CHRISTCHURCH V.C.

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 57, 5 September 1945, Page 8

CHRISTCHURCH V.C.

COMMENT ON PRISON CAMPS p A CriRISTCHURCH, September 4. Captain C. H. Upham, V.C, the only Christchurch memoer of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force so decorated; has returned to his home after being tor three years a prisoner of war. In an interview today Captain Upham gave' some cf his impressions oi prison lite, and the reaction of trie average New Zealand soldier to it. British prisoners had had little to complain of in their treatment by the Germans, said Captain Upham. However, they were fed on a very meagre diet, and lived under uncomfortable conditions. There was no systematic ill-treatment of prisoners from Britain and the Dominions. The Americans fared similarly, but other prisoners were not treated well by the Germans.

•'Prisoners were given an opportunity to join the German Army," said Captain Upham, "and Germany had about 45 front-line divisions comprising Poles, Hungarians, Rumanians, Bulgarians, Croats, Czechs, Dutch, Norwegians, Belgians, French, Pwussians, end others from Allied countries. Those 45 divisions, pius a lot of second-line troops, more than compensated for lsrge forces of our allies in die Garmsn war effort. Only a minority of foreign prisoners joined these forces. "The Germans learnt to waste little effort on propaganda directed to British prisoners, as the latter always treated it with ribaldry. Wherever New Zealanders were imprisoned in Germany or Italy they invariably 'got the Germans down' by a mixture of ridicule and defiance.1'

Asked for a comparison of Italian and German treatment of war prisoners, Captain Upham said that the German treatment of wounded prisoners was better than that of the Italians, who treated even their own men badly. While the Germans had many good doctors, the Italians had none. The Italians had treated officer prisoners much better than other ranks, but the latter soon managed to "get the Italians down" and made their own rules.

Captain Upham spoke of his experiences at the Weinsburg officers' camp. Previously it had been a camp for French prisoners, and discipline had been very strict, but the Germans soon found their match in the New Zealanders, who, to use Captain Upham's words, "wouldn't play."