From now on I was under armed guards all the time

The end of the World War 2, was the end of the Citadel in Liege. Dramatic changes occurred. I was now a POW working for an American Labor Service Company:

POW Oncken Jurgen
POW Nr. 31G 993 754
4440 HQS QM Service Company
8795 Labor Service Company
148th L S Center
APO 223 US Army

It was a burial Company, organizing War Cemeteries. In my case it meant relocating all German burial grounds to a central Cemetery for fallen German soldiers, in Bourg Leopold, Belgium.

But at first I was working on an American War Cemetery. For this I was moved to Camp 3. This was a rectangular, barbed wire fenced area, outside Liege, Belgium. At its front it had a building with an entrance on either side of it.

All around the outside was a small stretch of neglected grass and bush land. The fence itself was doubled with a roll of barbed wire in its bottom centre.

In the middle of it all was another target practice building of concrete construction with a central wall that made it two separate POW quarters, of considerable length. This one was much dryer, but lots of rats were around.

From now on I was under armed guards all the time, and behind barbed wire fences; not to forget POW printed on all my clothes. In good memory, is a nearby clock tower, with a green lit dial at night, and on the other side of camp a Highway not far. This time our kitchen was inside the camp. Washing facilities and toilets were outside between building and fence, rather primitive in every way.

The American soldiers were from now on only in supervisory positions. The guards were replaced by Belgians. The French speaking Walonen did not like the Jerry POW's, the Dutch speaking Flamen were more understanding.

We slept on steel frame beds with some sort of mattress on it. There was sandy soil underneath and a concrete roof over the top with some huge air vents across. It did not take long until primitive walls were erected, causing small POW groups to sleep together.