Comrades!
We send you this message from a Canadian prisoners-of-war camp. None of us came here voluntarily. But we have all had an amazing experience.
The old demand: "Peace--Freedom--Bread" has never come nearer to being realized for us--however extraordinarily it may sound--then as "prisoners of war" in Canada.
A description of the "Base Camp" to which we came from the Transit Camp sounds like an advertising brochure of a hotel. And that's not surprising, for our camp is a former hotel, with holiday camps in the midst of wooded mountain country like the Tyrol or Upper Bavaria. In peacetime people paid a lot of money to be allowed to stay here.
We have running hot and cold water, baths and public rooms, a football field, tennis courts, swimming bath, cinema, theater, concerts, radio, daily newspapers and a large German and foreign library.
The food is up to peacetime standard: Breakfast: Tea or real coffee with milk and sugar, fried bacon, eggs or smoked fish. Lunch: Soup, meat, two vegetables, sweet, fruit, cheese. Afternoon tea: tea or coffee, bread, butter, jam. Supper: Soup, meat, two vegetables, fruit, cheese. At any time of day: beer of peacetime quality, lemonade, cigars, cigarettes, tobacco.
Everyone can do what he likes with his time. You can get leave to go out on parole, and there are joint excursions into the beautiful surrounding country. Everyone gets good clothes, shoes, laundry and pocket money. medical and dental treatment are free.
Anyone who wishes can work on our own farm or in our market-garden, or get practical instruction in modern agricultural methods from outside farmers.
We have technical, handicraft, scientific and language courses, schools of art and commercial art, lectures, a commercial school course and courses to university standard.
This is how we live here.
For the Administrative Committee
K.V.,Oblt.
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