· RUEL SK

The Aftermath
133
most I could eat were bread crumbs that I could push through the mouth hole. It was lucky
that I had flung off my oxygen mask and helmet, otherwise they would have probably fused
to my skin in the fife."
Sammy Weiner: (After eleven weary hours, the train arrived at Frankfort.) "On a
siding we saw forty-five locomotives put out of commission by air strafmg. What a
pleasant sight to our sore eyes! What a relief it was to stretch one's legs again and breathe
deeply of fresh air. By now 1 felt I was the dirtiest, thirstiest, and most hungry man alive.
But most of all, 1 longed for a cigarette. Here we received a cup of German soup.
"I had the misfortune of being the last one to board the train accompanied by two
surly guards. The mad scramble for space had begun when the air raid sirens sounded, and
we were forced to change again to another train on a different track. There just wasn't any
space left in either of the two compartments allotted us, so 1 was pushed along to a small
section where I sat with one guard along side of me, and the other sitting directly in front,
both holding rifles across their knees.
"I made up my mind right then and there that I didn't like these two Jerrys or the
malevolent glances they bestowed upon me. Almost immediately they began talking
between themselves, clucking their lips, and shaking their heads tragically, pointing at the
skeleton frames of fifteen and sixteen story apartment buildings stretching into the skies.
"One guard turned on me balefully, saying: 'Why Americaners come here to kill our
women and children?' 'Why,' the other kept repeating.
"Boldly, 1 decided to counter with a question. 'What about your destruction of
England, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and other countries?'"
"Whether or not they actually understood what I had said, I did not know, but they
continued to mutter between themselves at each new sight. I eyed them cautiously. I would
not have a Chinaman's chance if they decided to do away with me. I spent three of the
longest hours of my life sitting in that tiny section with the two guards - three hours of
suspenseful watching and waiting. My face was a veiled mask and I said nothing."
Frank Plesa: "We finally got our train and in several hours we were taken to
Obermassfeld (allied P.O.W. hospital near Meiningen.) Australian, British, Canadian, and
New-Zealand doctors who were captured at Dunkirk, with American Red Cross aid in
drugs, bandages, and food took care of us. They stitched up my chest wound with a rubber