Pte. Martin Albert Henry Lewis
British Army Welch Regiment
from:Newport, Mon.
My father, Martin Lewis was captured outside Bengazi on 29th of January 1942 and arrived at Weinsburg on 9th October the following year. Leaving the North African port of Tripoli on 23rd of February 1942 he reached Naples four days later and eventually found himself at an Italian POW camp in Capua. When this camp was taken over by German forces he was moved in July 1943 and travelled via Rome, Foggia, Padua, Bologna and Moderna eventually, after several months travelling, reaching Weinsburg on the 9th October. En route to Oflag VA in Germany my father spent time in Strasburg as well as a transit camp near Munich, Stalag VIIA, Moosberg before finally reaching Weinsberg.
Strangely he was placed in a camp for officers for his rank was a private, however he was a gents' hairdresser so perhaps this was the reason he was placed in an Oflag rather than a Stalag POW camp, the latter being for enlisted men as opposed to officers. His war diaries articulate the routine and events of life within a German POW camp which he stated was far tougher than in his previous two camps run by the Italians. There were obviously difficulties he and Other Ranks faced, this being a camp for officers, one example being given just 15 marks per month for working almost daily cutting hair in the camp salon.
Sadly, my father suffered psychologically as time went on in the Weinsberg camp, so much so that on being released in 1945 he had a complete nervous breakdown and never really recovered full mental health during the rest of his life. He died at an early age in 1973 when he took his own life.
