American POWs In Europe During The Second World War

(Gallery by Brett Duke, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)

Museum Exhibit Shows How World War II POWs Relied On Creativity In Captivity -- NOLA

When Allied soldiers and airmen were thrown into German prison camps during World War II, they entered a grim world. Armed guards in towers kept watch over the camps, which were encircled by electrified barbed-wire fences. The captives slept on hard, wooden bunks in drafty barracks, and often dropped substantial amounts of weight – some to the point of emaciation – because of the meager and unpalatable food options. About 1,120 soldiers died.

Life there was tough, as “Guests of the Third Reich,” the current exhibit at the National World War II Museum, shows. But the desperate conditions forced the inmates to improvise to make life bearable and to ward off a form of claustrophobia that Chester “Chet” Strunk of Houston called barbed-wire fever.

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My Comment: Life was definitely not easy .... but somehow many survived.