The medic holds up a glass jar and shows it to the boy sitting on the examination table. Inside the jar, suspended in clear liquid, are three pale worms, each about 6 in long and as thick as a pencil lead. The boy’s name is Derer. He is 17 years old. He stares at the jar and says one word in broken English. Parasites.
The medic nods. Yes, parasites. Intestinal worms. They came out of you. Dier’s face goes white. He looks down at his stomach as if he can see through the skin to the creatures still living inside him. The medic expects shock, maybe disgust, maybe fear. What the medic does not expect is what Derer says next.
How long have they been there? The medic answers, “Probably months, maybe longer.” Dier closes his eyes and whispers something in German that the medic does not understand, but the interpreter standing nearby translates it. Dier said, “That explains everything. We are at Camp Aliceville in Alabama in June 1944, just weeks after the Allied invasion of Normandy.
The camp is one of the largest prisoner of war facilities in the United States, holding approximately 6,000 German prisoners, mostly Africa corpse veterans captured in Tunisia in 1943. The camp operates like a small city with barracks, mess halls, workshops, a hospital, and even a prisonerrun theater.
Medical care is provided by a team of army medics and a handful of captured German doctors who treat their fellow prisoners under American supervision. The medical routine includes regular health screenings to prevent outbreaks of communicable diseases like tuberculosis, dysentery and typhoid. Dier is undergoing one of these routine medical exams.
He arrived at Camp Alisville two weeks ago after being transferred from a camp in Texas where he spent his first three months in American custody. The transfer was administrative, not medical, part of a general reshuffleling to balance prisoner populations across camps. Derer is scheduled for a basic health check, weight, blood pressure, lung function, and a stool sample analysis to screen for intestinal infections.
The exam is being conducted by Corporal Thomas Brady, a medic from Kentucky who has been working at the camp for 8 months. Brady is thorough and professional, treating prisoners with the same care he would give to American soldiers. Brady weighs dieter and finds he is 112 lb at 5’6 in tall, underweight, but not dangerously so. Blood pressure is normal.
Lungs are clear. But when Brady reviews the stool sample results from the camp laboratory, he sees something alarming. The sample is positive for Helmanth eggs, specifically roundorm and hookworm. Brady has seen parasitic infections before. They were common among prisoners captured in North Africa, but the egg count in der sample is unusually high.
This is not a mild infection. This is a heavy parasitic load, the kind that causes chronic malnutrition and anemia. Brady decides to administer a dorming treatment immediately and collect a follow-up sample to see if the medication works. We are still at the camp medical clinic and Brady is explaining the treatment to Dier through an interpreter, a German American soldier named Curt Fischer, who grew up speaking both languages.
Brady tells Dieter that he has intestinal worms, parasites that are living in his digestive system and feeding off the nutrients from his food. The worms are causing his chronic stomach pain, his fatigue, and his inability to gain weight despite eating regular meals. The treatment is a medication called Santin derived from wormhood plants, which will paralyze the worms and allow them to be expelled from the body.
The process takes about 2 days and can cause some unpleasant side effects. Nausea, cramping, and diarrhea, but the worms have to come out. Dieter listens to the explanation and looks confused. He asks Fiser in German if worms are common. Fischer translates the question for Brady, who explains that intestinal parasites are relatively common in areas with poor sanitation, contaminated water, and inadequate hygiene.
They are less common in the United States and Western Europe, but very common in parts of Africa, Asia, and rural areas where modern sanitation does not exist. Prisoners captured in North Africa often arrived with parasitic infections because they had been living and fighting in conditions where clean water and proper latrines were scarce.
Dieter nods slowly, processing this information. He asks another question. Will they all come out? Brady says yes. The medication should kill and expel most of them, though a second dose might be needed if any survive the first treatment. Brady gives Dieter the first dose of Santin, a bitter white powder mixed with water.
Dieter drinks it and grimaces at the taste. Brady tells him to return to his barracks and expect the effects to start within 6 to 12 hours. He should use the latrine frequently and report back to the clinic in 2 days. Brady also gives dieter a small pamphlet printed in German that explains intestinal parasites, how they are transmitted, and how to prevent reinfection.
