Held in the Heartland: German POWs in the Midwest, 1943-46

$7.50 [sold out]

From 1943-46 the US Government brought about 380,000 German, some 50,000 Italian and some 6-8,000 Japanese prisoners of war (POWs) to the United States. Housed in over 500 base and branch camps in almost all of the then-48 states, these captured Axis-power soldiers were to become "enemies within". This booklet is the exhibit text and leading photos or documents about the German POWs held in the American Heartland. While the crops they harvested and the ethnicity of their "hosts" varied from those in New England, the South or the West, their core experiences were essentially the same as Axis POWs across the US.

This book features many color images, and is in German as well as English.

VANISHED: German-American Civilian Internment, 1941-48

$10 [sold out]

The U.S. Government interned some 15,000 German American civilians immediately following the bombing of Pearl Harbor , using lists made months in advance. Some of those interned were Nazi sympathizers, but many more (some 4,058) were Latin-American German Americans forcibly brought to this country to exchange for German-held U.S. nationals, and even Jews who had fled the Holocaust. Not one of the internees was ever charged with, tried for or convicted of a war-related crime against the United States ; the internees—including U.S. citizens—were allowed no legal defense. This 105-page book contains extensive auto/biographies of former internees, as well as hundreds of photos.

Behind Barbed Wire: Midwest POWs in Nazi Germany

$5

This exhibit guide consists of all of the narrative as well as supplementary texts of the BUS-eum exhibit by the same name as this catalog, and many of the photos, artwork and documents in the exhibit. Basically, this is the BUS-eum exhibit in booklet form--a record ideal for those who have toured the BUS-eum and wish to "revisit" it later, via this printed guide, or for those who missed the BUS-eum when it passed through their communities.

$17.50 [sold out]

TRACES' first book project, Enemies Within: Iowa POWs in Nazi Germany makes public the previously unknown journals, narratives and diary drawings of five Iowa men who experienced firsthand the horrors of Hiter's "New Order". Extensively illustrated by TRACES'
president Pat Schultz, the 234-page book has 56 color or black/white photos and color drawings.

Only the Least of Me is Hostage: Midwest POWs in Nazi Germany
Volume 1 of 2: Midwest SOLDIERS

$17.50 for one, $30 for two, $40 for three; $12.50 for each additional book thereafter.

TRACES' most recently published Midwest-POW diaries, the two-volume set Only the Least of Me is Hostage documents in vivid detail the ordeal that some sons of the American Heartland endured as prisoners of war in Nazi Germany. Richly illustrated with the men's own photos, drawings and related documents (many reproduced in color), both Volume I: Soldiers and Volume II: Airmen contain sobering, moving stories of courage and cowardice, hope and despair, darkness and light. (To read excerpts from both sets of diaries, click here.)

Only the Least of Me is Hostage: Midwest POWs in Nazi Germany
Volume 2 of 2: Midwest AIRMEN

[sold out]

Exact replica of U.S. Government booklet for soldiers headed for Europe in World War II.

$3.00 or $5.00 for two

Cartoon created by U.S. POWs in Nazi-German camps, while they were imprisoned.

Signs of Life: The Correspondence of German POWs at Camp Algona, Iowa 1943-46

$17.50

Signs of Life documents through 282 translated letters of German POWs in the Camp Algona system two World War II-era German POW legacies, the Historical ("facts" inseparably tied to specific periods, places or personalities) and the Human (timeless themes and struggles central to human existence). The letters illustrate an evolution from their authors' being captured soldiers to men yearning to return to home and hearth. This 99-page book contains some 150 photos as well as two dozen related documents.

Camp Papers: The German POW Newspapers at Camp Algona, Iowa 1943-46

$17.50 [sold out]

Camp Papers documents the two distinct World War II-era German POW public journals published at Iowa's Camp Algona from 1944 to 1946. These papers (the first pro-Nazi, the second anti-Nazi) document the POWs' evolving and ultimately soul-searching confrontation with their nation's destructive, doomed experiment with fascism and global war. Twenty-four issues of the two papers fill this book's 170 pages with a rich variety of news summaries, essays, poems, camp announcements, drawing-contest-winners' artwork, humor sections and puzzles, reports from Camp Algona's 35 branch camps (many of them illustrated), theater reviews and more. It is an invaluable research resource for both serious scholars and "hobbyist historians".

