´óÏó´«Ã½

This is a transcription of the diary kept by my uncle, Alan Forster (1917-93), whilst a prisoner of war at a coal mine in upper Silesia, a work camp of Stalag VIIIB, and on the 900 km march through Bohemia to Regensburg, in the closing months of the war.

It consists of some 15,000 words written in barely legible faded pencil on yellowing pages in a small pocket book. In places it is indecipherable and I have inserted ... to indicate missing passages. I have copied his layout, spelling and punctuation but inserted translations of German words and phrases in square brackets.

If it has a value it lies in its "ordinariness", its record of tedium, overwork and malnutrition as experienced by a private soldier who by then was in his fifth year of captivity and beginning to despair of ever returning home to his fiancee.

He records day by day what at the time seemed most important: food (or the lack of it), the weather, work, Red Cross parcels, letters received from his fiancee, "Bunty" Hancock, and his family. When appropriate I have inserted brief extracts from his letters to "Bunty". They were not allowed to send photographs home with their letters.

Once the trek west began he records the places they stopped, the distance covered, the night's billet, rumours, etc. There are references to bombing raids and occasional atrocities committed by the guards to keep the column of prisoners moving away from the advancing troops of the Red Army. The diary ends with a moving postscript written in 1985 after the death of his wife, "Bunty".

His diary leaves a great deal unsaid and prompts many questions which I would like to ask him if he were alive today. There are cryptic references to bartering and the occasional red asterisk appears to be a code for which the key was lost on his death.

I hope his diary will be of interest to the family of former prisoners at Klimontow (Stalag VIIIB E702) in the Polish city of Sosnowitz and those who accompanied Alan on the long march west. I may publish it as a book together with an illustrated account of his earlier period of captivity at Leslau (Stalag XXIB) in 1940-41 and Fort Rauch, Posen, (Stalag XXID) from 1941-44 and will be glad to hear from anybody who was themselves a POW at these camps or from members of their family.

Bill Forster
November 2005

Continued as A7257873

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.