The pamphlet is part of a hygiene education program. The camp runs to reduce disease transmission. Dier takes the pamphlet and leaves the clinic, walking slowly back to his barracks with a hand pressed against his stomach. We are now in the prisoner barracks where Dier shares a room with seven other German soldiers. The barracks is a long wooden building with rows of bunk beds, foot lockers, and a small common area with a table and chairs.
Dier sits on his bunk and reads the pamphlet Brady gave him. The pamphlet describes round worms and hookworms, how they enter the body through contaminated food or water or in the case of hookworms by burrowing through bare skin. It describes the symptoms abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss, fatigue and in severe cases anemia and malnutrition.
Derer recognizes every symptom. He has had chronic stomach pain for over a year. He has been tired and weak for months. He thought it was just the stress of the war in captivity. But now he realizes it was something else. One of Dieter’s bunkmates, a man named Otto, who was captured with him in Tunisia, asks what the medic said.
Dier tells him about the worms. Otto reacts with disgust and moves a few feet away as if the infection might be contagious. Dier assures him it is not transmitted person to person, only through contaminated food or water. But Otto remains wary. The other men in the barracks overhear the conversation and have mixed reactions. Some are sympathetic.
Others are repulsed. One man jokes that Dier has been feeding two mouths all this time, himself and the worms. Dier does not laugh. He is too disturbed by the realization that his body has been hosting these creatures for months without him knowing. That night, Dieter lies in his bunk and waits for the medication to work.
The cramping starts around midnight. Sharp pains in his lower abdomen that come in waves. He makes several trips to the latrine, a communal building with rows of toilets and sinks. Each trip is unpleasant, but dieter forces himself to look at what comes out. The first two trips show nothing unusual. On the third trip around 3:00 in the morning, Derer sees one of the worms in the toilet bowl.
It is long, pale, and unmistakably a living creature. Dieter feels a wave of nausea and horror. He flushes quickly and returns to his bunk. He does not sleep the rest of the night. We are now on the second day of Diers’s treatment and Brady has asked him to collect a sample of the expelled worms for medical documentation.
Brady provides Dieter with a glass jar filled with preservative fluid and instructs him to bring back any worms he finds. Dier is reluctant but understands the request is for medical purposes. Over the next 24 hours, Dieter makes frequent trips to the latrine and manages to collect three worms, each about 6 in long.
He brings the jar to the clinic and hands it to Brady, who examines the specimens under a microscope. Brady confirms that two are round worms, escaris lumbriccoids, and one is a hookworm ancillistoma dude nail. Both species are common parasites in areas with poor sanitation. Brady shows the jar to Dieter and explains what each worm is and how it affects the body.
Roundorms live in the small intestine and feed on partially digested food, robbing the host of nutrients. Hookworms attach to the intestinal wall and feed on blood causing anemia. A heavy infection can cause significant malnutrition and weakness which explains why dieter has been unable to gain weight despite eating. Dier listens and asks the question that has been bothering him since the diagnosis.
Where did he get them? Brady explains that Derer most likely picked up the infections during his time in North Africa where sanitation was poor and water sources were often contaminated. The worms have been in his system for months, possibly over a year, slowly draining his health. Dieter processes this information and asks Brady if other prisoners have the same problem.
Brady nods. Intestinal parasites are common among prisoners captured in North Africa. The camp screens every new arrival and treats infections as they are discovered. The prevalence rate is estimated at 30 to 40% among Africa corpse prisoners, though most cases are mild. Dier’s case is more severe because the infection went untreated for so long.
Brady assures Dieter that the medication is working and a second dose will be administered in 3 days to kill any remaining worms. Within a few weeks, Dieter should start feeling better as his body recovers the nutrients it was losing to the parasites. We are still at Camp Aliceville, but now we need to go back and understand how Dieter ended up in North Africa with intestinal worms.
Let us go back 2 years to the spring of 1942. Dier was 15 years old, living with his parents in a small town in Bavaria. His father worked in a factory. His mother was a seamstress. Dier was in school and planning to become a mechanic. But in the fall of 1942, Dier’s older brother was killed on the Eastern Front and his father was conscripted into a labor battalion.
