Over the last few months, I’ve been delving into the place of religion in helping the airmen
prisoners of war in Stalag Luft III cope with captivity. Some men had profound
faith which provided much comfort. Others disclosed a particularly secular—even
wryly humorous—relationship with religion.
For
many, ‘monotony’ was the key characteristic of life in a prisoner of war camp.
One wit, for instance, pointed out that Hebrews 13:8—‘Jesus
Christ the same yesterday and today and forever’—admirably summed up
their ‘kriegie’ life. Many relieved the boredom with escape work. When the time
came to name North Compound’s the three major escape tunnels, George Harsh, who
was in charge of security, favoured calling them ‘The Father’, ‘The Son’ and
‘The Holy Ghost’.
(Author photo from George Harsh: Lonesome Road, Longman, 1971)
Roger Bushell, the escape mastermind, however, vetoed the idea
because they would need all the help they could get, and they didn’t want to
‘start out by making the Almighty cross with us’. Bushell then settled on the
less irreverent and more anodyne and the tunnels were dubbed ‘Tom’, ‘Dick’ and
‘Harry’.
(Lifted from https://blog.findmypast.com/in-our-prisoner-of-war-records-the-real-great-escapers-1406166255.html)
There
were many off duty hours to fill and when they weren’t digging tunnels or
carrying out other important escape related jobs, the men were always keen to
keep their minds active and stimulated. John Osborne, for example, read
religion along with science and philosophy for intellectual interest and a
starting point for debate.
(From the John Carlisle Osborne collection. Courtesy of Narromine Aviation Museum)
Dick Winn read the Bible and Koran from cover to
cover but not for the religious inspiration: ‘these books were so good, because
they took so long to read’.
(Dick Winn's POW card)
Some,
however, even in times of literary starvation, such as in Stalag IIIA, Luckenwalde
after the evacuation from Stalag Luft III, could not stomach the word of God.
Bruce Lumsden who carried on the forced march a copy of A Christmas Carol, a hymn book, and his precious Bible recalled
that, for weeks, the Dickens ‘was passed around the hut from one to another
kriegie, hungry for a read. One or two also borrowed my Bible’.
(Bruce Lumsden and his bible, courtesy of the Bradbeer/Lumsden family)
Parodying the Ten
Commandments, ‘The Kriegie’s Commandments’ exhorted
the prisoners ‘to do no arbeit’ (work), or ‘dhobi’ (washing), and to ‘get into
as many rackets as possible’. The humour of the ‘commandments’ helped make
light of their new life. They also prescribed a formula for harmonious communal
living. The ‘commandments’ promoted kriegie safety (‘Thou shalt not walk over
the warning wire’) and reflected civilised society’s laws in, for example, the
prohibition against stealing (‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s bedboards;
nor his palliasse nor his dixie, nor his irons, nor anything that is his’). But
they were also subversive. In forbidding arbeit,
encouraging their fellows to be involved in rackets, and exposing ‘the rest’,
i.e. German involvement in the rackets, the ‘commandments’ also condoned active
and passive resistance.
(Courtesy of Alex Kerr)
