Re: Behind Barbed Wire: Midwest POWs in Nazi Germany

Date: April 29, 2004

"Library has special WWII POW exhibit

The Chariton Public Library is scheduling family activities throughout the year in observance of the library’s 100th birthday. The library’s centennial will be observed on Saturday, Oct. 23. The Chariton Public Library was formally dedicated Oct. 28, 1904.

The library is sponsoring a mobile exhibit titled “Behind Barbed Wire: Midwest POW’s in Nazi Germany.” The bus that holds the exhibit, will be parked on the east side of the courthouse square, Friday, May 14, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The American heartland has unique connections to the WWII prisoner of war (POW) experience. Despite this legacy, virtually no one is aware of it. Housed in a converted school bus, the mobile exhibit “Beyond Barbed Wire” illustrates this history through narrative texts, multi-media and artifacts.

The Midwest has unique connections to the World War II European theater prisoner of war experience.

The first U.S. troops sent to Europe came from the Iowa-based 34th “Red Bull” Division. This division consisted of men from Iowa, the Dakotas and Minnesota. They served for more than 600 days, which was the longest uninterrupted duty of any U.S. unit of the U.S. Army. About 2,000 soldiers from the 34th Division were captured in North Africa in February 1943 by German Afrikakoprs troops, led by Field Marshall Erwin Rommel.

Later pilots shot down during air raids over Germany formed a second wave of Midwest POW’s imprisoned in Nazi Germany. Until the Battle of the Bulge took place in December 1944, just west of Germany in Belgium and Luxembourg, a disproportionate shore of U.S. POW’s in the Third Reich came, per capita from the Midwest.

The non-profit educational organization TRACES is bringing these stories to life through the creation of its BUS-eum - a 40 foot school bus converted into a mobile museum.

For the rest of the story, please read the latest issue of the Chariton Newspapers.

© 2004 The Chariton Leader"