Swords into Plowshares: Minnesotas POWs during WWII

$35 [order from author]

Swords into Plowshares: Minnesota's POW Camps during World War II features Dean Simmons' intricate research into 21 POW camps established in Minnesota between 1943 and 1945. Based on archival material in the U.S. and Europe as well as interviews with former prisoners, the 234-page book contains numerous illustrations and 80 photos.

Love Thine Enemies: Images of a Little Known Chapter in German-American History

[sold out]

At 75 pages, Thomas Naegele's Liebe Deine Feinde/Love Thine Enemies might at first seem a modest work; these 57 original paintings, however, come from his stint as a German- Jewish-refugee-turned-U.S.-Army interpreter at German POW camps  in the Upper Midwest and deliver an impact far beyond the  book's thin appearance. Written in German and in English, it intimately documents yet another angle of the German POW as well as refugee experience.

                                                                            

[sold out]

Exhibit catalog for the exhibit of the same name,  featuring photos and texts from the exhibit itself: from April 1939 to March 1943, 186 refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe found a safe haven at Scattergood, a temporary hostel near West Branch, Iowa. Among them were a large percentage of Jews and others endangered in the “New Germany.” With the help of the Quaker farmers and idealistic college students who took them in, the refugees (referred to as “guests” by staff) sought to overcome the trauma of their experiences in Europe and build new lives in the New World. 48 pages.

Out Of Hitler's Reach: The Scattergood Hostel for European Refugees, 1939-43

$17.50

Michael Luick-Thrams' Out of Hitler's Reach: The Scattergood Hostel for European Refugees, 1939-43 tells the compelling story of the 186 exiles that Iowa Quaker farmers and college students saved from Nazi terror. A kind of Schindler's List on the Prairie, the book contains 325 pages and 41 photos.

[order from publishers]

One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II

$16

After WWII many Europeans were left destitute. This story tells of one Midwest family's effort to relieve the suffering. They sent food, clothing and shoes to friends in Germany. Soon, shoe tracings from all over the continent poured in to the family's modest farm. With so many in need, they enlisted the help of friends and neighbors. Ultimately, thousands of people on both sides of the Atlantic were touched by this remarkable process.
Illustrated with paintings and collages of original photographs and foot tracings, this moving story is a granddaughter's tribute to her grandparents, who organized this relief effort. By sending hope and kindness, they began healing the wounds of war. It is a powerful reminder of the importance of humanitarianism during and after a war.

Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot

$18

Life was grim in 1948 West Berlin, Germany. To seize control and set up communist rule, Josef Stalin blockaded the city: without outside help, over 2.2 million people would die.

The Berlin Airlift was a humanitarian rescue mission that used British and American airplanes to fly in supplies. One US pilot, Gail S. Halvorsen, helped provide not only nourishment to the children but also a reason to hope for a better world. From one act of kindness came a lifelong relationship between Lt. Halvorsen and the children of West Berlin.

This is the true story of a 7-year-old girl named Mercedes who lived in West Berlin during the airlift and of the American who came to be known as the “Chocolate Pilot”.

Military Aircraft of WWII

$10

“The Story of Flight” series celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight, and presents the exciting history of aviation. Vivid illustrations and photographs show aviation's greatest moments, famous pilots, and the multitude of aircraft to date from military to commercial planes.

MILITARY AIRCRAFT of WWII:

From the beginnings of WWII it was obvious to the most industrialized nations that aircraft would play an important role in the war. Read all about the planes flown by Britain's Royal Air Force, the United States military, and Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe during the biggest conflict in world history.

The Red Tails: WWII's Tuskegee Airmen

$10

In late 1939, Germany was waging war in Europe. Japan was fighting on the other side of the world. This was the beginning of World War II. The US needed a supply of young men to fly fighter planes, bombers, and other aircraft. So, Congress passed a law to establish pilot training programs across the country.

Many young black men became excellent pilots, but they could not fly: the Air Corps did not accept African Americans, as it assumed African Americans could not make good pilots. But military policies soon changed: in 1941, the Air Corps established an all-black flying outfit, named the 99th Pursuit Squadron. The stage was finally set for black men to prove they could fly in the Army Air Corps.