Our normal diet consisted of either rice or bread and a bowl of soup. The soup was usually made from a boiled seasonal vegetable such as cabbage, kohlrabi, pumpkin, turnips, or greens, which we very appropriately called, "sewer greens, swamp grass and weeds." The flavor was very bland because no spices were used. I remember one very bad food period when we had two daily bowls of boiled cabbage soup for four straight months. Occasionally we would find a small chunk of meatless bacon fat in the soup.

Bland side-dishes of cooked vegetables or fish appeared with more regularity during the last two years.

I lost fifty pounds in the first three months of my captivity. Many others lost considerably more. It was not unusual for a man who was over six feet tall to weigh as little as 120 pounds.