Christmas 1944

By Robert Abrahamson

My base camp was Stalag 2B. We were sent out from there to the farm in Burzen. All privates had to work but NCO's were not required to do so. I am glad I had to work because the main Stalag was boring with nothing to do all day.

In 1944, we had been on the farm for nearly a year and had worked with the German civilians in the field. On Christmas Eve they were invited to our barn. The whole town came over in the evening. We had no food to give them so we drank erzats coffee anyway. We had put up a make shift Christmas tree decorated with anything colorful we could find. At least it reminded us of home. We drank coffee and sang Carols `til about 11 pm. The Germans sang their carols in German and we sang ours in English. It was an enjoyable evening and broke up the monotony. The Germans were all elderly and had sons and daughters in the service. After they had realized we were not all gangsters or cowboys they became more friendly towards us.  I guess it was the influence of American movies.

Christmas 1944

By Robert Abrahamson

Former POW

Published in U.S. Legacies December 2004