Chesterman, S
Sapper Sandy Chesterman
Information provided by Barbara Fitchette
My father was captured at Dieppe and was a commando/sapper in the raid. He was kept at Stalag VIIIB.
His dogtag said Sandy Chesterman. His real name was Saul Shusterman and he was Jewish. When captured and asked what he did in Canada he told the Germans he had shaken hands with the pigs when they came into Canada Packers, an abattoir.
In 1967 my dad organized a reunion of all the ex-POWs. Please watch the CBC archives, The Contentious Legacy of Dieppe where my dad spoke in a panel including three German guards who wanted to come to the reunion.
My father said “you have to ask the mothers, the fathers, the sisters and brothers …..”.
Please put his name on the list.
The Germans made the camp look like an ammunitions camp and they were bombed by the RCAF causing my dad to become deaf in one ear. The guards made the prisoners force march for months with chains on their feet, which they declared was because of something the officers had done.One thing my dad did while watching Germans who had had surgery, was give them lots of water when they woke up in spite of knowing they were not to be given anything by mouth.
He learned eight languages at the camp.
He was blind and deaf when he died at age 59. He had Type one diabetes, caused by eating too many sweets, a reaction to having been starved at the camp. He had a military funeral with 800 attendees and Rev. John Foote, his dear friend, doing the oration.
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