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The Cigarette Diaries
- A personal history of life in a WWII prison camp by Frank J. Pratt with Rebecca Pratt
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Army Air Corps 2nd Lieutenant Frank Pratt was captured by the Germans when his B-24 was shot down over Poland on September 13, 1944. He spent the next eight months as a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft I near Barth, Germany. While there, he kept journals that he wrote mostly on the back of cigarette packets from the Red Cross parcels. Together, his three “cigarette diaries” tell the story of day-to-day life of a prisoner of war in Germany in the closing months of WWII.
Amazon 5-Star Review:
I've read WWII histories before, several in fact, but none as engaging as Cigarette Diaries. Second Lieutenant and bombardier Frank J. Pratt writes an insightful account of his life as a prisoner of war during WWII. Pratt describes in harrowing detail how he and his team fell into enemy territory.
Lieutenant Pratt brings his reader with him as the Germans forced him and other POW’s to march from prison camp to prison camp. At times, he describes reasonable treatment in keeping with the Geneva Convention but mostly there were bad times. Illness brought him face to face with medical facilities. His description of the shocking conditions of hospitals for POW's was hard to read--the sounds of other injured men and the smells. There was no let up of the assessments of his and other POW's precarious status, including how their survival became more at risk as the German's began losing the war.
I recommend Cigarette Diaries for any and all WWII buffs as well as high schoolers studying history. His account was candid and tense from start to finish. Surprisingly creative how he actually wrote and maintained his diaries.
Sandra Stewart: November 16, 2016
Amazon 5-Star Review:
I've read WWII histories before, several in fact, but none as engaging as Cigarette Diaries. Second Lieutenant and bombardier Frank J. Pratt writes an insightful account of his life as a prisoner of war during WWII. Pratt describes in harrowing detail how he and his team fell into enemy territory.
Lieutenant Pratt brings his reader with him as the Germans forced him and other POW’s to march from prison camp to prison camp. At times, he describes reasonable treatment in keeping with the Geneva Convention but mostly there were bad times. Illness brought him face to face with medical facilities. His description of the shocking conditions of hospitals for POW's was hard to read--the sounds of other injured men and the smells. There was no let up of the assessments of his and other POW's precarious status, including how their survival became more at risk as the German's began losing the war.
I recommend Cigarette Diaries for any and all WWII buffs as well as high schoolers studying history. His account was candid and tense from start to finish. Surprisingly creative how he actually wrote and maintained his diaries.
Sandra Stewart: November 16, 2016
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PAPERBACK EDITION $14.95
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Also available from Watermark Book Company in Anacortes and Amazon.com.
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