Stalag III and Death March

My father WO Jack Green served as a gunner/wireless operator on Blenheim bombers.He was shot down over the Fresian Islands (Holland) during November 1941. He and all the crew survived, only to be captured. He was sent to POW camp Stalag III situated on the German/Polish border.
Life in the camp was monotenous relieved only by activities such as concert and entertainment parties, choir practises and letter writing.
Letters from home were his lifeline, as they were to my mother. Sagan camp was extensive, stretching over several miles and numerous compounds. The evacuation of the camp began in early 1944. The last letter my mother received was in August 1944. Stalag III was the camp that the long march known as The Death March started from. Fearing the advancing Russian army the Germans began force marching POWs from all over Germany and Poland. It was the coldest winter on record when my father and thousands of allied prisoners were given the order to march. The conditions were dreadful, knee deep snow, frozen roads. Lack of food and clean drinking water. To supplement their diet men killed and ate rats. The Germans marched the men from dawn to dusk with no rest. My father like many others collasped from exhaustion, but two fellow prisoners grabbed his arms and dragged him along. Others were not so lucky. The Germans sometimes provided transport for the sick but mostly the men relied on each other. My father finally arrived home in June 1945. I was four years old.

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