Ed & Ray Hersman in WWII - Robert Marks.org

8.4. COLD & CLOSE TO RUSSIA Ed & Ray Hersman in WWIIunable to locate a camp by that name. I intend to write the National PersonnelRecords Center and request copies of Dad’s military personnel records.Hopefully they weren’t destroyed in the fire at that facility in 1973. I havedone some research and have located camps named Bergen-Belsen, Budzynand Belzec. If you have any information about this, I’d love to hear fromyou.8.4.2 Bad BreadIn any case, the POW Camp was near a concentration camp, and was dividedinto four sections. One for the American’s, British, French and Russians.Dad noted that while the Germans didn’t treat anyone very well, starvingall of them, they treated the Russians much worse than the other alliedprisoners. He related a story where one day a German baker from the villagecame up to the Russian section of the camp and tossed loaves of stale breadacross the wire. The starving Russians wolfed the bread down, and in ashort while started passing blood with many of them dying. There wereseveral American doctors and they received permission to treat the ailingRussians. They were unable to help them, but did note that the Germanbaker had baked ground glass in the bread, which had lacerated the Russian’sintestinal tracts causing internal bleeding and death. After they were freedby American troops, several of the American POW’s went to the bakery andshot the baker.8.4.3 Stone QuaryAll of the POW’s worked in a stone quarry. Since any type of explosive wassent to the military, the POW’s quarried the stone with manual labor only.They would work from sun-up till sundown without rest or anything to eat.The quarry was ringed with machine guns, and one rule was that if you ran,no matter what the reason, you would be shot.When Lane and I were growing up, we used to hear Dad scream in his108