Trading with the Enemy

Trading with the civilians or receiving food from them was forbidden by the Nazi. It was difficult to march on the food they gave us. We had soap and other items which the civilians would like to have and they had bread, potatoes, onions, eggs, and other foods which we wanted. We sometimes ran the risk of trying to negotiate a trade and most of us were successful. Some who could talk their language fluently had it over the rest but in the end every man who watched and worked could trade. The most interesting thing to me was that the very people the Germans hated and killed, the Jew, made the best trades. They ate better than any of the others. The Jewish men with us knew their language and knew how to talk them out of their food. Most of the Germans we had anything to do with were people who lived on farms and had food put back in the basement and pantries. There were refugees working on these farms, too, and they would slip us food. Some of the guards would let us go off to a house by the road and trade.

When we stopped for the night we stayed in barns and the people living nearby would bring their wares over and we traded across the fence.

On one occasion I had permission from the guard and was trading an old fountain pen for two quarts of berries and six onions. I made the deal and had about one hundred and fifty feet to go to get back to the yard where there were a hundred or more of our men.

One of the officers started out to trade with the same lady but he had not received permission from the guard.