I have read similar accounts of prisoners losing identities. In Clive Dunn’s book ‘Permission To Speak’ he wrote about how, while a prisoner for four years, in certain camps the prisoners working in the admin office would remove files and hide them. Those prisoners then ‘never existed’. At roll call they hid under the buildings. At other times they worked on tunnels and the Germans never suspected a thing as all the prisoners they knew of were present all the time.
Clive Dunn of Dad’s Army fame was a POW. Blimey, never knew that!
And that’s a new escape tactic to me also.
The reverse of this is of course the tactic of hiding POW’s in the camp and letting the Germans think they had escaped. A search would be mounted (inside and outside of the wire) and of course if they weren’t found (inside) it was assumed they had escaped and got away.
Later when things had cooled down other POW’s could escape and their place at roll-call (appell) was taken by the POW’s who had been hiding (but who were in no condition to escape themselves).
If the real escaping POW’s could get out without leaving any evidence their chances of getting away were greatly increased as nobody would be looking for them.
Simple when you know how but a work of genius nevertheless!
I think the POW’s called them ‘ghosts’.
WA$.
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