Dier and his mother struggled to survive on meager rations. Then in March 1943, just after Dier turned 16, he was drafted into the Vermacht as part of an emergency callup to replace losses in North Africa. Dier was given six weeks of basic training and then shipped to Tunisia to join a supply unit attached to the Africa corpse. He arrived in April 1943, just weeks before the final collapse of German and Italian forces in North Africa.
The conditions were brutal. Dieters unit lived in tents and dugouts with no running water or proper latrines. Water was rationed strictly and what little was available often came from wells and sistns that were not properly sanitized. Food was scarce and often spoiled in the heat. Dysentery swept through the unit repeatedly.
Derer got sick multiple times but always recovered enough to keep working. Let us know in the comments where you are watching this from. Are you in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom or somewhere else? We would love to know who is keeping these stories alive. Dier never connected his chronic stomach problems to parasites.
He thought everyone felt the way he did, tired, hungry, and sick. In May 1943, British and American forces closed in on the remaining Axis positions in Tunisia. Dier’s unit was cut off and surrounded near the town of Bizer. After 3 days without food or ammunition, the unit surrendered. Dier was 16 years old and had been a soldier for less than three months.
He became a prisoner of war along with over 250,000 other German and Italian soldiers captured in the final weeks of the North African campaign. We are still tracing Dier’s journey and now we follow him through the prisoner of war transit system from North Africa to the United States. After surrendering, Dier was marched to a temporary holding camp near the coast.
The camp was a barbed wire enclosure with no shelter, no latrines, and minimal food. Thousands of prisoners were crammed into the space, waiting to be processed and shipped out. Dieters spent two weeks in the holding camp, sleeping on the ground and eating one meal a day of hard biscuits and canned meat. The sanitary conditions were atrocious.
Men relieved themselves wherever they could. Flies were everywhere. Disease spread quickly. Dieter’s stomach problems worsened, but there was no medical care available. From the holding camp, Dieter was moved to a larger transit camp with better facilities. There were tents, latrines, and a mess hall serving two meals a day. The food improved slightly, but dieters’s health did not.
The parasites in his intestines continued to feed and reproduce, slowly draining him. In July 1943, Dier was loaded onto a transport ship bound for the United States. The voyage took 14 days. Conditions on the ship were crowded but not abusive. Dier was fed regularly, but the parasites consumed much of the nutrition before his body could absorb it.
By the time he arrived in the United States, Dieter weighed 108 lbs and looked like a skeleton. Dier was processed through an intake center in Virginia and sent to a camp in Texas. He spent 3 months there working in a laundry facility and slowly adjusting to captivity. The food at the Texas camp was adequate and der increased slightly to 112 lbs, but the gains were minimal.
The parasites were still there, still consuming nutrients, still keeping him weak. Then in May 1944, Dieter was transferred to Camp Aliceville and two weeks later, the routine medical exam revealed the truth. We returned to Camp Aliceville 3 days after the first deworming treatment and dieter is back at the clinic for the second dose.
Brady examines him and finds that dieter looks slightly better. His color is improved and he reports that the stomach pain is less severe. Brady administers the second dose of santin and instructs dieter to repeat the same process. Frequent latrine visits collect any expelled worms and return in 3 days for a follow-up stool sample.
Dieter takes the medication and leaves. The second round of treatment is less traumatic because dieter knows what to expect. The cramping returns, the trips to the latrine resume and more worms are expelled. By the end of the second treatment cycle, Dieter has collected a total of seven worms, a grotesque but medically valuable sample. If you are enjoying this story and want more untold accounts from World War II prisoners of war, make sure to subscribe to the channel.
We are bringing you stories that most history books never covered. Brady sends the final stool sample to the camp laboratory and waits for results. 3 days later, the lab report comes back. Negative for Helman eggs. The medication worked. The worms are gone. Brady calls Dieter back to the clinic and delivers the good news. The infection has been cleared.
