Stalag 17B
The Telegram Paul's parents
received on November 18, 1943 about him becoming a Prisoner of War. It
States:
Report received through The
International Red Cross states that your son Staff Sergeant Paul Spodar is a
Prisoner of War Of the German Government letter of Information follows from
Provost Marshal General =
ULIO Adjutant General
.
From January 1, 1944
GNEIXENDORF
TEILLAGER DER LUFTWAFFE
LAGERFUHRUNG
Camp Regulations
- Every German officer MUST be Saluted. When
saluting, hands out of pockets, cigarettes and pipes out of mouth.
- All German soldiers in charge of
administrative or guard functions (including auxiliary guards either in
uniform or in civil clothes with armbands) and all armed force officials,
if on duty, are superiors to the prisoners of war. Their orders have
to be executed unconditionally and immediately.
- Roll call is MILITARY DUTY! So blouse and
overcoat buttoned, military (not civil) cap and shoes!
- Everyone who at signal for roll call, does not fall
out immediately and directly shows disregard towards his
comrades already standing roll call.
- Only those having a special written
permit for a specified time from the doctor are allowed in the
barracks during roll call.
- While on parade keep quiet, and observe military
discipline ( No shouting, smoking, nor playing)!
- After roll call leave in full order ( No
running from Parade ground)!
- All Prisoners of war, except unable, have to carry
out works concerning their own benefit. Those refusing to work will be
forced to.
- Chow detail, when whistled out, have to fall
out immediately.
- Everybody to be delivered into infirmary, isolation,
or Hospital, as well as such detached to special works or services
have to give their names, second names and numbers to their barrack chief
who has to inform the respective German company chief.
- Prisoners of War in isolation are not
allowed to pay visits outside of isolation nor to receive visitors not
isolated.
- Those touching warning wire or entering area
warned not to will be fired on without warning.
- Hanging up laundry, blankets etc. On any barbed
wire is strictly prohibited. Hang then on the stakes destined for this
purpose.
- Misplacing Dog-tags has to be reported at
once.
- Prisoners of war who have to leave camp for any
reason (E.G. for hospital, delousing, works outside of camp such as
unloading red cross parcels) are not allowed more than one package of
cigarettes or tobacco. Excessive quantities will be confiscated.
- Address requirements, wishes ETC.
only to your barrack chief who will pass them on to the German company
chief.
CONSULTING
HOURS For German “Company Chiefs” only for 9 to 10 and 15 to 16
o’clock by barrack chiefs only.
(Gez.)
Kuhn
Oberst N
Kommandant
Paul’s first letter as a POW to his parents.
Nov. 7,1943
Dear
Mom,
Just want to let you know
that I’m a Prisoner of War and safe.
My crew and I are OK. I just
want you to know so that you won’t worry. Tell all my friends to write as much
as possible, but don’t expect too much mail from me.
We’re thankful that none of
us were killed.
lso to the Red Cross at home and they’ll give you all the
particulars. We’re sorry that it had to happen, but I guess that its for the
best. I went to church twice – once last Sunday and today. Give my love and
blessings to all and if you get this by Christmas – your son Paul
Stories From The Stalag
After a long and arduous
journey, the POW’s pulled into a small train station in Krems Austria. It was
dark and cold. The men were lead out of the train cars and placed into marching
columns. The Germans marched the weary prisoners a few miles into the night. At
the end of their march in the night the POW’s were met with harsh floodlights
and a foreboding landscape of Stalag 17B. The prisoners were quickly processed
and assigned to a barrack. When Paul got inside his new “home” there was no
place to sleep. The floor was full of mud. With no mattress, no blanket, again
no nothing, Paul spent his first night at Stalag 17 sleeping on top of a door
that was laying on the barrack floor.
They were awakened early the
next morning to roll call. It was a bleak day in more ways than one. The men had
to stand in formation for a long time before they were allowed to return to
their barracks. The men were issued a pallet to sleep on and a blanket. Paul and
the other POW’s returned to their barracks cold and hungry.
When a person is always
hungry their life becomes centered around food, so to for the men of Stalag 17B.
