The German POW Experience: One Man’s Fear of Death, Transformed

This article is second of a five-part series published in conjunction with National POW/MIA Recognition Day 2018. Information in this article is provided courtesy of the Joseph A. Moller Library.

Interrogations were a common and dreaded part of the German POW experience. Alongside this was a consistent and often overwhelming fear of death. In a compilation of stories held in the Joseph A. Moller Library, B. Lyle Shafer described his intense experience with fear as he moved through a course of interrogations, solitary confinement, and transfer between prison camps.

A POW’s Fear of Death Transformed to Save His Life

Initially, Shafer was detained in an interrogation camp. He describes his fear of death there as being piercing, penetrating, and all consuming. Yet, as time went on, he realized that his survival depended on a changed perspective about death. He went on to share how that lesson remained with him for the rest of his life:

“…slowly I recognized that the continuation of a passive attitude (about death) would be fatal. I was permitting death to get closer each day because of my deteriorating physical condition; and that if I did nothing, I would die.

I concluded that in the event I was destined to die in this place, I would rather fight and die than die because of inaction. This was not a heroic act of courage. It was a response to necessity. I needed to take control of my own life. I became willing to accept death, but on my own terms, and to my astonishment the fear of death began to diminish. I actually became optimistic. I no longer feared what my enemy interrogators would do to me. They could do no more than I was doing to myself.”

The Life Lesson of a German POW

“I learned a valuable lesson which has remained with me ever since. Paraphrasing what many have said before: conquer the fear of death and you bring about the death of fear.”

Shown above: Shafer’s plane, Gung Ho, took a direct hit to the #4 engine during mission #187 (Nuremburg) on September 10, 1944. The plane flipped over and exploded while going down. Shafer and one other crew member survived to become POW. The rest of the crew was killed.