A
collection of stories, photos, art and information on Stalag Luft I
If you are a former Prisoner of War or a next of
kin of a POW, we invite you to sign and leave your email address so others that
come may find you. Please mention camp, compound, barracks and room numbers if
possible.
My name is Roland H. Martin. I was a
POW in Stalag Luft 1 from November 1943 to evacuation in 1945. I was in
the North compound during that time and have a memory which I will share
with you. Upon reading "Speeches at a Conference in Barth", Sept.8,2001,
I was stuck by the short narrative by Irvin Stovroff: the separation of
Jewish POW's at Stalag Luft 1 in 1945. This is my experience on that
date.
We were ordered out of the barracks but not for the usual snap role
call. At one end of the parade ground several small tables, as I
recall card table size, with an orderly seated and an officer flanked by
an armed guard standing behind each table. We were formed into lines
facing each table and one by one each man at the head of the line was
ordered to take four or five steps forward and clearly sing out name,
rank and religious affiliation(!). This was then checked against our dog
tags: C-Catholic, P-Protestant, H- Jewish (how many religious
designation we had I don't know). As we stepped up the C's the P's
the others, were ordered to stand in a group to the left. H's responding
Hebrew or Jew were put in a group to the right. In my line, several men
behind me was a Jewish officer, tan as a lifeguard, shaved head and his
most distinguishing feature was a long flowing mustache which oiled or
waxed into upcurling ends. It was one of those things you could do
with time on your hands and little better to do. By the time he
got to the head of the line he had figured out what the line was for, as
had the rest of us, and we waited for him to be marched to the forlorn
group marked for nothing good. His name I have forgotten but it was
unmistakably Jewish and was indelibly printed on his dog tags; let me
call him Morgenstern, also imprinted on his tag was that same letter "H"
which all his Jewish comrades had been required spoke out. Morganstern
stepped up and never missing a beat called out Morganstern, Captain,
Hindu. At least three Germans listened to him, looked at him and
the one at the desk checked his dog tag and ordered him to join the
group on the LEFT! As Irvin Stovroff told the little known
or remembered story of the "separation of the Jews" we know they were
held in a separate barracks but the war came to a close before Hitler's
orders could be carried out. To my knowledge this story has never been
told, except by "Morgenstern" who must have recited it more than a few
times to friends and family.
