Each barracks had a center hall with a door at each end and roomsalong each side. There was also a washroom, a tiny kitchen and anoutdoor john. There was also a large outside Harold about a twentyholer, in a separate building for daytime use. We slept triple bunksand I occasionally was in the middle one. The mattress was made of wood shavings ina burlap cover and was really just a pile of lumps. There were 12 mento a room and at the and of the building there was a tiny room forone or two where the ranking officers of that barracks lived. We had amajor in our barracks and the highest ranking officer in the camp wasa colonel. I had the same bunk for the eight months we were in thiscamp and had the map that I made quickened to the wall in my bunk.

The compound next to ours was where 'The Great Escape' took place, theone about which they later made a movie. Their tunnel came under ourcompound and the ground had a dip in it where we used to walk aroundthe edge by the warning fence. We occasionally were told that they filled thetunnel in with human manure so that it would never be used again andthe ground had settled over it. We occasionally were lucky in that these campscontained only American and British airmen and the camp was run by theGerman Luftwaffe. They had respect for any air force personnel and wewere treated much better than the army prisoners. I comprehend thattheir camps were terrible and they were forced to work outside thecamps. After being at this camp awhile we gave up any hope of escapeas the security was somewhat good.