The POW’s received Red-Cross parcels that went directly to the kitchen. The
Germans would make mashed potatoes and add a can of processed beef to the
potatoes. At night the guards would come to the barracks with a wooden tub
filled with this mixture. The barrack chief would spoon it out to the men. The
men were lucky if once in a while they saw a red speck of the phony beef in that
tasteless mush. Along with the mashed potatoes a two kilo loaf of bread was
allotted for every 16 men. The bread was old and hard as a brick. It was so hard
you could knock a man out cold with it!
After a while the men
complained to the commandant and said they wanted ALL the meat from the Red
Cross parcels. So every Friday if the parcels were not “lost” the POW’s
would go to a warehouse where the Germans had the parcels. The guards would put
the packages on a table and open them up. All the tin cans were removed and
lined up on the table, the guard would take out his bayonet and went boom, boom,
boom putting a hole in each can. Their
reasoning was if a POW were going to escape he would want to carry tins of tuna
and Spam. However, in reality if a prisoner were going to try to escape he would
want to travel light. The best thing for him to take would be the chocolate D
bar made especially for the military. The D bar was a great source of energy. In
fact everything centered on the D bar and cigarettes as money of exchange for
the prisoners.
As the days wore on in their
incarceration the men settled down into a routine. In the morning two men would
take a wooden tub with a stick through it to carry the tub to the kitchen. At
the kitchen they were given warm water. The men used this water to make coffee
or to shave. If it was not their turn to carry the tub, Paul and Ed
Sexton would walk the compound. Paul, Beck, Jake and Dannaman
would pool their food together. They would save their potatoes, raisins, prunes
and sugar cubes and on Saturday they would have their “big meal. Usually Paul
was the cook for their little group. Paul would go to great lengths to try to
make the meal more palatable. He would trade cigarettes with this one RAF POW
who was sent out to work. While he was on a work detail he had a chance to
“trade” with the locals for things like onions and other foodstuff the
prisoners could not get. Paul would try to doctor up the Spam any way he could.
If he had sugar and fruit he would make a glaze for the Spam and the men said
that it tasted pretty good.
One day the four guys decided
to do something different. They said that who ever got the first parcel and
whatever was in their parcel would make the meal. Jake was the first one to get
his parcel. As decided he had to make the meal from the contents of his package.
He presented the meal to the guys and they dug in. The taste brought tears to
the men’s eyes… and smoke out of their ears! In his parcel Jake got what he loved most, those hot little
jalapeno peppers. Jake loved those peppers and he felt that the other guys would
love them too. So when he made their meal Jake put those hot firecracker peppers
on everything. As Paul Beck and Dannaman were trying to put out the fire in
their mouths Jake was in seventh heaven licking and eating those peppers. That
was the first and last time they let Jake cook.
Bang Goes The….
One evening Paul walked over
to another barracks to visit a friend. Paul was sitting on the top bunk with his
legs dangling over the side talking to his friend.
They were having a nice conversation when all of a sudden there was an
explosion! Paul dove to the floor for cover trying to crawl under a bunk but
there was another guy crawling under him going for the same cover. Sirens were
wailing and there was smoke everywhere. The RAF was making frequent bombing
raids near Stalag 17 at that time. Paul thought to himself, God they dropped
bombs on us!
The smoke started to clear
and one by one the men came out from their cover. Men were calling out, what
happened? What happened? Paul gingerly got out from under the bunk. He looked up
and saw a real young guy named Brownie sitting on the floor with his legs
straight out with a dazed expression looking at his toes. All you could see was
two big eyes staring out of a soot blackened face. He was covered in the stuff.
The last time Paul had seen
Brownie he was sitting on a three-legged stool by the stove. The men tried to
come up with ways to improve the stale hard bread they were given. Brownie was
trying to make toast. He had a piece of barbed wire holding a slice of bread
over a meager fire in the stove. The
POW’s had so little fuel (coal) but plenty of soap. The men found out that
soap burned so they would use that whenever possible and save their ration of
fuel for heat or to cook that Saturday meal. The soap didn’t make a big fire
but just enough to make toast. Because of incomplete combustion the soap barely
burned, however it created a lot of soot. This soot built up in the chimney and
finally blocked it. With nowhere to go the stove decided to blow up in poor
Brownie’s face. The blast knocked Brownie head over heels about 6 feet from
where he was sitting.
