A Spell of Captivity

As a 19 year old music student in Poland in 1939,my father was waiting to go to the Conservatory of Music in Warsaw to commence his studies.This was of course not to be ,with the start of the war.His home was in the east of Poland and it was his lot to be captured by the Russians and sent to a prison camp deep in the heart of Russia.
He told me about the way that inmates tried to survive, using all their native cunning.
Food was in short supply,Rationed to minimal requirements for health and well-being.The prisoners quickly found out that anyone confined to the camp hospital received a much larger ration of the available food.The trick was to get into the camp hospital to benefit from this largesse.
This was their preferred method.
A piece of wire was used to puncture the skin on an arm or leg.A splinter of wood from the hut walls or floor was then pushed into this wound and allowed to suppurate,forming a large abcess.This was then brought to the attention of the camp physician, who would admit the sufferer to the infirmary for treatment,thus gaining the required increase in rations and contributing to their survival.
In this way my father and many others aided their survival for two years until the invasion of Russia by the Germans in 1941.Repatriated via Persia(Iran) South Africa and the USA.the Poles eventually arrived in the U.K. to take up the fight against the Germans.

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