[I’ve got lots of “stuff” in the pipeline, both here at TheyWereSoldiers, and at my other blogs, WordsEnvisioned and ThePastPresented. In the meantime, here’s a “quick” little post…]
Between 1941 and 1945, the German exile newspaper Aufbau – “Reconstruction” – published ten news items about the experiences of Jewish prisoners of war. Though the topic of Jewish POWs in German captivity is – probably? – more commonly perceived in terms of the appalling fate of Jewish members of the Soviet armed forces captured on the Eastern Front, aviators of the United States Army Air Force (specifically, the 8th, 9th, 12th, and 15th Air Forces) captured throughout the war, or, soldiers of the United States Army ground forces captured during the Ardennes Offensive, another aspect of this topic is, I think, the subject of far less public awareness: Over 1,300 Jewish soldiers, most from the Yishuv – primarily men serving in Port Companies of the British Commonwealth armed forces – were captured during the fall of Greece at the end of April, 1941. Most of these men were interned at Stalag VIII-B (later renumbered Stalag 344) at Lamsdorf, in Silesia, or Stalag 383, at Hohenfels, Bavaria.
Among Aufbau’s articles about Jewish POWs, six are notable for their focus on soldiers from the Yishuv. While several of these men attempted to evade capture or escape from German captivity, to the best of my knowledge only a mere handful of these men definitely returned to Allied control. One such soldier, born in Germany and later residing in Haifa, was a member of Kibbutz “Ashdoth-Ya’akov” (Ashdot Ya’akov) in northern Israel. His experience was the subject of a three-part series of articles in Aufbau, entitled “Ich war ein Kriegsgefangener der Nazis” – “I Was a Prisoner of the Nazis,” which was published in October of 1943, while his name appeared in a very (very!) brief news item in the Palestine Post.
The topic of the fate of Jewish prisoners of war in German custody was also a focus of the news coverage in the The Jewish Chronicle, and especially, the South African Jewish Times, the latter given that approximately 300 South African Jewish soldiers were captured during the fall of Tobruk on June 21, 1942.
An Aufbau article of a very different nature was Sergeant Walter Bonne’s “In Deutschland kriegsgefangen – Die Erlebnisse des Sgt. Bonne” – “Prisoners of war in Germany – The experiences of Sgt. Bonne”, which recounts in straightforward fashion German-born Sergeant Bonne’s capture during the Ardennes Offensive, and, his liberation a few months later.
You’ll be able to read the full text of these above-mentioned articles – in the original German, with Googlific English translations – in the future. In the meantime, here’s a list of Aufbau’s articles pertaining to Jewish POWs:
| Date | Article Title |
| 10/17/41 | Jüdische Kriegsgefangene in Griechenland (“Jewish war prisoners in Greece”) |
| 12/18/42 | 1200 jüdische-palästinensische Kriegsgefangene in Deutschland (“1200 Jewish-Palestinian war prisoners in Germany”) |
| 10/15/43 | Ich war ein Kriegsgefangener der Nazis (“I was a Prisoner of War of the Nazis”) |
| 10/22/43 | Ich war ein Kriegsgefangener der Nazis (“I was a Prisoner of War of the Nazis”) |
| 10/29/43 | Ich war ein Kriegsgefangener der Nazis (“I was a Prisoner of War of the Nazis”) |
| 2/4/44 | Jüdische Soldaten in deutscher Kriegsgefangenenschaft – Das Rote Kreuz wacht – Solidarität der englischen Kameraden (“Jewish soldiers in a German war prison – The Red Cross watches – solidarity of English comrades”) |
| 2/4/44 | Erste Mordanklage gegen französische KZ-Offiziere (“First murder case against French concentration camp officers”) |
| 5/18/45 | In Deutschland kriegsgefangen – Die Erlebnisse des Sgt. Bonne (“Prisoners of war in Germany – The experiences of Sgt. Bonne”) |
| 5/25/45 | Buchenwald und Auschwitz (S/Sgt. Fred Levy) (“Buchenwald and Auschwitz”) |
| 5/25/45 | Amerikanische Kriegsgefangene erobern ein deutsches Dorf (PFC Herbert Frank) (“American war prisoners conquer a German village”) |