The Compass
Paul lost a lot of things on Black Thursday his one boot, bomber jacket, gun, and his freedom but he didn’t loose his little compass. The compass was just one of those dime store compasses that kids play with, to Paul it was his secret ticket to freedom. When he was first captured Paul agonized over where he could hide his precious compass. He came up with all sorts of plans like putting it in his mouth with the idea if they asked him to open his mouth he would swallow it and retrieve it later once he “passed” it. Then he thought that maybe he could hide it between his butt cheeks. He vacillated between the two ideas not knowing what to do while he waited in his cell to be interrogated.
Finally the time came and a
German soldier took Paul to a room where at first they patted him down and asked
him a few questions. They never felt the compass. He thought great no problem
now. However as Paul was congratulating himself, one of the German privates told
him to get undressed. It was now or never, he had to choose one of his plans
fast. So he popped the little compass into his mouth and got undressed. The
first thing they made him do was bend over and spread his cheeks, he was so glad
he didn’t choose his second option. However as with anything you place in your
mouth, be it food or a little compass the glands in the mouth don’t know the
difference and started producing saliva. So Paul bent over and his mouth was
filling up with saliva. He pursed his lips even harder trying to stem the flow
to no avail. As he started to drool he did a last ditch attempt to stop the
flow. He slurped! The noise caught everyone’s attention. Paul thought to
himself this is it they are going to take it (the compass) away from me. Paul
looked at the soldier and the soldier looked at him and neither one said
anything. Long moments passed when finally the soldier told him to put his
clothes back on.
As in all Stalags the POW’s had an escape committee. This intelligence service helped the men escape. They would use camp money and connections to buy civilian clothes, maps and make ID’s. In the course of everything that Paul went through he still managed to hang onto his little compass. Paul had been a POW for about eight or nine months when the escape committee approached him. Somehow they found out about his little compass. They asked him to give it to them. Paul told them that he wanted to escape too. They told him that he had to take his turn, that some of the men that were waiting to escape were there in camp 2 years. The committee told him that when his time came that they would give him a magnetized needle! Paul said “ A magnetized needle! He had enough of a hard time finding his way around his hometown of Cleveland Ohio and he was suppose to run around a strange hostile country with a magnetized needle trying to figure out which way was north or south… NO WAY!
It was wintertime. The
compound was bleak, freezing with even the snow looking gray. As was a regular
ritual of the Germans, the soldiers would call for a hand search of the
prisoners. As the POW’s lined up outside the barracks in the snow, Paul put on
his Serbian military cap someone had given him. He took his little compass out
of his pocket and placed it inside the rim of the cap. They stood in the cold
snow for a long time as one by one they were hand searched. Finally the Germans
were done with the men and they could go back inside their barracks. In defiance
to the Germans someone threw a snowball and a snowball fight began. In the
ensuing ruckus Paul reached up for his compass… it was gone. He went on his
hands and knees searching for his little compass in the snow. He never found it.
Paul's POW ID
Its
All Relative…
One day Paul was just hanging out on his bunk when in came a new POW. As
he was being shown around and instructed on the rules of the camp someone called
out ‘Hey Spodar”, the new POW stopped in his tracks and turned when Paul
responded. Paul saw this bedraggled airman in a torn up jumpsuit start to walk
towards him. As the airman got to Paul’s bunk he said “My bombardier was
Mike Spodar any relation?” Paul said “Yea, that’s my cousin.” The airman
told Paul that they lost several from his crew but Lt. Spodar made it and was
captured when he was, being an officer he was sent to another Stalag.
Once a month in their Red Cross parcel they got 2 postcards and 2 pieces
of paper. Paul used one of his precious pieces of paper and wrote a letter to
Mike to let him know that he also was captured. Paul worried that he never got a
response from Mike. It wasn’t until he was liberated and was at
This is Paul's cousin Mike Spodar
The Mystery Man
It bothered Paul for many
years that he didn’t find out who that man in barracks 34 was, finally he got
his answer. The man was known to the Americans and Germans as Staff Sergeant
Harry Vozic a B17 crewman. Many POWs speculated that Vozic was a German plant
and in fact in the movie Stalag 17 they portrayed him as such. However
that was not his real name. His real identity was Dr. Rueben Rabinovitch. He was
a Canadian Jewish doctor who came to study neuro-surgery in
Webmaster note: If you would like to read more about Dr. Rabinovitch go to: http://www.wepledgeallegiance.com/MysteryMan.htm
The Hairs Have it!
