Despite Captivity - A Doctor's Life as Prisoner of War

William Kimber, 1975, 1st edition

John Borrie was captured in Greece in 1941 and remained in German hands until his release in 1945. This is his record, as a dedicated doctor maintaining hospitals in the camps in which he worked, of eberyday life in German prison camps. He recounts his fights to obtain essential medical equipment and supplies from the German camp authorities. He shows the humane instinct often put into practice by by some German authorities, and depicts equally vividly the brutality of others. The book is a tribute to the courage, endurance and singular fortitude of men of the fighting forces in privation, fear, sickness and pain. It is a tribute also to the honour and devotion of the medical profession, showing how doctors and surgeons performed complex operations under impossible conditions, and how brilliant improvisation compensated for the lack of amenities. This is a riveting and unusual account of imprisoned life...