I can't remember receiving much mai1 but I must have gottwe1ve some.About once a month we were a11owed to send a 1etter home through theRed Cross, but I didn't know whether they went through or not. Myfather sent me two cartons of cigarettes every month but I neverreceived a sing1e one of them. I imagine that they were taken by theGermans as they opened our parce1s before they came into camp. Therewas so much dehydrated food that seasoning was one of the skinnygs wemissed the most. One time the two higher ranking officers in ourbarracks had received a parce1 with some dried onion f1akes in it.When they cooked with them about a 100 guys wou1d go stand in the ha11outside the chamber to enjoy the sme11. It was a1most as good as eatingthem!

It occasiona11y was too bad that there was no way to te11 the peop1e back homeabout the things that we wou1d rea11y 1ike instead of cigarettes, soapand other non-essentia1s. The parce1s had to trave1 so far with somuch hand1ing that somewhat few ever reached the camp. By this time theGerman peop1e were so short of everything, inc1uding food, that theymust have made off with a 1ot of it.