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- Notes:
- This storeroom in the Geneva headquarters of the World's Alliance of YMCA's is where secretraries prepared circulating libraries for shipment to labor detachments in the Central Power and Allied nations. The walls of the hallway are covered with stacks of circulating libraries, a testiment to their popularity among prisoners.
- Date Created:
- 1917-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- This photograph shows the interior of the Association building at Crossen-an-der-Oder. Russian instructors, from the POW population, teach a class for their fellow countrymen. The YMCA strove to provide educational opportunities to prisoners of war to help them find better jobs and help their families after repatriation.
- Date Created:
- 1915-01-01T00:00:00Z
- 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:
- French, British, and Russian prisoners of war pack the YMCA reading room in Goettingen. To maximize space, there are no tables to make sure that as many prisoners as possible can be accommodated in the reading room.
- Date Created:
- 1915-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- Russian prisoners administer the book collection in this library in an unidentified German prison in 1915. The YMCA provided a large number of these books for the benefit of the POW population, including hard to find Russian language books and journals.
- Date Created:
- 1915-01-01T00:00:00Z
- 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
- Notes:
- This photograph shows a classroom in a YMCA hall in an unidentified German prison camp. Russian POW's are learning how to read from fellow prisoners. The class is obviously popular--students must sit on the floor because there are no empty seats in the room.
- Date Created:
- 1916-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries
- Notes:
- Social workers and neutral inspectors often visited prison camps to meet prisoners. In this wood block print, a social worker, probably a YMCA secretary, distributes books to French and Russian prisoners of war at Muensingen. Books were important for entertainment to help POW's pass their time and to support education programs.
- Date Created:
- 1918-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Western Michigan University. Libraries