Barth Continued. . .
As soon as
I got off of the train, I could see the top of a church that Papa wrote about
in his book. The church turned into my first goal. 
As I walked though a couple of streets, the top of the church became more clear
and I knew that I was headed in the right direction. The town was right
out of a movie. The street was cobblestone and all of the houses were
right off of the street.
I walked for about 15 minutes until I found the tourist office. Inside
was a very thorough history of Barth. Fortunately, the lady behind the
desk spoke very good English and got me started in the right direction.
I informed her that I am a grandson of a Stalag Luft 1 prisoner and asked her
if there was a way for me to find a telephone number to a lady in town.
(I was looking for a lady named Helga Radau who was in charge of the Stalag
historical society. She had kept a webpage on the war camp and was the
best chance for me to find out about anything on the camp) The tourist
lady said, "are you by chance looking for Helga Radau." (in a strong
German accent of course) I said "yes," and she gave me
a map and showed me where the camp is and where I can currently meet up with
Helga. Helga was aparently giving some kind of a presentation on something
in the town. I was off to meet her. In the tourist information office,
there was a small scale model of the town.
The tourist office is where the #5 is on the map below.
I walked toward the church 
and
took a right, headed toward where I was told Helga would be. (Look at
map) As I turned right, there was a large square. Storm clouds
were overhead and I didn't know what I was in for.
I walked further down where I thought the lady
had told me to go and asked some lady where
the restaurant was. She didn't speak a lick of
English but recognized the name of the place but
pointed me in the direction. 
I walked into this bar called the "Borg" and
"asked" for Helga. (I just said, "Helga???") They
said that she would be here in 15 minutes. Great!
I walked outside and found about 20 people in
in front of some kind of monument. I again asked
for Helga and was pointed to women right over
my shoulder. I found Helga!
I introduced myself and said that my aunt had
been in contact with her about my grandfather.
She asked if I had gotten there with the group
that was coming off the bus. I said "no" and she
couldn't believe that I had made it there by myself, no less from the
train. She then told me that these people getting off the bus were POW's
and families of POW's from WWII and had come as a group for a convention on
Stalag Luft 1. They had just come from the camp site and that I must join
them for the discussions. I spoke with a couple of other POW's and none of
them knew H. John Thayer. Of the 50 POW's present, not one know another
from the camp. The camp housed over 9,000 British and American
soldiers from 1940-1945.
I went into conference and spoke with
some men and got a list of all of the POW's who were at the convention. I
took some pictures of the some of the information that was set up in the
conference center. The were pictures that POW's had drown, official
document from the camp and pictures of the camp. Last, there was small
scale model of the camp.
I walked out about 30 minutes later and tried
to convince their bus driver that I was with the group and to drive me down
to the site which was about 3 miles away. I convinced him that I was with
the group but he told me I had to check with one of the supervisors. . .that
wasn't going to happen. I started to walk. The day was growing late
and I knew that my time would be limited. I thought about borrowing a
bike from a house that wasn't too far away. However, I envisioned myself
trying to explain to German police that I was simply borrowing it for an hour.
That wasn't going to work. I went down by the water to see how that looked.
I
then walked back past the church and under some kind of a tower and then onto
the site.
The hike to the site of the memorial and of
the camp seemed like it took forever. Everyone at the convention told me that I
needed to get cab but I couldn't find one so I just started to walk. As I
walked out, I could look back and see the church that many of the POW's wrote
about. (Refer to map a bottom to see where all of these were.) I
continued to walk toward where
I thought the site would be. I felt
like I was walking nowhere as I
looked back
.
I asked a family who were on
bikes where the memorial was and
they pointed me to walk further.
At last! I found the memorial. It was
about 100 yards further. 
I walked up
to it and read the plaque. There were flowers from the group of POW's and
families who had just been there. The plaque read:
Here is the map of where I walked
and where the pictures were taken:
Last
leg: a walk out to where the camp site lay
Go
There. . .
As I walked though a couple of streets, the top of the church became more clear
and I knew that I was headed in the right direction. The town was right
out of a movie. The street was cobblestone and all of the houses were
right off of the street.
I walked for about 15 minutes until I found the tourist office. Inside
was a very thorough history of Barth. Fortunately, the lady behind the
desk spoke very good English and got me started in the right direction.
I informed her that I am a grandson of a Stalag Luft 1 prisoner and asked her
if there was a way for me to find a telephone number to a lady in town.
(I was looking for a lady named Helga Radau who was in charge of the Stalag
historical society. She had kept a webpage on the war camp and was the
best chance for me to find out about anything on the camp) The tourist
lady said, "are you by chance looking for Helga Radau." (in a strong
German accent of course) I said "yes," and she gave me
a map and showed me where the camp is and where I can currently meet up with
Helga. Helga was aparently giving some kind of a presentation on something
in the town. I was off to meet her. In the tourist information office,
there was a small scale model of the town.
The tourist office is where the #5 is on the map below. 
