Schultz's Tale

In November 1941, Sergeant Hans Schultz was transferred to a new POW camp called Stalag 13. There were no official prisoners within the camp, only one small French Corporal who was confined to the cooler. Sergeant Schultz was put in charge of this prisoner, which the guards called 'cockroach' with the orders to make sure that the prisoners does not hurt himself or anyone else, and that he does not escape.

When Sergeant Schultz first looked into the cell he was horrified. Chained to the wall was the small body of prisoner, only the small movement of his chest show Sergeant Schultz that he was still alive. His eyes stared at the wall in opposite him with no actual look of seeing anything. His skin was pale and showed that it had not seen any sunlight for over two months. Bruises covered his arms and legs and blood was trickling down from his wrists where chains held them in place next to the wall.

The previous guards had told Sergeant Schultz that the prisoner had been in the cooler for two months now, that he has not said a word since his confinement in the cooler began, and that he refuses to eat, which explains the tube coming out of his nose and reason for him being chained to the wall. It is to prevent him from pulling out the feeding tube and doing more damage to himself. The bruises that can be seen are from him struggling about when the doctor comes in twice a day to feed him. Sergeant Schultz is told nothing of the reason why the prisoner is confined to the cooler, nor why he must be kept alive at all costs.

Sergeant Schultz does not like to see a person so down hearted and vows to do what ever it takes to get the prisoner to start talking and eating once more. He begins by introducing himself to the prisoner. The prisoner shows no signs of listening, but Sergeant Schultz continues to talk in hope that someday he might get some words in reply. He talks about his family, his old business, about growing up in Germany, anything that he can think of. He even once or twice listens to the forbidden BBC to find information on what is happening with the allies, especially the French. He hopes this will help the prisoner to finally start talking again.

Over the course of three weeks Sergeant Schultz begins to notice a change in the prisoner. He notices that he now seems to be listening to what he says and at some points looks likes he wants more information on some subjects, especially about how the war is going. Once in a while Sergeant Shultz catches a glance or two from the prisoner and sees that light is returning to his eyes once more.

On the third week of his assignment, Sergeant Schultz decides to ask one of the questions he has wanted to ask since the first time he saw the prisoner. He says 'If I can get the doctor to remove your feeding tube, will you eat some of the potato soup that my wife has made? You will feel better if you do'. He is expecting to get no reply from the Corporal, so it slightly surprised when he sees the prisoner turn his head towards him and give him a slight nod. Immediately Sergeant Schultz goes and seeks the doctor to try and convince him to remove the tube worried that the Corporal will have changed his mind by the time he gets back.

After some argument the doctor finally agrees to remove the feeding tube. More guards are called to help hold down the prisoner, despite the protest from Sergeant Schultz that the prisoner wants it removed and therefore won't try to struggle. However it soon becomes clear that they will be necessary anyway when it is found that the tube has been in for so long that it is difficult and painful for it to be removed. Sergeant Schultz watches as the doctor slowly pulls out the tube while the guards try their best to prevent the prisoner from thrashing about. He sees that the prisoner is watching him, his eyes filled with pain, as blood pours from his nose onto the floor of the cell. After what seems like a lifetime, the tube is finally removed and the prisoner falls back with exhaustion.

Once the doctor and the other guards leave, Sergeant Schultz releases the prisoner's arms from the chains and carefully lays him on the floor and covers him with a blanket. He realises that the prisoner has fainted, so goes to warm up the soup while he waits for the Corporal to come about again. After about half an hour, the Corporal wakes up and Sergeant Schultz tries to get him to eat some soup. However despite the attempts to do so by the prisoner, the result is only him throwing up what ever he has tried to eat. Sergeant Schultz, however, is not discouraged and tries again the next day this time managing to get the prisoner to keep down most of the food.

As the weeks go by the prisoner returns once more to a healthy state, he is now eating two meals a day and now that he is not chained to the wall anymore is now able to walk around and gain back some of the muscle he has lost. He still, however, has not talked. Sergeant Schultz has nearly given up any hope that he can get the prisoner to talk again. He has talked about everything he knows about, and has repeated himself on several subjects. One afternoon he is talking about the strudel that his wife made for him last night, he is saying all about what ingredients she pull in to make it when suddenly he hears a voice say 'You should use Winesap apples, they will give the best taste'. At first he does notice that the prisoner has finally talked, however once he does he quickly looks into the cell to see that the prisoner looks just as surprised as he is that he has spoken. Sergeant Schultz decides to once again introduce himself and this time is happy to hear 'I am Corporal Louis LeBeau of the Free French Forces' in reply.

Within a week of this event it is decided that Corporal Le Beau can now be released from the cooler back into the prisoner population. Since the transfer of Sergeant Schultz to Stalag 13, prisoners have also been arriving and now the camp has more than 150 POWs of several different nations. It is decided that Corporal LeBeau should be taken out of the camp at night and brought back to the camp in the morning as a recently captured prisoner. His records are changed to reflect this and Corporal LeBeau, Sergeant Schultz and everyone else involved is told that no one is to know what went on in Camp Grün and its results, on the threat that all those involved will be executed if the knowledge got out. Corporal Le Beau is given a new history on how he came to be at Stalag 13 and after three and a half months in the cooler he is finally released. He is assigned to barracks 2, a mixed ally barrack, and Sergeant Schultz is assigned as the guard to this barracks to make sure that the truth of what has occurred is never revealed.

I think that the truth should be revealed to Colonel Hogan and the rest of the Heroes, however I am unsure of how to do this and I believe it needs a better writer than I to do this, so if anyone has any ideas or wants to write a story on how it all comes out, please let me know.