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- Notes:
- Despite the peace treaty between Russia and Germany, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (3 March 1918), Russian POW's continued to languish in German prison camps due to the Russian Civil War. Russian prisoners could not return home because the Allies did not want to swell the ranks of the Red Army and rail transportation through Poland was cut off due to the Russo-Polish War. The American YMCA sent War Prisoners' Aid secretaries back into Germany to provide relief for Russian POW's and M.V. Arnold was assigned to the prison camp at Parchim to restore welfare services. This program, developed by the Russian POW's to honor Arnold's work, depicts various scenes in the prison camp: food provided by the Association, a Christmas tree, a boxing match, a view of a camp barrack, and a German sentry guarding the fence. Note the Red Star at the top of the program. Bolshevik agitators infiltrated many of the German prison camps especially after German authorities captured Red Army troops that chose internment in East Prussia rather than decimation by the Polish Army during the Russo-Polish War.
- Date Created:
- 1920-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- This drawing shows the prison compound at Langensalza, including a Russian sentry standing at the inner gate of the barbed-wire fence near a one-story wooden barrack. To the right stand two covered buckets which were probably used to fetch food for POW's inside this compound (the buckets could have also been used for sanitation purposes but the ladle on one of the buckets undermined this possibility). French and Russian prisoners mill about the compound in the background. The Russian sentry is not armed and may be a prison trustee. The Germans and Russians signed an armistice in December 1917 which ended the fighting on the Eastern Front. Because of critical manpower shortages, the Germans employed trusted POW's to serve as guards to replace German troops who were transferred to front line duties.
- Date Created:
- 1917-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- A photograph from the watch tower in Buetow provides a general view of the prison camp, including the wooden barracks (note the barrack under construction in the background). The Russian prisoners have dug trenches to store the mountains of potatoes in preparation for the long winter. They are working under the direction of German non-commissioned officers. Potatoes were the primary source of nutrition for Allied POWs in prison camps.
- Date Created:
- 1915-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries