Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Following the Footsteps of Toruń's POWs: Face to Face with History

Mugshots...mostly of fellow prisoners
a 1940s starlet
Faces from the past
A caricature of Popeye
No talking inside the washroom!

Face to Face with History:

Minding our step, we enter a pitch-black room. Piotr flashes his torch onto the walls. Suddenly we are surrounded by crudely drawn images. Topless women with old-fashioned hairdos appear next to what looks like charcoal drawn mugshots of shaved, hard-bitten men. Above two mugshots there is some English written: "The Two Bath Stewards".

Yes, we are currently standing in the former wash room of Stalag XX-A...and these images were all drawn by British POWs 70 years ago. The cool temperature has helped to preserve these historical forms of graffiti, but I fear with time they will soon fade away. We must try and do something to preserve this art for future generations...

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