Show Return Of The Prisoners By FLORENCE BITTNER On the night the first prisoners of war came home from we sat up into the small hours of the morning watching their return as it was reported on What we were however was another return 28 years B. was a prisoner war of the Germans in World War II for 15 Compared to the time these men who returned last week 15 months seems a short It was not There were no television cameras to record the release of World War II There was not even any established procedure for receiving the returning They just came back when their captors gave THE WHOLE world was in chaos and every son was somewhere being worried 1 and there was just too 1 many of For months after his plane 1 was shot down over Berlin on March those of us who thought him 1 Then word came through the international Red Cross that i he was a MORE months would go by between He was allowed two postal cards I and one one page letter per and the message he sent was carefully but we knew from them that he was No Last week as we watched these men come we knew a little of what they will THE MEN last week walked off the plane in new wearing good The TV people kept saying how good they I didn't think they looked that They looked gaunt and old and Even after all these B. has noi completely recovered the effects of that time spent living on a level Americans only know exists when they arc reminded by having the veneer of civilization peeled away for a AS WE watched 1 all have new I wonder what they were wearing at Christmas wore what they were shot down if they were lucky enough not to have it taken away from I was When I was shot down I was wearing three layers of 1 1 1 1 i and I managed to keep EVERY DAY I would rotate and put the outside layer It wasn't like putting on clean clothes every especially after a few but it beat wearing the same underwear for a we were marching those last at night the Indian Gurka's would slit the shoelaces of sleeping men and steal their It was winter and those men had to wrap their feet with rags or whatever they could I don't look as skinny as I thought they He bet they have been fattened up these past few We were fattened up in France before they shipped us You should have seen us when we walked across the river and into the American Talk about a flock of I wonder what they will find hardest to accept about returning to American He me the hardest thing was how casual people here are about the wonderful life they The way they throw food The way they throw time The way they pay so little heed precious SEEING people take all these things for granted and then gripe about what they don't have was what I could not These were the most blessed people and they were not I say they have become very close to each other while they were GET to know people under these circumstances as you can never know them in normal Some of our men slept all the Some spent a year playing Some tried to keep themselves clean and to use their minds while others were content not to shave or wash or comb their hair for weeks at a One thing we learned early was to find a buddy and stick That way we could watch out for each HE to live again is as hard as learning to accept the probability of not These men who are coming home will be a long time waking up to the reality of They've got a tough time |