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Show LE LIE ERIC TEA DALE ugu t 16, 2001 LE : Oh yeah. We were protected by the Geneva onvention as far as treatment of prisoners. They couldn t do what they liked with us. We couldn't say what we wanted them but we could say a certain amount of stuff without fear of any reprisals- like when I said to this officer 'Nix electric. I'm not going to work on electric." But, oh, they were treated rotten. They weren't allowed to write home. They didn't get any Red Cross parcels like we used to get. There were some English parcels, American parcels, Canadian parcels. It was about one a month, or something, but we used to get them. There was a truckload that used to come up five months later in January. I can't remember the date, but it was in January. WIN: January of '45? LES: But it was in January. There was snow on the ground. And we were told to form up outside; outside the camp this was. It was a camp that we were staying in. "Get all your kits. Get whatever you can carry. We' re leaving." The reason being that the Russian advance had started, and they were pushing the Germans back, and they were getting near to where we were. They didn't want us to fall into Russian hands, so they decided to take us away. I got all my gear on, all my kit, and my grey coat, and my spare pair of boots around my neck. And I looked at this accordion. And I thought, boy, I brought this from Italy to Germany, and now we're leaving here. I can't leave it. It was only a small accordion. I put it over my shoulder. I was, you know, fairly strong, although we could do with more food than what we got. And they walked us off. Now, we're a big column of guys, about 300 of us, and I'm right at the back of the 33 |
