Tempted by the American voice of Nazi Germany.

• Author: Lucas, Richard
• Position: Literary Scene - Mildred Gillars also known as Axis Sally - Personal account

ON AN AUTOBAHN one and a half miles west of the city of Hammerstein sat one of the most brutal prisoner of war camps in Germany: Stalag IIB. Renowned for its cruelty, the camp was reeling from the execution of eight U.S. prisoners in late 1943 for "attempted escape." American witnesses at the scene described the incident as cold-blooded murder rather than an escape attempt. Two of the dead soldiers were thrown into the latrine where they remained for days decomposing in the sun as a warning to the other prisoners. Food rations were minimal with each prisoner receiving 300 grams of bread and 500 grams of potatoes per day. Twice a week, the prisoners were given 300 grams of meat and 20 grams of margarine. A minimal amount of cheese was dispensed once a week. The food was distributed once at midday with just ersatz coffee for breakfast. Only Red Cross food parcels--one per prisoner per week--kept the men from utter starvation.

At conflict's end, the Department of War (now the Department of Defense) cited the camp's treatment of U.S. prisoners as "worse ... than at any other camp established for American POWs before the Battle of the Bulge." Harshness at the Stalag deteriorated into outright brutality and murder on some of the kommandos [labor detachments]. Beatings of Americans on kommandos by their German overseers were too numerous to list, but records indicate that 10 Americans in work detachments were shot to death.

Master Sgt. Robert Ehalt was Adjutant to the Camp Officer at Stalag IIB in March 1944. Ehalt, taken prisoner at Anzio three months before, walked into the camp office to find medical officer Robert Capparell joined by a "Teutonic-looking" man (Prof. Max Otto Koischwitz) and a woman. The pair were seeking recorded interviews with the prisoners for a special Easter broadcast.

The woman did not identify herself and the U.S. soldiers immediately were suspicious. She made no secret that she wanted the prisoners to say that the Germans were treating them well and giving them adequate food. After chatting with the officers for several minutes, she told them that she was born in Maine and had lived in Greenwich Village before the war. When Ehalt and Capparell asked her directly if she was Sally from the "Sally and Phil" show on German radio, she quickly changed the subject.

Convinced that the woman before them was none other than Axis Sally, Ehalt refused to permit the men to cooperate without first obtaining permission from the senior American officer in the region. They made a call to Col. Drake, who then was interned at Offlag 64 in Poland. A medical officer was called in to help verify that the voice on the line indeed was that of the colonel. While the professor and the medical officer were speaking to Col. Drake, Ehalt and...