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[Page 36]
the camp was built and barbed wire placed around it, it was used for prisoners of different nationalities, As time went on the Germans started to put prisoners on farms and in the factories to work, and this sort of labour proved a very good thing to the Germans, and instead of seeing thousands of men in these camps, only a few hundred men would be seen.
When a man was taken out on transport to a farm for instance, he would come under the command of a German N.C.O., whose duty it was to look after all the prisoners in one large area. Any complaints from the farmers or other employers about the prisoners would go straight to the N.C.O. in charge of that particular area, and some of these N.C.O.s after receiving a complaint from those employing the men, would ill-treat the prisoners making their lives almost unbearable. Men would run away from their jobs and come back to the camp, the punishment for which would be seven days close confinement in cells, and perhaps sent back on the same job. On some of these jobs, the British prisoners had a lot of trouble in getting their parcels, and when they did arrive, it would be was discovered that they had been opened and some of the contents taken out..
There was a paper printed for the prisoners of war called the "Continental Times" containing articles in favour of the Germans, but most Englishmen looked upon it as a joke and called it the "Continental Liar".
"I am a Kriegsgefangener,
I wish that I were dead,
Its all through drinking sauer-kraut
And eating mouldy bread.