Life Behind Barbed Wire [book]

[connie]

Life Behind Barbed Wire
The Secret World War II Photographs of Angelo Spinelli
Angelo M. Spinelli, with Lewis H. Carlson

When searching for something else, I ran across the listing for this book. I have not seen the book but am interested in knowing if anyone else has.

IT WAS published IN 2004 by Fordham University Press.

It is not written by a member of the 106th but the author was in Stalags III A & III-B, camps which housed some members of the division.
See posts on that camp: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/3949/thread

According to the write-up on the book, during his stay in the camp the author, who was captured in 1943, bribed a German guard to obtain a camera and film with which he secretly documented his stay there.

Google Link takes you directly to some pages in the book:
books.google.com/books?id=iEbVU2b7CfQC&pg=PA41&lpg=PA41&dq=stalag+iiib+fürstenberg+oder&source=bl&ots=eIOvC4ykK1&sig=ZTnvTQKuNRehq8fF2DMsn27pUY4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-vSrVMaBJs66ogT3k4Fo&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=stalag%20iiib%20fürstenberg%20oder&f=false

Amazon link: www.amazon.com/Life-Behind-Barbed-Wire-Photographs/dp/0823223051



IMPORTANT NOTE:
It appears that there is another book by the same title about an internment camp. So be sure you check the author's name as well as the title.

[gfgrant8443]

Connie

I found a used copy of the book on line for only $8.00 so I am looking forward to searching the photos and text for something related to my father since he was in both POW camps and on the long march between the two at the same time as the author. I seem to be able to always count on you to send me in a new direction when I get stuck on where to research next. Thanks!

Frank Grant

[connie]

Frank,

I wondered it this might be of interest to you when I spotted it. I look forward to hearing your observations after the book arrives. I hope it can add something of value to your search.

Connie

[Carl W.]

Looks and sounds like a very interesting book. These secret pictures provide a unique look on life inside one of those camps.

Carl

[gfgrant8443]

My copy of Life Behind Barbed Wire arrived and I went through the pictures and text comparing it with my father's POW diary and he could have been writing the captions for many of the pictures. The things he talked about in his diary were hard to make a mental picture of until you see it in a photo, like the little stoves they made from scraps that had a blower so they would use less fuel to cook their food. One part that got to me was the author talked about getting a ride on a horse drawn wagon because he was getting too weak to walk any further during the march between POW camps and my father talked about trying to catch a ride on a horse drawn wagon, but wasn't able to because there was no more room. I don"t know how many wagons there were, but they could have been talking about the same one. My father also talked about being liberated by the Russians on April 22, 1945 and there were a number of photos of the liberation in the book so I could see how happy they were and not just imagine it.

As far as reviewing the book, it was interesting and showed a lot of pictures of how the POW's passed their time with hobbies, playing music and putting on plays. It also showed that the non-coms were treated, in some cases, better than the enlisted men as far as receiving Red Cross packages, attention by the Red Cross, the YMCA etc. Even so, it was no picnic.

Thanks Connie for pointing me toward this book. It was well worth it for me.

Frank Grant