This item was donated to Massey Library by Thomas Brooks's daughter, Bronwen Murray.  Bronwen has provided the background information for this item and a note book that also belonged to her father, which has also been digitised and can be found here:  https://tamiro.massey.ac.nz/nodes/view/6024

Thomas Brooks was a married man with a 3-year-old son when war broke out. He volunteered immediately and was sent to the Trentham Army Camp for training on Boxing Day 1939 and departed New Zealand on the SS Strathaird on 10 January 1940. He spent time in Egypt and then Crete where the allied forces came under heavy bombardment.  Not all soldiers made it on to the boat that was sent to rescue the surviving soldiers.  Many of those left behind went into hiding in mountains and caves and Thomas was one of those, spending about 18 months in hiding.  As there was no record of his whereabouts, his wife received a telegram informing her that Thomas was 'missing, presumed dead' and she was eligible to receive the War widows pension.  Thomas was desperate to let his wife know he was still alive so he and another escapee broke into a prison camp.  He later recalled the consternation of the guards at rollcall the next day when they found 2 extra prisoners among them.  It was rather more common to have fewer at rollcall.

Eventually the prisoners were sent to Stalag 8 in Hohenfels, Bavaria, Germany.  While in the prison camp the men endured years of starvation and deprivation and would never have survived without the rations supplied by the International Red Cross.

All prisonerss were manacled, and it was an offence to be seen without handcuffs. Prisoners found that by picking the lock on one cuff, then draping the chain from one hand across to the "free" hand, which they kept in their pocket while guards were around, they were able to use their hands normally.  Thomas recalled they were caught out when random checks were made, and this ruse was discovered.  Their punishment was to stand in a line outside in the snow, with their hands in the air.  Those who sucumbed to the unbearable pain and who lowered their arms, were shot.  During his time in the camps, Thomas was gassed, which Bronwen suggests may have contributed to his death from lung cancer aged 65, although he had been a smoker.  Thomas passed away in Palmerston North in 1979.