The Germans didn’t offer
much in the way for personal hygiene for the POWs. However, someone (in
the German army) got the bright idea that to combat the flea and bed bug
infestations of the barracks and POWs by cutting their hair. The Germans chose
the worst time of year to start the project… winter.
The men came out from the
barbers with bald heads. It was winter, it was cold. Many men didn’t have
hats. To combat the loss of body heat through their heads, the men resorted to
wearing rags like babushkas (scarves as hats). They would be out standing in the
compound looking like a bunch of women.
One day the guys of barracks
7 decided to revolt against the haircuts. They took the margarine that they had
and rubbed it into their hair. Next they went outside their barracks and grabbed
a handful of sand and mixed that into their hair. They slicked back the gummy mess
and went to the barber.
The Germans had about 3
barbers cutting all of them men’s hair. The barbers had big heavy industrial
hair clippers. One by one the POWs got their hair cut. You could hear the zip,
zip of the clippers as they went along. Finally the guys from barracks 7 were
up. The barbers started cutting their hair and instead of the nice zip zip sound
it was a brrrrrr—snap! The barbers looked at their clippers Vas is dat?!! Mine
machine nix poot!! The grease and sand from the POW’s heads gummed up broke
the teeth on the clippers. The Germans started to grab the guys by the greased
hair and put them to one side. They were going to put them in solitary
confinement for breaking the clippers. However the Germans only had 3 pens for
solitary so only a few from the large group of guys were sent to the pen. The
Germans go the message and stopped cutting their hair.
Get
Shorty
For the most part Paul’s
barrack mates got along pretty well considering the kind of living conditions
they were thrust in. The men became an extended family to each other and in
every family there has to be the instigator of trouble. Shorty was that man.
Shorty was a balding blond man with a chip on his shoulder longer than he was
tall. For some reason he decided that he did not like Jake Martinez and during
the day would pick on him and call him derogatory names. Jake would return the
“endearments” with his own choice of words. However during the first minutes
after lights out the real fun would begin.
Shorty had a top bunk and
Jake was underneath him in the middle bunk. Paul was in the next bunk over with
Beck, no one used the bottom bunks. Just
after lights out the men could hear someone laughing followed by someone
swearing every night. This was Shorty and Jake. When the lights went out Shorty
would start by laughing heh, heh, heh all the while positioning his butt over
the side of the bunk and letting loose with some noxious flatulence into
Jake’s face. This bickering and nocturnal farting went on for several weeks.
One day Jake decided to take
matters into his own hands. He told Paul “This is it I’m going to fix that
SOB Shorty once and for all.” Jake got a wooden slat from one of the bottom
bunks. The slat was about 3 feet long 2 inches wide and an inch thick. Jake
preceded to tell Paul his plan. That night when everyone was getting ready for
bed Paul could hardly contain himself. Beck jumped in his bunk oblivious to the
goings on that Jake planned. Paul got into his bunk and had to put his pillow
over his face to stop laughing in anticipation of what was to come.
By now everyone in the
barrack was used to the routine of Shorty laughing and Jake swearing before
falling off to sleep. The lights go out and Shorty started his nightly routine
of gassing out Jake. There was the heh, heh, heh this time followed by a whoosh,
splat, and oh, oh, oh, groaning. At this point Paul busts out laughing followed
by the others. Jake smacked Shorty
in the bare ass with the bed plank complete with splinters. Shorty sported an 8 inch red welt on his butt. Shorty got the
message and laid off Jake.
