The presence of POWs was a sore point for many of Chandler’s residents. The prisoners were transported almost daily through town, and their freedom took locals by surprise. On one occasion, a soldier-guard reportedly had been drinking and allowed a Nazi prisoner to carry his rifle as they strolled down the road. The guard was placed on thirty-day suspension.21 The monotonous routine of a POW camp contributed to a comfort level between the prisoners and the American guards at Camp Florence, and a loosening of protocol. The prisoners and guards were in the same age-group, usually late teens to mid-20s, and there also was a mutual understanding of what serving in the military meant. Eventually the conditions became so lax that in an inspection report the camp was cited for lack of discipline. The “prisoners at base camp and branch camps were seen working in shorts and without any upper garments both in camp and on private contract work,” it stated.22

If the guards at Camp Florence preached racial superiority to Frederick, or if their friendships with other prisoners crossed boundaries, it had little impact on him. He had carved out a peaceful existence for himself that didn’t include fascist ideology or racial prejudice. Cooking and listening to music were his sustenance.

Jazz played a big role in Frederick’s ability to cope with the monotony that came with being a prisoner of war. He had the sounds of New Orleans at his fingertips, which provided comfort and healing from the pain of his childhood. He felt intimately connected to jazz and the black musicians who performed it, even though Frederick’s interactions with blacks were largely nonexistent. He didn’t know any people of color in Oppeln, nor when his family later moved to Vienna. He envisioned black people as warm, passionate, and artistic, but that was based on a fantasy he’d spun and not on experiences he’d had. He was only nineteen years old when he was captured—daydreaming was part of his existence, along with raging hormones, and listening to music seemed to calm his restlessness.

With regular access to U.S. Armed Forces Radio, he followed several black musicians, such as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Ella Fitzgerald.23 And if there was a record player around, he could play one of the guards’ V-Discs, which were special phonograph records produced just for U.S. military personnel. The V-Discs played an active role in the lives of Americans stationed all over the world. They were the product of a special arrangement between the United States Army and private recording companies from 1943 to 1949. Many popular bands and singers, from Louis Armstrong to Frank Sinatra to Bing Crosby, recorded for the V-Disc program. Some of the discs also contained introductions by bandleaders and artists, wishing the soldiers good luck and offering prayers.24