War Bore

As I'm home and busy researching for an upcoming conference (as well as my MA dissertation, PANIC!) I thought that it might be nice to tell you a bit about it. My main area of research is prisoners of war (POWs) this has been a recent change, (I was initially hoping to study Russian history) however it's definitely a sensible one. Never have I felt quite so connected with something I was researching. I was chatting to a friend last night and pointed out that I was possibly the worst historian ever as I keep crying when reading people's memoirs, when a POW wrote of losing his friends, missing his loved ones or even of release I'd find myself sobbing. Now, as much as I understand about Russia I've never cried with the Kulaks, or for the Romanov's. This is a very new feeling. Luckily we decided that it's probably not a bad thing (as long as I don't have a breakdown at the conference!)

Anyway, my research is about Manx POWs and the lives they led in the prison camps. It's an interesting area and one which I feel need preserving before the last people who experienced it are gone. There are currently two Manx ex POWs left and I've been lucky enough to speak to both of them. As well as telling me lots of interesting stories they also told me a lot about themselves. It was a lovely experience.

I thought I'd share some of the more interesting stories with you:

1) My Grandfather was once part of a group who drew a large map of the Allied advance on the grubby wall of their prison so that the Germans would whitewash it for them as it needed a spruce up.
2) He was made to work at a wood wool factory as a POW, the prisoners there found out that they were being made to make camo netting and help the German war effort so they burned the factory down. My Grandfather was not involved in that part of it, but as a trained joiner he was involved in the rebuild. He cut through all the joists in the domed roof so that it would collapse when it snowed (having warned all of the POWs first of course!)
3) The other POW I spoke to was talking to me about the sewerage system they were made to work on, having talked about it for a while he then casually tacked on the end "Not that it would have worked of course, we broke everything that went down there."
4) This POW was working in a paper mill and at the end of the war they were all taken together by a senior officer in the British army and 'debriefed' on what had been happening for the last 4 years. They then proceeded to correct him on most of the information. The mill they were in had papers coming in from all over the world, including neutral countries, and therefore proved a much more reliable form of news!

I'll stop now, promise, but I these men have lived through things that I can't even begin to imagine. I thought that it was worth sharing a little bit of the humour that they somehow managed to hold on to. Here's some pictures which have kindly been passed on to me by various people:

Entertainment in the camps. 

My Granda (dashing, even without the eye!)

Theatre: Costumes made from whatever they could find.

Cross dressing for the theatre.

Christmas day menu, handwritten.

Hopefully I haven't bored you too much!

Oh and the auction mentioned in my last post raised over £4,000!!! Hurrah!