Derer’s body can now absorb nutrients properly, and he should start gaining weight and feeling stronger over the next few weeks. Brady also emphasizes the importance of hygiene. Wash hands before eating. Avoid contaminated water and use latrines properly. Reinfection is possible if proper precautions are not taken.
Dieter thanks Brady through the interpreter and asks one more question. How many other prisoners have this? Brady says he does not have exact numbers, but based on the screening program at Camp Aliceville, approximately one in three prisoners captured in North Africa has tested positive for intestinal parasites at some point.
Most cases are mild and respond well to treatment. Dieter’s case was more severe because it went undetected for so long. Dieter nods and leaves the clinic for the first time in over a year. He feels a glimmer of hope that he might actually get better. We are now 6 weeks after dieters dworming treatment and the changes are visible.
His weight has increased to 124 lb, a gain of 12 lb. His face has filled out. His energy has improved. He no longer feels constantly exhausted. The chronic stomach pain is gone. Dieter works in the camp carpentry shop building furniture and making repairs. The work is physically demanding, but Dieter finds he can keep up now.
His body is responding to the food he eats instead of feeding parasites. Other prisoners notice the change and ask Dieter what happened. He tells them about the worms and the treatment, and several men request medical exams after hearing his story. Brady is pleased with Der’s recovery and uses him as an example in hygiene education sessions.
The camp runs regular classes for prisoners on topics like disease prevention, nutrition, and sanitation. Brady invites Dieter to speak at one of these sessions, telling his story to encourage other prisoners to get screened and treated. Dier is reluctant at first, embarrassed by the topic, but Brady convinces him that his experience could help others.
Dier stands in front of a group of about 50 prisoners and describes his symptoms. the diagnosis, the treatment, and the recovery. He shows the pamphlet Brady gave him and explains how the parasites were draining his health without him realizing it. The presentation is simple and direct, and it resonates with the audience. Several men approach Dieter afterward and say they have similar symptoms and will request medical exams.
Over the following months, the screening and treatment program at Camp Aliceville expands. More prisoners are tested, more infections are discovered, and more treatments are administered. The prevalence of parasitic infections drops as the camp improve sanitation and hygiene practices. Dieter becomes known among the prisoners as the boy who had worms, a nickname he does not particularly like, but tolerates because it comes with a grudging respect.
He survived something that many men did not understand and he helped others by sharing his story. Let us pause Der’s story and examine the larger context of parasitic infections among prisoners of war during World War II. Intestinal parasites were a widespread problem in military populations, especially in theaters with poor sanitation.
The Africa corpse fighting in North Africa from 1941 to 1943 operated in conditions that were ideal for parasite transmission. Water sources were limited and often contaminated. Latrines were inadequate or non-existent. Soldiers lived in close quarters with poor hygiene. Flies and other insects spread pathogens.
The result was a high prevalence of gastrointestinal diseases including dysentery, typhoid and parasitic infections. Medical records from the North African campaign show that approximately 30 to 40% of German soldiers captured in Tunisia tested positive for intestinal parasites when screened by Allied medical personnel.
The most common parasites were roundorms, hookworms, and whipworms. These infections caused a range of symptoms from mild discomfort to severe malnutrition and anemia. Left untreated, heavy parasitic infections could be fatal, though death was usually caused by complications like severe anemia or secondary infections rather than the parasites themselves.
The mortality rate from untreated parasitic infections in military populations was estimated at 2 to 5%. But in malnourished populations, the rate was higher. The treatment for intestinal parasites in the 1940s was effective, but not without risks. Santin, the medication used to treat roundorms, was derived from wormhood plants and had been in use since the 19th century.
It worked by paralyzing the worms, causing them to release their grip on the intestinal wall and be expelled through normal bowel movements. The side effects included nausea, abdominal cramping, and temporary vision changes, particularly a yellow tint to vision that lasted a few hours after taking the medication. For hookworms, the treatment often included supplemental iron to address the anemia caused by blood loss.
The cure rate with proper treatment was high, over 90% for most species of parasites. We return to Dieter’s story, but now we look at the broader impact of the parasitic infection epidemic on prisoner of war health. The screening and treatment program at Camp Aliceville and similar camps across the United States was part of a larger effort to improve prisoner health and prevent disease outbreaks.
