Review of
A Holiday in Hitlerland: A War Journal,
by James F. Stone
Four out of five stars
A memoir of being a POW in Germany
The author was
the member of an American bomber crew flying missions over Europe in World War
II. In early April of 1944 Stone was on board a bomber that was badly shot up
and managed to execute a controlled crash landing in northern Germany. The crew
was easily captured, and this book is a chronicle of his experiences as a POW.
Relative to
many others, his experiences and those of his fellow prisoners were rather
mild. Stone mentions several times how the German guards were rather friendly.
There was an instance where they encountered some members of the SS that seemed
determined to punish the POWs. That attempt was thwarted when their German
guard drew his pistol and backed them off.
Other than the
fact that the author lived through these experiences, there is little that is
completely unique about this history. One exception is that the men
interrogating the POWS had often spent significant time in the United States.
One POW even met a man that worked with his father, used to bounce him on his
knee and occasionally give him treats.
Another amusing
point is about the Ukrainian woman that shoveled the raw sewage into a wagon for
transport to the fields to be used as fertilizer. She was a cheerful woman and
when asked why, she said that her job here was easier than what she had at home,
and she received better food.
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