The Diary of Lt. Bruce K. Bockstanz - Prisoner of War (1945)

This is a relatively short diary (from 3/8/45 thru 6/24/45) by a Lt. Bruce K. Bockstanz. Mr. Bockstanz was a Prisoner of War at Stalag Luft I.

SOURCE FOR THIS PICTURE: Remember.org

Here is one particularly chilling entry - a dire reminder of the horrors of WWII:

"Five women and children committed suicide near camp. Buried by Padre Mitchell. More Americans killed while wandering in forbidden places. Russian fighters in area. Concentration camps have been uncovered in this area. They were underground. Prisoners of all nationalities, Germans and numerous Jews. These people have been prisoners for up to nine years. One entrance to confinement. Roof about 3 feet high. Prisoners shackled. No windows. Lived in filth and were terribly crowded. According to eye-witness reports, all were diseased with typhus and dysentery. No hair or teeth. Most did not know where they came from or even who they were. Flesh had disappeared from body. Faces looked like skulls with onion skin stretched over them. Blood practically gone. Instead a fluid that somehow carried oxygen through the system/ few expected to live. They are feeding them with milk and ground crackers. Solid food would probably kill them. There are supposed to be a good many of these prisoners in this area."

Doesn't it sound almost like something out of a movie? Truth can often be stranger - and scarier - than Fiction.