239031 Sgt. Douglas Herbert Courtenay Auburn British Army Intelligence Corps from:Hampstead, London N.W.3 My father, Douglas Auburn, was captured near Ostend on May 26th 1940. He was riding a motorbike and was a sergeant in the Intelligence Corps. He was taken to Stalag XXA and was later transferred to Stalag XXB.
He was an atheist, but was converted to Catholicism by a Belgian priest while in this camp. I believe Catholics were able to attend Mass every day and were provided with prayer books of paper stapled together, by the French government.
My father studied French and German at Oxford before the war. Once when unloading bread, he refused to let one of the prisoners steal some; whereupon this prisoner called him a Nazi. He punched him, and was subsequently taken to the commander of the camp. He was about to be punished, but hearing that he had been called a Nazi, the camp officers deemed it enough of an insult to warrant his violent response. This indicated to my father that the German army did not like the Nazis.
He also told me that there were several attempts at escape, but that Scottish prisoners alerted the guards.
He feigned - or perhaps in part genuinely suffered - mental illness and was repatriated on 19th September 1944. He had to make his way back to England through Switzerland via Berlin. When he saw this city, he was astounded at the extent of its destruction.
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