Now that Shorty had a semi truce with Jake he turned his sights on a big 6 foot Swede named Rasmissen called Raz for short. Shorty started calling the Swede all kinds of names, at first the big Swede just ignored him but finally one day Shorty finally found the right button to push. As Shorty was giving him cat calls from his top bunk Rasmissen jumped off his bed and stood on the bottom plank of the grouping of Shorty’s bunk. The Swede reached up and grabbed Shorty by the shirt at the same time Shorty took a wild swing at the Swede. Raz pulled back to avoid the punch never letting go of Shorty’s shirt. Both came tumbling off the bunks and hit the floor with a loud ka-thunk! Paul had a ring side seat being in the next set of bunks next to Shorty. All Paul saw was the two of them come flying off the bunks to land sprawled on the floor. Shorty was not moving and the Swede was getting ready to sucker punch Shorty in the face. Paul yelled to him “Raz you’re going to kill him,” as Raz was going to finish his punch, Paul implored, “ Hey don’t you’ll be put up for quarters. Raz thought better of it and let go of Shorty. Shorty was now alert and Paul threatened him ‘Shorty if you don’t stop this shit I’ll hit you so hard your nose will meet the back of your head and if I don’t someone else will.” From then on Shorty stayed low keyed with the guys in the barracks.
War is Hell…The Dark Abyss
War is hell. We tend to romanticize WWII, yes it was a time of great patriotism and the world banded together for a common cause. We sent our young men far away to fight for us which they did gladly and willingly. However the costs were high, not only in the loss of life and property but a loss of one’s self. These boys were exposed to things that No one should see. Yet they did and they continued to fight for our freedom. For some the war threw them into a dark abyss that they could not get out of. Unfortunately war is a necessary evil. Using a quote that my nephew, a Captain in the Air Force always says, Freedom is NEVER free…
Nightly, after Jake and Shorty were done with their fight another kid 4-5 bunks down from Paul would start his nightly whimper. He’d wait 5-10 minutes maybe a little longer and in a plaintive voice “I want my mama, I want my mama, I hate this place, I want to go home, I want to go home, I want my mama. And he would say that over and over like a mantra. The guys in the barracks were trying to fall asleep knowing in the back of their minds they wanted to go home too. Finally someone couldn’t take in any more and would say, put a pillow on the SOB’s head, put soap in his mouth. Someone please shut him up.
We had a couple of guys go
nuts. And its bad.--- They had bad bad cases you know. They were like psychos
already. And one was so bad that the American doctor, they had another small
hospital outside the barracks somewhere and the American doctor talked with the
German doctor to ah… let him be up there but with his friend and his friend
had to watch him like 24 hours a day. So they went up there on the hill or where
ever the hell it was. They were there only a couple of days seemed like the kid
was getting better ya know… and getting out of it. One day he told his buddy
to go get him a glass of water or something. I didn’t get the full story.
While his buddy went for the water he takes off gets down to the in the yard and
up on the fence. Those krauts didn’t yell halt! Bang they shot him… killed
him. And some time you lay a couple of hours before especially with them
Italians or the others they (Germans) didn’t give a shit about those. They’d
lay there maybe they weren’t fatally wounded but you bled to death. So I
don’t know…
The Radio
In their barracks they had a cracker jack radioman Denardi. In civilian life Denardi did electronic stuff and the army air corps utilized his expertise and made him a radioman. Denardi built a radio from the traded pieces and parts. The radio represented a precious link to the outside world and was protected at all costs. This radio was constantly moved around and drove the German’s crazy trying to find it. They knew the POW’s had one because the prisoners sometimes knew more than they did. The guys kept track of troop movements and used red and blue string that represented the Allied troops and the German troops. The German officers would come in and see the red and blue string placed on a make shift map. One German officer finally said this must be real that these men can’t be fooling around. To the bane of the Germans they never did find that radio. However when the men had to leave Stalag 17 to start the march, the POW’s left the Germans a gift… When the last man closed the door to the barrack for the final time there sitting on the little table in plain sight was the radio!
As I was listening to my
father on the audiotape, he was talking about camp life I heard a click then
nothing… I fast-forward still nothing. So I eagerly flipped the tape
over…silence! Dad and I never knew that the tape accidentally clicked off. All
those stories, nothing! So this Easter when I go visit my parents I will be
armed with my tape recorder and have him finish the story. When I do I will post
the final chapter, Life at Stalag 17 B and the march.
February 2007
I did get to hear the final chapter of my father's time as a POW. I have added several new stories. As I transcribe the tape I will be adding more. Also I am learning other stories from cousins i.e. about Mike Spodar then asked my Dad what happened so now you know the story.
Sharon
If you would like more stories about Stalag 17 PBS's show History Detectives did an episode about a Stalag 17 portrait. You can watch the episode on the web or download a PDF hardcopy. go to: http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/710_stalag.html
Sharon 2010