Thursday, March 13: WWII Midwest POW Traveling Exhibit @ the Library

It's not widely known that the first U.S. troops sent to fight in WWII came from the Upper Midwest, or that the region's 34th "Red Bull" Division served the longest uninterrupted duty in U.S. military history. Even fewer know that most U.S. prisoners of war (POW's) in Nazi-German camps came, per capita, from the same region.

On Thursday, March 13 from 12:30-4:30 p.m. the Racine Public Library, 75 Seventh St., will host the BUS-eum traveling WWII exhibit, "Behind Barbed Wire." This exhibit explores the experiences of Midwest POW's imprisoned in Hitler's Third Reich, and the human context in which their experiences took place. The St. Paul-based, non-profit educational organization TRACES created this exhibit. The exhibit, housed in a converted school bus, will reach nearly 120 schools, libraries, and historical societies during its spring tour throughout the Midwest.
"Behind Barbed Wire" poses five primary questions:

• Why did some Midwest POWs survive certain conditions or experiences, while others did not?
• What roles did art, free time and religion play in helping those who did survive?
• Why did some Germans or Austrians assist Midwest POWs, while others did not?
• How did the liberated POWs later come to terms with their own experiences?
• How do countries once in armed conflict reconcile with each other?
  

As the exhibit explains, "There were three main waves of Midwest POWs: those captured in North Africa in 1943, those pilots shot out of the sky during the air war over Europe, and those soldiers captured at the Battle of the Bulge, near the war's end. Each wave of Midwest POWs in Nazi Germany had its own experiences. All of the men who survived them, however, left a provocative legacy for those alive today…"

More information about the exhibit may be obtained from the TRACES website at traces.org. Questions about the exhibit's visit to Racine may be directed to Becky Spika at 262.619.2571 or becky.spika@racinelibrary.info.