The Archives
(Recorded during captivity)
(Documents, Articles, Essays, Video/Audio Interviews)
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We have been able to accumulate over 400 original documents scanned into PDF format. These were obtained via contributions from Kriegies and their families, internet research, etc. They are held in five major groups, as listed below:
This section contains accounts written by POWs who spent time in Oflag 64, along with drawings, maps, government documents, etc. It is further divided into five subsections: Capture and Camp Life, The Long Cold March, The Hammelburg Affair, Escape to Russia, and All Those Brave Young Men.
The Oflag 64 ITEM was the name given to the monthly newsletter published by a group of POWs during their captivity. The newsletter was revived several years after liberation as the “Post-Oflag 64 ITEM”, and is currently published quarterly. The archive contains issues of the original ITEM from 1943-1945, and issues of the “Post Oflag 64 ITEM” from 1984 to the present.
The American Red Cross issued these Bulletins “to give information, consistent with war conditions, about American prisoners of war and the methods for providing aid and comfort to them.” They were published from 1943 to 1945. We have most of these issues in our archive.
In this archive are group photos of the POWs during captivity, copies of their original track and field programs, theater programs, and photos of stage performances. There is also a gallery of Kriegies Today.
Recordings made at Oflag 64 during captivity by the International YMCA.
POST-WAR DOCUMENTS, ARTICLES, ESSAYS, INTERVIEWS
Documents provided to the Kriegies after their repatriation, along with newspaper articles about returning Kriegies, and some video and audio interviews.
In preparation for a future Oflag 64 museum exhibit, biographies are being written on as many Kriegies as possible. More are being written and posted regularly.
