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- Notes:
- Muslim POW's learn to read and write in this YMCA school in the prison camp at Boldogasszonyfa in Hungary. Dual Monarchy officials encouraged the instruction of native languages among POW's, not only for the personal benefit of the prisoners, but also to weaken traditional political bonds in Eastern Europe. The Association, on the other hand, focused on the future welfare of these men and their families through educational programs.
- Date Created:
- 1918-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- The Russian prisoners in this prison camp display the contents of the recreation chest they just received from the YMCA's War Prisoners' Aid organization in Vienna. Each chest held games (Tambola, dominoes, chess, checkers, and Mensch aergere dich nicht), musical instruments (accordions and harmonicas), books, and Russian Orthodox crosses. An unidentified Association secretary, in the civilian clothing and wearing the C.V.J.M. armband), poses with the Russian prisoners. The YMCA committee in the prison camps then sent these recreation chests to POW's working outside the camp in Arbeitskommandos (labor detachments).
- Date Created:
- 1918-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- Serbian prisoners, including boys in the front row, practice their new reading skills in the elementary school at Boldogasszonyfa. Numbers and some of the letters of the alphabet in script and print are on the wall in the back of the room. The Association sought to make the time POW's spent in prison profitable in terms of teaching illiterates how to read and write.
- Date Created:
- 1918-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- This photograph shows a classroom of Muslim Serb prisoners at Boldogasszonyfa learning to read and write under YMCA administration. The Red Triangle stressed education as the best means to promote citizenship and better economic standards among illiterate prisoners; the Austro-Hungarian government promoted the instruction of native languages among minority prisoners to weaken imperial bonds in Eastern Europe. An International Red Cross worker stands in the back of the classroom.
- Date Created:
- 1918-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- A prisoner of war works in an Association library in an unidentified Austrian prison camp. Books and journal articles provided critical mental diversions for men incarcerated behind barbed-wire. Reading was not only a pastime; prisoners could read about technical and professional issues to improve their employment opportunities after the war and better support their families.
- Date Created:
- 1918-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- Max Reiser, a Swiss YMCA secretary, sits in the center (wearing the bowler hat) at a table with Russian POW's in the prison compound at Reichenberg. Reiser appears to have just distributed books to the prisoners, which were often in short supply in prison camps. The prison censor stamp indicates that the censor approved the photo on 17 April 1918.
- Date Created:
- 1918-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries