Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - My day out to the P.O.W. camp.

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My day out to the P.O.W. camp.

At the peak of World War II there were approximately 1500 prisoner of war camps in Great Britain.

Not far from my home lies the remains of one of the very few camps which, after it's usefulness had expired, was allowed to remain untouched. So, on Saturday my brother and I got on our bikes and had a snoop around.

This is: Camp #93, Harperley.

The camp is surrounded by a 6' chain-link fence, topped with barbed wire.

My initial survey reports that this a modern addition designed to keep the English out, rather than Ze Germans (and Italians) inside.

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/4...rufence6jw.jpg

How I long to see the other side. Tunneling under was considered but we wanted to be home in time for tea and we couldn't find a guard who would exchange cigarettes and boot polish for wire cutters. We decided the best course of action was to jump the fence on a motorbike.

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/3...tbarbed1lh.jpg

Then we realised that the fence only went half way round, so we just walked in.

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/1912/sahuts6on.jpg

...and acquainted ourselves with our new surroundings. For us, the war was over.

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/1747/sahuts15kz.jpg

Whenever I mention the war, you immediately start thinking in black & white. Believe or not, back in the 1940's the sky was blue and the grass was green.

http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/853/sascene6px.jpg

The POW camp is built on farmland. For the last 60 years, many of the 50 or so huts have been used as agricultural buildings and are in very poor condition.

http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/8...ctorhut3ev.jpg

Some are in better condition than others, and it's these ones that give a better sense of life as a POW.

[at this point jwoody grows a beard and turns into a tour guide]

..as you can see... here... the hut is constructed from six... pre-fabricated sections... you can clearly see where the men slept... this hut is identical to all other British built POW huts in the world... where you have a window it is always opposite a wall... where you have wall it always opposite... yes, you guessed it... a window. In front of each wall section, a bunk bed... sleeping two POWs. Total of 24 men per hut... multiply that by fifty huts... you have accommodation for a thousand men... give... or... take... a few...................... hundred.

http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/3...sidehut3gt.jpg

[/end tour]

One of the huts had been decorated with some impressive paintings. Here we see a fox, basking in the midday sun. You can also see how they spiced the place up with some nifty (timber) curtains.

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/2...urtains5to.jpg

Here's a painting of a horse.

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/3014/sahorses4jm.jpg

...and some scenery.

http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/8085/sascene14ck.jpg

Most impressive is the theatre hut. It isn't known exactly how the prisoners managed to acquire the materials and tools to build this but, as this was an Anti-Nazi prison camp, the prisoners would be working in the local community during the day. It is important to point out that the prisoners were not forced to work and that they were paid. Being prisoners they couldn't spend their money and at the end of the war the money they had earned was shared between the remaining prisoners.

http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/428/satheatre7yl.jpg

Another view of the theatre.

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/1...heatre24gi.jpg

The decor was impressive in it's ingenuity. The fancy trellis work on the wall has been made by cutting squares out of the plasterboard...

http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/9...redecor2hc.jpg

..and items such as curtains made from hessian sack.

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/1580/sasack7zp.jpg

The camp was featured on a BBC program called 'Restoration' in which the public had to vote on a project to be restored. The P.O.W. camp didn't win the vote.

A German amateur documentary film maker (and ex-P.O.W.) named Rudi Lux made a short film about his time at the camp.

Links:

http://www.powcamp.com/history.html

http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/...ory/wwtwo/pow/

http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/di.../PoWs/pows.htm

A very interesting photo documentary about a time gone by, JWoody. Very interesting perspective. Of course, I would have preferred seeing you guys jumping the fence on your bikes to lend a bit more drama to the story. :thumbsup:

I saw that on TV I think.

The pictures are cool.

I didn't realise that you could just walk in. I've got in-laws in the region, so I may pop by some time.

There is an official tour (which costs £1.50) but we were too late. When we got there one of the guides told us which huts to look in, and a very brief description, then left us to it.

It is an interesting place but, as a tourist attraction, it isn't really worth travelling to unless you're a real WWII enthusiast.

Wow. That was really cool. For the most part, we in the west, are treated to WWI and WWII POW films like La Grand Illusion, Stalag 17 and the Great Escape (not to mention Hogans Heroes!) and they are always, with fair reason, from the point of view of the Allies in German POW camps.

I think this would make an awesome setting for a film. German POW captured by the Brits, imprisoned in the north of England. At first he finds it difficult to adjust but eventually while working in the town falls in love with a local girl. The conflict arises when some of his more patriotic fellow prisoners want to escape...

It would, at the very least, make a good BBC drama.

Thanks for showing me this JWoody.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlatan

That sounds almost like the true story of Rudi Lux, excluding the escape.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The POW Camp Website

Rudi Lux was born in Pomerania (which is now part of Poland) in February 1929. In the latter stages of WWII the German forces were depleted and attacked by the Russians to the East & the Americans to the West. All able-bodied males were made to fight for their country. Rudi & his schoolmates were given rudimentary training, an armband to replace the uniform & no weapon! They had to fight but were given their choice of foe. Six weeks later Rudi was captured by the advancing Americans aged 16 & the youngest POW in that conflict. He was in other camps before he came to Harperley in 1946.

After WWII Rudi was unable to return to his home town, now in the Communist Eastern Block, but able to live and work in Britain where he eventually married and settled locally. Even until 1961 Rudi still reported to his local Police Station as a Displaced Person and worked as a farm labourer until then. Rudi’s input has been instrumental in recent past, present and future plans at Harperley. He became unwell at Christmas 2003 and consulted his GP only to be diagnosed with a terminal illness from which he subsequently died, 11 th March 2004, in Morpeth. Because he never repatriated Rudi saw Harperley as part of the Germany he remembered. His ashes are scattered here in RUDI’S ROSE GARDEN which is dedicated to his memory.

Quote:

Thanks for showing me this JWoody.

No problemo. :thumbsup:

That's very cool. I love stories like that...

Fantastic. And your lighthearted telling of the stories take the sting out of what POW camps were made for. Thanks for posting this.

As for the theater: I can only imagine a group of people, all resembling John Cleese, clumping around on the stage, Clad in fatigue gree and tall boots, while the two violins in the orchestra pit (hey, that's all it might hold) squeak away.