Reflections of character -- xxxiii

Ziegenheim POW camp

Some reflections on character.

June 8:

I went to the postal clerk and asked which soldiers did not receive any mail today. I placed a Banner in their mail boxes. 

June 14:

The question arises --why write about the destruction of German cities and the awful atrocities of concentration camps? Because God was warning European nations and in fact the whole world what the consequences will be when people forsake God. These warnings should never be forgotten by nations and churches. And yet the Second World War with the death of millions of soldiers and civilians, the destruction of whole cities, and the concentration camps have not brought the Nations and churches to repentance. 

Ziegenheim Concentration Camp

[History says that Chaplain Van was wrong about the name--the camp at Ziegenheim was not a concentration camp but a POW camp, primarily for Allied soldiers. It was liberated in late March, approximately three months prior to Chaplain Van's visit. The stories he relates suggest that the camp held mostly German prisoners. Soon, it would hold many more displaced persons, especially Jewish people who had no home to return to and were awaiting passage to other places, including Israel.]

June 17:

Service attendance at Marburg was 100 soldiers, Treysa 25, and Kassel 50.

After the service at Treysa, I stopped at the Ziegenheim Concentration Camp, also known as the North Stalag No. 9. In this camp 300 American prisoners were kept and also a large number of Russians and Poles.

One German here was in solitary confinement. He had killed an American aviator who had been forced to land his plane. This German threw the American aviator, after he had killed him, on a manure pile. The men in solitary confinement are fed bread and water. As soon as an officer opened the door to show me this prisoner, he stood with his back to the wall and his arms straight up in the air.

We went to one of the barracks where 188 Germans were confined. As soon as I stepped inside, one prisoner yelled "Achtung," and all the prisoners jumped up to attention until we left.

Many political women were incarcerated here pending their trial. Two trucks loaded with more prisoners were being brought in. A jeep with a machine gun followed the trucks. 

A Dutchman told me this story: a 12 year old boy was very disobedient. For punishment, his mother said that he could not go out after supper. Her son replied, "If I can't go out after supper, I will tell the Jugend Bund that you listen in to British broadcast." Her son won the argument.

The officer in charge of this camp asked the prisoners "How many of you would die for Hitler?" Immediately, three prisoners raised their hands. The official said to me, "Every one of these prisoners would be willing to die for Hitler."

The recently released Nuremberg features a recalcitrant prisoner, Herman Goehring, highest ranking post-war Nazi, who comes off as a good man, a loving husband, a conscience human being until being asked about his baseline priorities--"Would you still serve the Fuhrer?" he's asked. His answer is chilling because so unexpected.

And this self-referential note, written without reference to self. Imagine what Chaplain Van must have thought when he noted these figures.

Chaplain casualty figures up to March 30, 1945: 49 chaplains were killed, 51 died of other causes, 168 were wounded in action, 22 died at the hands of the Japanese and three died in Japanese camps. Total: 293 casualties. A total of 543 chaplains received 680 decorations.