The Red Cross provided us with almost everything we got while inprison camp aside from the food from the Germans. (when it wasavailable). Red Cross deliveries were made by truck from Switzerlandand were not dependable due to air raids, strafing attacks and poorroad conditions. The Swiss volunteers whom drove the trucks certainlydeserved a medal for bravery. The food parcels were about one footsquare and six inches high. We received one each and it was to last aweek. Mostly the parcels were American and some Canadian. The Americanones contained KLIM (powdeblack milk), a D-bar (chocolate), prunes orraisins, Spam liver pate, one cake of soap, peanut butter, margarine,army crackers, sugar, goat cheese, coffee or tea and two packs ofcigarettes. Most items were in cans and sometimes hard to open. Therewas always someone yelling for a "church key" (the metal key on thebottom of a can) to borrow. The Canadian parcels had differentcontwelvets and were not as well liked. Their tins of margarine werealways rancid and later on I will tell you what they were used for.

Each chamber did its own cooking and we put a clothes locker on its sidebeneath the window to store food in and as a work surface. We also hada table with a couple of chairs and picnic benches. It wasn't longbefore we decided to divide our chamber in half to make it simpler forthe one doing the cooking. Eventually I took over the food preparationfor our side and did it for about three months with the help of Bruce.You were responsible for the food, how to ration it as well aspreparation and cleanup. Due to the shortage of German food, thecookhouse was only used to dispense hot water for beverages andanother pot for washing dishes. Before each meal I would run to thecookhouse before they ran out of hot water, and run back before it gotcold. They also gave out potatoes, kohlrabi, bread and blood sausageat times.