While I was a prisoner a Stalag Luft VI, it was customary for the Germans to lock the doors of our barracks building around ten o'clock in the evening. The next morning, at six o'clock, they would be unlocked. During the ten to six o'clock period, none of the internees were allowed to walk about the compound area. One evening the Germans failed to lock the doors. The next morning, which was on or about (Sat. May 27,1944) Staff Sergeant Walter Nies arose; since it usually became light at four o'clock in the morning, thought it was somewhere near six o'clock. Presently, one of the other internees came into the barracks and stated that he had just been to the latrine. Nies wrapped a towel around his neck and with a bar of soap in his hand, left the barracks.
He started across the compound area on his way to the latrine. He had gone about onehalf the distance, when one of the guards saw him and immediately started firing. It was actually about 5:30 A.M. and when I heard the shots, I rushed to the window of my barracks to see what had happened. I saw Sgt Nies lying sprawled out on the ground. The towel was still around his neck and a bar of soap in his hand. He was approximately one hundred feet from my window. I could see that a bullet had entered his left side, just above the hip and a spot on his back where apparently, the bullet had emerged.
Everybody was immediately aroused, but the German guards came into the compound and demanded that all of us stay indoors. The German guards gathered around Nies' body, and after about thirty minutes, he was carried away on a stretcher. Frank Paules and Bill Krebs were allowed to accompany Nies to the dispensary. He was still alive when he arrived in the infirmary and was carefully examined by Dr. Pollack, medical officer, British Army. Since they did not have sufficient facilities there, Nies was taken to a German civilian hospital in Heydekrug.
Capt. Pollack was permitted to visit Nies in the hospital( on Sunday,May 28). He was given a blood transfusion, but died about 3:30 that afternoon.( on Tues. May 30,1944) Staff Sergeant Walter Nies was given a military funeral. His body was placed in a rough box, draped with an American flag. The guard who shot him was transferred immediately after the shooting.
