page_title: George Juskalian
section_title: Oflag 64 in Szubin, Poland
hierarchical_section_title: George Juskalian / Military service / World War II / German prisoner of war / Oflag 64 in Szubin, Poland
caption_attribution_description: English: Oflag 64 and Stalag XXI-B Polski: Budynek administracji Zakładu Poprawczego w Szubinie - w czasie II wojny światowej administracji obozów jenieckich Stalag XXI-B i Oflg 64.
context_page_description: George Juskalian was a decorated member of the United States Army who served for over three decades and fought in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Following graduation from Boston University, Juskalian entered the army as a second lieutenant in June 1936. During World War II, he served with the infantry during the North African Campaign and took part in Operation Torch. At the Battle of the Kasserine Pass, he was captured by German troops and became a prisoner of war for twenty-seven months. During the Korean War he commanded an infantry battalion. He was then stationed in Tehran where he acted an advisor to the Imperial Iranian Army throughout 1957 and 1958. During the Vietnam War, Juskalian once again undertook advisory duties, working with the South Vietnamese Army between 1963 and 1964, before serving as the MACV inspector general under General William Westmoreland.
  Juskalian retired as a colonel in 1967 and is one of the most decorated Armenian-Americans to serve in the United States Army. His awards include two Combat Infantryman Badges, two Silver Stars, the Legion of Merit, four Bronze Stars and the Air Medal.
context_section_description: Juskalian spent nineteen-and-a-half of his twenty-seven months imprisonment in Oflag 64. The POWs in the camp undertook various leisure activities including staging plays, playing music, reading, athletics, and learning languages. While there, Juskalian became an editor of a monthly newspaper that was published with the assistance of a guard who owned a local printing shop. The newspaper featured "stories from home, cartoons, pictures of pin-up girls and girlfriends and articles about camp sports and activities".
  In June 1944 the American POWs held a party on the first anniversary of being in the camp. The party coincided with the Normandy landings, and the Germans suspected that the American POWs had purposely planned the party because they had prior knowledge of the Allied invasion. The commandant of Oflag 64 called higher headquarters for advice and assistance. Eventually the German Gestapo searched the Americans' rooms for evidence of outside communication. However, Juskalian shared one of the cigars his brother-in-law, Hagop Chiknavorian, had given him, with the officer undertaking the search who soon became "distracted and softened".
caption: Oflag 64 where George Juskalian spent nineteen and a half months out of his twenty-seven months as a POW
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