Only 80 Years Ago
To the editor:
On the 27th of January, 1945, my father and 11,000 other prisoners of war began evacuating Stalag Luft III near the town of Zagan, Poland ahead of the advance of Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev’s Southern Army. Hitler had ordered the evacuation of the prisoners in hope of using the POWs as hostages.
Dad had been a prisoner since being shot down in August 1943. Many had been there for years longer. Over 80,000 POWs were force-marched across Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Germany in extreme conditions between January and April 1945. Prisoners in Dad’s group marched in snow and wind through the coldest winter in memory, finding shelter at night in factories, barns, and churches. Rations were bread and margarine; water was melted snow.
Eventually, they were loaded into locked boxcars, 50 to 60 men per car. They were forced to sit toboggan-fashion or take turns half sitting and half standing. After a three-day ordeal traveling through a frozen and bombed-out landscape, the boxcars were opened, and they were marched into Stalag VII-A near Moosburg in southern Germany.
Stalag VII-A had been built to hold 14,000 French prisoners, but by the end of April 1945 when it was liberated, it held 130,000 prisoners of all nationalities and ranks. Many buildings were shells with dirt floors, infested with vermin, as 500 men were crammed into spaces uncomfortable for half that many. Food and medical care were scarce.
Everyone in that war — soldiers, civilians, refugees, and POWs of many nations — was in that situation because the fascists believed that an elite of wealthy and powerful men could rule better than a representative government.
It wasn’t that long ago. Don’t give up. We can stop it from happening again.
Thomas Thompsen
Brewster
‘Incomprehensible’ Spending
To the editor:
I read Paul Benson’s comprehensive report on the temporary pause in disbursement of federal assistance and concerns about the potential impact on local nonprofits [“Local Housing, Health, Science Rely on Washington,” Feb. 6, front page].
According to the U.S. Treasury, in 2024 the national debt increased by $2.3 trillion. In January 2025, taxpayers were on the hook for an incomprehensible $36.2 trillion in federal debt. This works out to a per-person debt of $106,024 and a staggering $200,000 per taxpayer.
The outlook is even grimmer: without a major course correction, in just nine more years our national debt is projected to exceed a mind-blowing $54 trillion.
All of this spending brings to mind the image of the unbridled spending of a drunken sailor. But that would be grossly unfair to profligate sailors.
I don’t doubt that there are valuable programs that deserve continued funding, but it might have been illuminating if the Provincetown Independent had provided the critical context of the exploding national debt tucked somewhere in your 1000-word article.
And while readers appreciate the art of headline shorthand, the inescapable fact is that it’s we taxpayers, not “Washington,” who pay the bills.
Jeff Kemprecos
Wellfleet
The Sheriff and ICE
To the editor:
Re “Sheriff Says Her Staff Will Not Act As ICE Agents” [Feb. 13, front page]:
All of us, of whatever political party, can thank Sheriff Donna Buckley’s firm limit-setting on the U.S. Dept. of Justice controlled by Trump by not agreeing to deputize her staff to enforce Trump’s ICE agenda here. Your reporting revealed that Buckley has kept her role very clear regarding ICE, while Trump aggrandizes himself once again to be the fake fixer of everything about our government.
This is a Constitutional crisis that requires people like Buckley and her staff to set clear limits. When are news outlets going to start calling Musk’s and Trump’s behavior what it is: impulsive, cruel, and abusive?
Stop them by not obeying their aggressive manipulations.
John B. Livingstone, M.D.
Provincetown
The writer is a psychiatrist and a former consultant to the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Trade Deficit Puzzle
To the editor:
A schoolteacher educates students and gets paid by the school district. The teacher then goes to the grocery store and buys food to feed her family. The store pays its suppliers and employees and makes a small profit.
The school district might be said to be “treading water,” paying the teacher but showing no tangible profits — just better-educated students and satisfied parents. The teacher also treaded water, teaching, eating, and paying bills. And the grocery store treaded water, doing little better than breaking even.
Who has the trade deficit here? Does it matter where the players live, or for whom they voted, or who grew the children or the vegetables? Or does everyone benefit?
Dick Mains
Wellfleet
For a DPW Compound
To the editor:
I have serious concerns about the town’s recent decision to build a new single $30-million-plus consolidated commercial DPW building. It is urgent that the town reconsider and choose instead to build a cluster of tried-and-true simple wood-frame buildings.
A compound of functional small wooden workshops could be built by local carpenters, reducing construction costs drastically. Such a compound would provide Truro’s citizens with a town hall-DPW cluster of visually rewarding buildings while avoiding the commercial look of a single oversize out-of-character structure.
I am retired. Our home in Truro, a wood-framed compound, was built inexpensively in phases by my son, Tom, in 1981. I designed it as a compound to save money. There are hundreds of such wood-framed compounds on the Outer Cape that have been built over the years. To further reduce on-site labor costs, builders are now offering prefabricated buildings.
Paul Krueger
Truro
The writer, an architect, is the founder of Krueger Associates.
Good Science Takes Time
To the editor:
Re “WHOI Resets Ocean De-Acidification Test for This Summer” [Feb. 13, page A7]:
As one who is worried about the climate future for my youngest family members, I am happy to see that the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will proceed with research on increasing carbon capture in the oceans.
Woods Hole, an internationally recognized research and educational institute with almost a century of experience, is an ideal place for such research to take place.
Good science takes a long time. Like a promising new pharmaceutical, this technique needs to be tested carefully and on a small scale for safety and efficacy.
If (or when) in the future we need to add carbon capture to our approaches to limiting climate-change damage, this research will help us to identify the best approach. It deserves our support.
Bill Beckett
Watertown
‘Overpaid and Underworked’
To the editor:
I share Paul Murray’s appreciation [letter, Feb. 13] of Deborah Ullman’s thoughts expressed in the Feb. 6 issue. And I write to comment on his experience of “being told that what I did was not particularly valuable and that I was overpaid and underworked….”
As a 35-year municipal employee, I occasionally heard, or overheard, similar jabs. I quickly developed a response that never failed to quiet them. As cheerily as possible, I said, “We’re still hiring.”
Bob Rice
Brewster
Letters to the Editor
The Provincetown Independent welcomes letters from readers on all subjects. They must be signed with the writer’s name, home address, and telephone number (for verification). Letters will be published only if they have been sent exclusively to the Independent. They should be no more than 300 words and may be edited for clarity, accuracy, conciseness, and good taste. Longer pieces (up to 600 words) may be submitted for consideration as op-ed commentary. Send letters to [email protected] or by mail to P.O. Box 1034, Provincetown, MA 02657. The deadline for letters is Monday at noon for each week’s edition.