The US military took the Geneva Convention seriously, partly out of genuine humanitarian concern and partly because American prisoners held by Germany and Japan benefited from reciprocal treatment. If the United States treated German prisoners humanely, Germany was more likely to treat American prisoners the same way.
This calculation influenced medical care policies, including the aggressive screening and treatment for parasitic infections. The impact of the during program was significant. Prisoners who were treated for parasitic infections showed measurable improvements in weight, strength, and overall health within weeks of treatment.
The camp hospital at Aliceville documented an average weight gain of 10 to 15 pounds among treated prisoners over a two-month period. Energy levels improved. Work productivity increased. Morale improved as prisoners felt physically better. The program also reduced the incidence of secondary infections like pneumonia and tuberculosis which were more common in weakened malnourished individuals.
By addressing the parasitic infections, the camp reduced overall mortality and morbidity. Dier’s case was part of this larger success story, but it was also a reminder of the gaps in the system. Dieter carried his infection for over a year before it was detected. He suffered chronic pain, malnutrition, and weakness that could have been prevented with earlier screening.
The transit camps in North Africa where Dieter was held immediately after capture had no medical screening capacity. The holding camps were focused on logistics, not health. By the time Dieter reached the United States and received proper medical care, the damage had been done. He recovered, but the months of suffering were unnecessary.
The system eventually worked, but it worked too late for Dieter and thousands of others like him. We are now several months after Derer’s treatment and the physical recovery is nearly complete, but the psychological impact lingers. Derer cannot stop thinking about the worms. He knows intellectually that they are gone, that the treatment worked, but he still feels a residual disgust and violation.
The idea that his body was hosting creatures that were feeding on him, that he was unknowingly carrying them for over a year, disturbs him in a way that is hard to articulate. He has nightmares occasionally, dreams where he sees worms crawling under his skin or emerging from his mouth.
He wakes up sweating and has to remind himself that it is over. Other prisoners who went through similar treatments report the same psychological effects. There is something uniquely disturbing about parasitic infections. A sense of invasion and loss of bodily autonomy that is different from other diseases. A fever or a broken bone is external and impersonal.
A parasite is intimate and violating. The camp does not have psychologists or mental health professionals. So prisoners cope with these feelings on their own or with the help of friends. Dier talks to Otto occasionally about the experience and Otto admits he had similar nightmares after being treated for a tapeworm infection.
The conversations help Dieter realize he is not alone in feeling this way. Over time, the psychological impact fades. Dier focuses on the present and the future. He continues working in the carpentry shop and becomes skilled enough that he is assigned to teach basic woodworking to other prisoners. The work gives him purpose and a sense of competence.
He makes friends, plays cards in the evenings, and attends camp concerts and theater performances. The parasitic infection becomes a story he tells occasionally, usually with dark humor, but it is no longer the defining feature of his experience. He is more than the boy who had worms. We are now in May 1945, and the war in Europe is over. Germany has surrendered.
The news reaches Camp Aliceville through official announcements and prisoner conversations. Dieter hears the news and feels a complicated mix of emotions. Relief that the killing is over. Grief for Germany’s defeat. Anxiety about what comes next. His hometown is in the American occupation zone and he does not know what condition it is in.
He has received one letter from his mother through the Red Cross dated 6 months earlier saying she is alive and living with relatives. Dier has no other information. The camp atmosphere changes after the war ends. Work details continue, but the tone is less military and more administrative. Prisoners wait for repatriation, though the timeline is uncertain.
The US military is focused on demobilizing its own troops and does not have the resources to immediately ship hundreds of thousands of prisoners back to Europe. Dier waits with patients born from 2 years of captivity. He has learned that impatience changes nothing. He works, eats, sleeps, and waits. We are now in early 1946, and Dieter receives word that he is approved for repatriation.
He will be part of a group of 1,000 prisoners being sent back to Germany in February. The journey will take them by train to a port, then by ship across the Atlantic, then by train through France into Germany. Dieter packs his belongings, a few clothes, a woodworking tool set he was given as a gift from the carpentry shop supervisor, and letters from his mother.
