大象传媒

This interview took place in 2000.

"I was a boy during the war and well recall some of the prisoners in the camp in Thirkleby.
I remember the German and Austrian prisoners who made toys for the children of the village. Leo, an Italian, brought me chocolate biscuits when he visited. I knitted him a scarf. Billy Band made slippers out of sheaves and others would make you a ring from a spoon for a shilling. Two prisoners, Richard Longhammer and Willy, went to work at Millhouse after 1947. Richard taught the children to swim in the beck and Willy taught us football. The children were encouraged to take running kicks at Willy's chest.(The equivilent of a punch-ball?)
After the war, Bobby, a German, worked as a farm hand at Balk Wood. One day an RAF airplane came over and blew up with its pilot and copilot. Bobby was first on the scene to help and pick up the bodies. Another prisoner came from Innsbruck. His family kept a hotel. Peter Scoita married a local girl whilst in the camp and went to live in Sowerby later. Al Wyzok, an ex-paratrooper, now lives in Yorkshire and still plays his piano accordian.
The Italian prisoners wore brown clothes and the Germans grey. They had blue or yellow circles and diamonds on their backs and trousers for identification.
The men lived in camp and went out to the farms to work. They were free to go to dances too and generally fraternize with the local people."

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