The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-05-19

Looking fit, and having regained all his weight since liberation the local soldier is spending a 60-day furlough before transfer to Lake Placid, N. Y.
 Pvt. Kast, on questioning, told of the diet served the Allied prison CTS at the Bad Orb camp which consisted of one kit of watery soup and one piece of bread daily.
 Other than the fact we had SC little food and no medication, we were not treated too harshly," he stated.
 Glorious Day"
 Tt was glorious day when those American troops entered our camp area he declared. We had known for couple of weeks that help was coming for We could hear the she'll ing and bombing 'and at night see the flares"
 Pvt. Kast told of the surprise at tack by the Germans at Luxem- bourg at the time of his cap- ture. The Germans attacked from the forests in numbers that over whelmed the Allied forces stationed there.
 A gunner on tank, Pvt. KaSt said that his tank commander had left to consult with the officer in charge and the assistant driver had taken over another tank whose driver had been killed.
 There was just the relief driver and myself in the tank when it was hit twice. the local soldier re- counted. The driver was killed and the tank stalled. I climbed out and ducked into a barn during the shelling. They eventually knock ed out about every tank in the area"
 Pvt. Kast related that he stayed in the barn all night, could hear the German foot soldiers prowline around and talking and then was discovered by eight of them the next morning.
 They treated me very we'll" he said. Even offered me cigarette and gave me a hat of some kino because it was raining They seem. ed pleased to have taken a prisoner was lucky, I guess. that it wasn't the SS men who took me"
 Marching four days on just breac and water to the prison camp where some 12,000 American troops Tert confined, the local soldier began hi imprisonment.
 Many Died
 "A few more weeks there and VI would never have come out alive They were dying daily and in more numbers because of the lack o food,' he declared. T have prom ised myself never to again feel hun gIy in my lifetime" the soldie, laughingly declared.
 We received four shipments o Red Cross packages since Decem. Der which were to be divided among four men and then late, among 40 men. Later wher lib- erated some of the men went to the nearest town for souvenirs and there found the Red Cross packages ir most of the private homes. You could buy anything in that camp for a cigarette-if you had th< cigarette. About fifteen men would smoke one cigarette, he said.
 Pvt. Kast expressed pleasurablt surprise at the treatment accorded by the army and civilians to formeI prisoners of war.
 Daily we were told by the Ger. mans that we were disgraced in the eyes of our own Army and the peo- pie back home because of our cap ture. After months of that ant little food you begin to believe it, he said
 People have been wonderful tt us. And let me say that there is nc organization like that Red Cross They have saved many an American life in those camps.
 Pvt. Kast plans to spend some time in Waterbury and then vii return to Chicago with his wife were they resided before his en. trance into the Army.