The POW and the soldiers daughter

"The war effort project"

Sam POV

December 10th 1943.

       Dear diary, today camp Ashby is receiving more German prisoners from the war. Phillip asked father what they're like and turns out they're merely teenagers and children the youngest is 13. How could Hitler be so heartless as to make children fight? I thank God everyday for being an American. At the same time I wish this war never started for it took Connor and Jeremy to the front lines where we  can barely contact them. I've sent them letters once a month and so far all I've received is one 3 months ago. Whenever Eliza and I are walking around the town and see the boys in uniform I'm reminded of them and pray for their safety.
Phillip asked mother this morning at breakfast if they'll be home by Christmas and she simply said we can always hope. That's a good answer to give a 8 year old boy. Not the truth of we truly don't know. We don't even know where they are.
All we can do is pray.

I was going to continue but I looked at my clock and saw I had to get ready to leave so I closed my diary and put it away it's it's hiding place under my mattress before doing my hair in a simple ponytail with my bangs to the side of my face. I got dressed in slacks and a dark red blouse with my sneakers and grabbed my satchel and put on my rings. I have a cross ring on my right index finger and my Mom's engagement ring on my left middle finger with my friendship ring on my right ring finger that Eliza and I have together. We've been best friends since we did dance together when we were 5.

"Sam let's go!" Speak of the devil I heard Eliza shout to me from downstairs and I quickly grabbed my coat and put it on before going downstairs.
"We're not even late. What's your hurry?"
"My dad said the new prisoners are showing up in 7 minutes and we ride by the camp to get to school so we'll be able to see them."
I chuckled even though I too am curious about the prisoners.
"Ok let's go." We said goodbye to mom and left getting on our bikes and rode to school past the camp just as the bus pulls up at the entrance.
"There they are." Eliza says walking her bike to the gate with me.
"I wonder what my father will do if he sees us." I says going next to her.
As I say that the prisoners started coming off dressed in blue jean material jumpsuits that have "PW" in white on the back.
They're all boys of various teen ages. I saw the youngest who is 13 and he's the only one who looks scared. The rest are either emotionless, observing, or just suspicious.
I don't blame them, they're camps are much different than ours. Basically they are torturing our boys while we give them a bed, 3 meals a day and work they can get paid for.
I think it's good because it shows that we're the better ones but some of the kids at school think we should be treating them as badly as they're treating our boys.
"Is it bad I think they're kinda cute?" Eliza said with a smile looking at me.
I tried not to laugh and shook my head.
"I don't think so but I'm pretty sure they won't be attending any dances."
"A girl can dream." She says with a smile and looks back at the bus as the southern wind blows all of our hair.
I watched them get off holding their Army size duffle bags till one caught my eye.
He has blonde hair lightener than mine, piercing blue eyes that scanned the area as he got off the bus with his piers.
He looks about my age and taller than me.
I'm a little lost in thought looking at him that I didn't notice that he looked at me.
Once I did notice I smiled shly and he winked before following his piers in a line led by one of the guards.
"Sam we need to get to school." Eliza said tapping my shoulder.
"Oh yeah we do." I got on my bike and we rode to school just in time for our first class.

School went on as usual till lunch when I sat down to eat with Eliza and the very annoyed Jonny Fitch walked over.
"Hello ladies." He says sitting on the table making me move my book.
"What do you want Jonny?" Eliza asked as we looked at him.
"I have come to ask you both to be my dates to the dance hall this evening for dancing and fun." He says mostly looking at me.
Oy he thinks he's so sly but he's really just a pest. He only thinks he's someone because his dad is a general.
"As always my answer is no." I say looking him in the eye as Eliza declined him as well.
He stands up and walks away.
Eliza sighs and takes a bite of her sandwich.
"Every Friday it's the same thing with him."
I said closing my book and ate my lunch.
"We need a way to get him off our butts. Besides getting boyfriends."
I chuckled,"yeah because that happens."
"Hey it could happen. Maybe with the POWs. No one would mess with us if we had one of them on our arm."
I laughed packing my satchel as she stood up doing the same thing.
"I'm not disagreeing with you but we're not exactly their type. We like to eat and can take care of ourselves." I said looking at her.
"But remember they're from Europe and they have different beauty standards that are much more accessible than americans.'
I laughed with her and we went to our last class which is history where we've mostly been learning about the current war we're in.
I'm starting to get tired of living a history chapter for my grandkids.
I sat down in my seat and on the chalk board is all of our names written in groups.
"Good afternoon class. Who here knows about the new prisoners that were brought in today?" Miss Jones asked standing up from her desk.
Myself, Eliza and some of the other students raised their hands.
"Good. Today we're going to be talking in comparison to our camps and the German camps."
"Oh you mean how we treat them like royalty and our boys are being treated like dirt?" Jonny says from his desk.
"Put bluntly like that, yes. Who here knows the details of our camps?"
I raised my hand and stood up.
"Our camps are more humane. We don't beat them. They work jobs, get meals and nice beds and can even play fun sports and go to the theater that was built on the base. My dad also said they can earn liberty points to come into town."
"So they can go free and attack? Yeah that's great Sam." Jonny says standing up looking at me.
"Why abuse them which would make then hate us even more? They're our age Jonny. The youngest is 13 and terrified. We need to show them that we are the better side and still see them as human beings unlike what they do."
"Yeah, they see our boys as animals to be slaughtered while we let them live in luxury. Why not just surrender to Hitler and hang ourselves?"
"Sam, Jonny! Enough. Sit back down both of you." Miss Jones says breaking our argument.
I huffed and sat down leaning back in my seat tired as he sat down annoyed.
"Now the reason I brought this up because as our Christmas class project we will be volunteering at the camp. Teaching any of them English if they want to learn. Keeping the library neat. Running the theater and showing them how to play some of our American sports along with serving dinner. Anyone who doesn't want to participate will have to write a 600 word paper on a comparison of the American camps, the German and the Russian. Now who's in?" She finishes her statement with a smile as we raised our hands and she  put a check mark next to our name on the board.
About 80% of us said yes and I'm honestly kinda excited about it. I've only been to the camp a few time with a guard in order to go see my dad at his office.
"Wonderful. We're going to be doing this every day from 3 to 6 until the new year starting tonight and for those concerned about their parents we already contacted them asking and they said yes but you had the final decision. So grab what you need and we'll get on the bus."

With that we grabbed our bags and got on the bus.
"Why wouldn't our dads tell us about this?" Eliza asked as the bus started driving to the camp.
"Probably a surprise or something. I'm sure one of them will be introducing us and giving us our marching orders." I said looking out the window as we pull into the camp and get out to see my dad there.

Jack Aston. 6'2 white guy who met mom in college and delivered me in the back of a car with 2 boys after they got stuck in traffic on the way to the hospital. Whoopee.
"Welcome future adults. I'm Colonel Aston, I'm the commander here and it was my idea to include you all in this project in the war effort. As you might know this is the largest POW camp in the states and we just got some new ones captured from Africa.
Ok basically I'm going to assign to groups that will do different jobs today and that'll switch every day."