April 9-10, 2024
Zagan
We’re eighteen days into our trip and we have eleven to go. It’s been a once in a lifetime experience but my ol’ body is feeling the stresses of lots of rainy and cold walks and “vacation eating.” The weather in Zagan is beautiful, however, I’m sleeping in today to try and get over a cold and sore throat. The group is touring Stalag Luft 3, you will remember that this is the scene of The Great Escape. (Fifty of the escapees were executed as an example to others with escape in their minds.)
I’ve chosen to forgo the day’s activities to rest up for the next phase of our journey. The atrocities of Stalag Luft 4, the “Run up the Road” and the 86 day Death or Black March forced on the POWs by Hitler. He had two objectives for the forced march: punish the airmen for bombing Germany and to hold them hostage as bargaining chips after the war.
The third atrocity is known as the “Baltic Cruise”. I’ll have more on the cruise later, but it was the worst 72 hours of Vic’s ordeal
Pam will be with the SL 3 visit and I’ll report her observations.
Our lodging in Zagan
Stalag Luft 3 was important for lots of reasons, but the escape of over seventy POWs is the most notable. My father was never here, so for me it was a good day to miss.
Friday May, 10
It is now Friday May 10 and we’ve moved on to Koszalin, Poland, where we’ve been touring the city with a former ambassador to India and the chairman of the WWII museum here. It’s been a four hour trip over from Zagan, so not a lot of time to gather information to write about. I did do a video session with the film brew on the Baltic shore to talk about the “Baltic Cruise”, the torturous trip for the airmen that were selected. Don’t know why the 2,000 or so men were chosen to be “shipped” on the Insterberg, a captured Russian coal scow across the Baltic instead of going by train as the other 8,000. The most probable reason was to punish the airmen and to place them in danger of being sunk by an allied attack. The Allies were attacking every ship possible in the Baltic.
The men were packed into the hold of the ship so tightly that they couldn’t move and had to take turns sitting on the seventy-two hour trip. No food or facilities, little water and breathing fumes from the bilge water and diesel fuel mix was stifelling. One man named Walter Getsy had a nervous event, he panicked severely and the guards took him topside. When he tried to jump overboard he was shot and killed. We don’t know how many more men were killed or died during the ordeal. but we do know that it was a significant event in the PTSD that many of the men suffered later in life.
We will be traveling tomorrow to Gross Tychowo and reliving the “Run Up the Road” to Stalag Luft 4, anoth atrociously.
I’m sorry for the lack of pictures, I’ll try to make a picture catch up post ASAP. Jim