He says goodbye to the friends he made at Camp Aliceville, including Otto and several others who worked with him in the carpentry shop. The farewells are brief. Everyone is focused on going home. The voyage back to Europe takes three weeks. The ship is crowded and the weather is rough, but Dier does not get seasick.
His stomach, once chronically painful and weak, is now strong and resilient. He eats every meal and keeps it all down. The parasites are long gone and DER’s body has fully recovered. He weighs 138 lbs now, a gain of over 20 lbs since his treatment. He is healthy, fit, and ready to face whatever comes next.
The ship docks in Braymond and Dier is processed through a repatriation center. He is given identity papers, a small amount of money, and a train ticket to his hometown. Then he is released. Dieter takes the train south and arrives in his hometown in early March 1946. The town is damaged but not destroyed. His mother is alive and living in a small apartment.
Dier walks up to the door and knocks. His mother opens it, sees him, and bursts into tears. She pulls him inside and holds him tightly. Dier’s father did not survive the war. He died in a labor camp in early 1945. Dieter’s younger sister is alive and living nearby. The family is broken but not destroyed. Dieter is home.
We shift focus now to Corporal Thomas Brady, the medic who diagnosed and treated Dieter. Brady continued working at Camp Aliceville until the camp closed in 1946. He treated hundreds of prisoners during his time there and parasitic infections were one of the most common problems he encountered.
Brady became an expert in recognizing the symptoms and administering the treatments. After the war, Brady returned to Kentucky and used his medical training to become a physician assistant. He worked in a rural clinic for 30 years treating farm families and coal miners. He occasionally thought about his time at Camp Aliceville and the prisoners he treated.
Dier was one of many, but Brady remembered him because of how shocked the boy was when he learned about the worms. Brady believed the screening and treatment program at Camp Aliceville was one of the most successful public health interventions he ever participated in. The program identified thousands of infections, treated them effectively, and prevented complications that could have killed or permanently disabled prisoners.
Brady was proud of that work and he talked about it whenever he taught classes on tropical medicine and paracettology. He emphasized the importance of screening vulnerable populations, treating infections aggressively, and educating patients about prevention. Dier’s case was a perfect example of all three principles.
What does Dier’s story tell us about World War II and the experience of prisoners of war? On one level, it is a medical story about parasitic infections, screening, and treatment. The story illustrates how diseases that seem minor can have devastating long-term effects if left untreated. Dieter’s worms did not kill him, but they drained his health for over a year, causing malnutrition, weakness, and chronic pain.
The treatment was simple and effective, but it came too late to prevent months of suffering. That delay was a failure of the transit and holding camp system in North Africa where medical care was minimal or non-existent. On another level, Dier’s story is about the shock of discovering something hidden. Dier lived with the parasites for over a year without knowing they were there.
He attributed his symptoms to stress, hunger, and the hardships of war. When the medic told him the truth, Derer’s entire understanding of his own body shifted. The parasites explained everything. The pain, the fatigue, the inability to gain weight. That realization was both horrifying and clarifying.
It gave Dieter an explanation for his suffering and more importantly a path to recovery. The story also highlights the humanity of the medical care provided to prisoners of war in American camps. Brady treated dieter with professionalism and respect. He explained the diagnosis clearly, provided effective treatment, and followed up to ensure the worms were gone.
Brady did not see Dieter as an enemy soldier who deserved to suffer. He saw him as a patient who needed help. That approach was consistent with the Geneva Conventions and with the broader American policy of humane treatment for prisoners. The system had flaws, especially in the transit camps. But once Dier reached Camp Aliceville, he received care that likely saved his life.
We end where we began in the medical clinic at Camp Aliceville in June 1944. Dier is 17 years old, sitting on an examination table, staring at a jar filled with worms that came out of his own body. The medic has just told him he has intestinal parasites and dieter is shocked. But beneath the shock is something else. Relief.
The parasites explain everything. The pain, the weakness, the months of feeling like his body was failing him. Now there is an explanation. And more importantly, there is a cure.
