The POWs in Shamshuipo receive their first Red Cross parcel.
It comes at a time during which diphtheria is regularly claiming lives and almost everyone is ill with one or more of the diseases of malnutrition.
The effect can hardly be exaggerated; for some, it's a literal life-saver - when Jean-Paul Dallain gets his he's too weak to open it, but the contents eventually set him on the road to recovery.
For everyone it's a powerful experience. 'Blackie' Verrault writes in his diary tonight:
I just ate a chocolate bar and cried doing it.
Some men will never receive another parcel.
Source:
Nathan Greenfield, The Damned, 2010, Kindle Location 4279-4293
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