Stalag 17 Terminology

Personalities:

Betty Grable: 1930's-40's Actress Famous Pin up girl

Harry James: 1940's Big Band Leader

Tyrone: Tyrone Powers 1930's-1950's Actor joined the US Navy and flew C-47 Cargo airplanes in the pacific.

Hedy Lamar: 1930's-50's Actress and Pin-up girl

Gargantua: 1940's Film Monster

Frankie Sinatra: 1940's-1980's Crooner/Actor got his start 111 1944

Clark Gable: 1930's-1950's Actor known as “The King of Hollywood” Joined US army Air Corps in 1942. Too old for combat he wrote produced and directed numerous training films for the military dur­ing the war.

Humphrey Bogart: 1920's-1960's actor and WW I veteran.

Jimmy Stewart: 1930's-1980's Actor Joined US Army Air Corps and flew missions in Europe during the war.

Sophie Tucker: 1920's-1960's Brash, full-figured and sexually frank, Singer recording artist who worked in Vaudeville, Headlined in the Ziegfield Follies on Broadway.

Gary Cooper: 1920's-1960's Actor.

Cary Grant: 1930's-1980's Actor.

Goebbels: Joseph Goebbels Reich Minister of Propaganda for Nazi Germany.

Terms:

Boob: Solitary confinement also known as “The Cooler”

Timber! General warning usually that guards are approaching

Jerries: Germans All the POW camp guards were from the Regular German Army. Old men and boys “Too Old” or “Too Young” for combat

Physic: a purgative (laxative)

Malchamovis: Yiddish for “Ill speaker”

Kishkas: Yiddish for “Belt” “rear end/ butt”

Barracks Chief: Man elected to represent and run the Barracks.

Chow: Food or meal

Chow King: Man elected by the barracks to equitably distribute all food and or meals

Security: Man elected to screen out spies agents organize systems of communications and approve escapes.

Red Cross Packages: Parcels of food and non perishable items provided by the “Red Cross Organization” to Prisoners of War, Usually on a monthly basis but not always.

Comic Section: Obituaries, immemorial usually of the enemy.

Crud/ Crum: Someone disagreeable or disgusting.

Cascara Pills: Strong purgative/ laxative

Nazi: Fascist Political Party. Not every German was a Nazi and not every Nazi was German.

SS: Military Arm of the Nazi Party. Not Regular Army. All Concentration Camp Guards were from the SS

Geneva Conference: Established in 1899 in Switzerland to govern the humane treatment of Prisoners of War after the First Anglo-Boer War. Also known as the Geneva Convention of 1902 also part of the Den Hague Convention of 1920

RAF: Royal Air Force of Great Britain. The RAF Bombed at night while the USAAF bombed in daylight.

Air Corps: The US Army Air Force during WWII