Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), Friday 2 June 1944, page 4


ADELAIDE MAN PASSES EXAM IN GERMANY

By IAN SABEY, a former prisoner of war

From time to time ample evi-dence is produced that prisoners of war in Germany are able to rise far above their circumstances, and

even achieve small triumphs from within the narrow boundaries of their concentration camps. In most large and small camps here flourish schools whereby hose persons not forced to work may attend, study subjects and sit for examination papers sent from other parts or the world. Yesterday advice was received in Adelaide from the Red Cross Pris-oner of War Education Bureau at Oxford, that Lt. Peter Cudmore, of Adelaide, had passed successfully all examinations for the interme-diate course of the Chartered In-stitute of Secretaries. The letter of congratulation from the secre-tary (Mr. E. Herdman) to Mrs. Peter Cudmore stated that the camp education committee of the prison Offlag to which her husband is attached in Germany had been informed of the result Lt. Cudmore sat for the pvamitm tion the previous year. These small Stalag and Offlag universities are one of the brightest features of prison life in German camps. Run entirely by British officers, with text books and papers and even pens from the Red Cross and the YMCA men have been quick to seize the chance to edu-cate themselves. I know some Australians who are learning Russian, some who are taking an arts degree, and others who are qualifying in such varied subjects is electrical engineering, advertis-ing and journalism. The teachers are prisoners of war, and the classrooms are con-verted barracks. At Stalag 8B, 2,000 pupils went

through their paces each week. There was a Shakespearian class run by an Oxford Don, a botany department whose rabbits mys teriously disappeared but whose rats thrived, and where artists grew long hair. The art class was conducted by a most able artist from Sussex, who had somehow found himself cut off from Dun-kirk. The pupils were even more varied. Maoris and Cockneys rubbed shoulders with Indians and Zulus. At the beginning or a new term a class found itself with some times fifty beginners, but the stickers could be numbered on one hand at the end or three months. Often the would-be enthusiast with a thirst for learning arith-metic. and even spelling would find himself whisked off by the Ger-mans to a working camp, where he would tell the other chaps for months after what a fine thing education was. as opposed to working for the enemy. One man is even known to have escaped from a working camp and walked almost the enure distance to his Stalag, his reason being that a set of books on Diesel engines should have arrived by then, and he did not want them to go astray Lt. Cudmore enlisted in Octo-ber, 1939. and joined the 2/3 Field Regiment of Artillery He was captured in Crete with his troop, which was under the command of Capt. W Laybourne Smith, an-other South Australian who is also a prisoner of war. The gunners of C troop were nearly all South Australian personnel. South Aus-tralian prisoners of war from C troop spoke most highly of their two officers' coolness and courage throughout both campaigns.