By peering through the cracks in the wall, we could see Allied infantrymen advancing through the fields and pushing toward the town of Moosburg. Almost immediately thereafter, we all heard the most pleasant sound we had heard for almost a year--the rumble of American tanks. And when those tanks rolled into the prison compound, they looked as big as battleships. The Krieges spilled out of the barracks, unmindful of the live bullets still whistling in the air, and cheered the troops and gobbled the K-rations which the American soldiers threw at us--just as though those K-rations were candy.

Then, suddenly for no apparent reason a hush fell over the compound, and all eyes turned toward the town in which stood two high church steeples. Over 20,000 eyes saw machine gun bullets spatter against the steeples, a period of quiet, and then it occurred, a scene, the happening of which brought tears streaming down the face of every single American prisoner-of-war there, and a sob from every throat--we saw the greatest sight, the most emotional minute that we would ever witness--raised before our eyes and flying defiantly above one of the church steeples was the symbol of our beloved land--THE AMERICAN FLAG !

As one great mass, all felt emotion that no one who has not been deprived of freedom, who has not suffered behind barbed wire for months without adequate food, heat or word of loved ones and of home, could not possibly feel. Yes, the tears flowed from over ten thousands faces that day--over ten thousand unashamed faces, as that Flag shocked us back with memories of the place we all held most dear--OUR BELOVED LAND, OUR HOME.