I never actually received the pay directly--we decided as a group to pool our pay and receive it in one lump sum. Two or three times in my months as a POW, Mr. Soderberg(?), a Red Cross representative from Sweden, would visit the camp to investigate our conditions and to see what he could do for us. We would have our pool of German money transferred to him to buy us food and other necessities.

The pay given us as soldiers in the German Army was far less than what we received as American military personnel--I think my pay as a German 2nd Lieutenant was around $80 a month. On the other hand, German POWs who waited out the war in the relative comfort of the U.S. received their own comparable rank's pay as American soldiers. As well as getting paid better as a POW than if they remained free men in the German Army, they also were living in much better conditions in prison camps than they would be as German soldiers. Because their lives in the U.S. (even though somewhat restricted as prisoners) was so much better than back home in Germany, many didn't want to return home after the War. And later, many of them emmigrated permanently to America.