfactory living conditions, my dad said that the Russians were treated without mercy, and were kept in isolation in their own prison huts. They were being intentionally starved to death. In the winter, the huts had no heat. When a Russian soldier died, it was not uncommon for a starving man to quickly cut open the body and cut out the liver. My dad described how the warm organ would steam in the cold air as hungry mouths devoured the flesh of their comrade.