Harry Fridkin
Wartime memories of life as a prisoner of war.
Becoming a prisoner of war
Harry Fridkin, a driver with 211 Company, RASC, 2nd Armoured Division was captured on 22 April 1941 along with 10,000 others, they were transported by cattle trucks in appalling conditions. Squashed 55 men to each truck and with only a jerry can for a toilet, the journey was horrendous. Harry ended up in POW camp Stalag 18A, Wolfsberg, Austria where he spent the next two years.
Harry was able to avoid hard labour by becoming an interpreter. Although he could speak some German, he acquired an English/German dictionary and became proficient in the language. This had the added bonus of being able to get him out of some tricky situations and he was also able to get additional perks as the Germans thought he was a Sergeant! Being Jewish, Harry faced additional danger and the St Christopher he wore around his neck (a present from his wife) saved him on one occasion.
Life in the camp
Harry recalls how well off the British were compared to the Russian POWs and how they received orders from England ‘to keep ourselves clean and tidy’. When 4000 Russian prisoners arrived at the camp Harry recounts:
'They were in a terrible condition; half starved and badly dressed for the winter. When we saw their condition, we wanted to do something and gave them chocolate, cigarettes and food from our Red Cross parcels.’ We decided to make a Gala Day for them and the Germans didn’t object. The entertainment included horse racing- charged at two cigarettes a go and ‘hoopla’ – throwing a ball into a hole. Someone dressed as an RSM and the orchestra from the concert party, with instruments provided by the Red Cross, led the procession. The chariot was pulled around the camp compound by four men, dressed as gladiators, collecting cigarettes and chocolate to give to the Russian POWs. The chariot was in fact a cart normally used to carry rubbish around the compound. It was covered with cardboard from Red Cross parcels and painted by the POWs. The cigarettes and chocolate were then thrown over the fence to the Russians.'
Harry has an extraordinary record of his time as a POW because he was able to bribe the guards who took photographs of British activity. Costumes were made from paper and other oddments although he recalls the Red Cross providing some clothing. Harry believes that this sort of activity helped to keep up morale.
Escaping the camp
Towards the end of the war Harry describes how he and two Regimental Sergeant Majors 'slipped off' whilst marching towards Munich. They boarded a train full of German soldiers but were able to convince them they were secret troops fighting alongside them. Harry had been able to hear English and German radio broadcasts by bribing an elderly German woman who had a radio with his chocolate ration and knew that Herr Goebbels had announced the 'secret troops' to the German people.
‘The first thing I did was to phone my wife’
Having made it to Munich 'which was bombed to hell' Harry and his two companions were fed and clothed by the Americans. They were then flown to Brussels and from there to England. Harry says, 'the first thing I did was to phone my wife – she had the surprise of her life! She couldn’t believe it!' Before he could return home, harry had to spend some weeks convalescing as he weighed only 8 stone. Summing up his war, Harry says 'war is not a good thing and I would say that I was very lucky to be able to do what I did and get away with it because there are lots of other things that happened to people'.