Holzminden POW camp: The Great Escape of 1918

Scanned from the original which is part of the Liddle collection.

 

Holzminden POW Germany, July 1918, 60 officers began the escape attempt, getting away through a nearby field of rye. But the tunnel collapsed on the 30th man, blocking the escape route. Here we have a original note from the camp drawn by a POW which details the camp layout and where the escape tunnel was located. 

Keeping up ones Spirits!

Unidentified group with their secret distillery at Stalag 18A, a German prisoner of war camp in Wolfsberg, Austria, circa 1944. Photograph taken by John H Ledgerwood.

I really like this photo, its amazing the contraptions prisoners would make in a POW camp! I bet there was a tunnel under those barrels too. 

Conscientious objectors Prison

Continuing our theme of Prison photo's I have found this one from the Leeds University Liddle collection.

Compulsory military service (conscription) for all men aged 18-50 in Britain was introduced in 1916 with the Military Service Act for WW1. Those who refused to go into military service were often imprisoned or sent to work camps, and there was one of these at Dyce, near Aberdeen.

In those day being a Conscientious objector was not the easy option. Many died in those prison work camps.

Prison Life

New blog, hopefully interesting for users to read and look at some fine photo's from the past. Kicking off this week I will theme the photo's around Prison.

Here we can see inmates put through their paces on some kind of wooden structure called the 'Treadmill'.

The really interesting thing is that the treadmill is huge, a wheel similar to those seen in water mills. The major difference being the inmates turn the wheel not water. If they got tired and couldn't keep up with the pace they would have to hold on to the side groves or risky injury falling down.

In the early part of the century prisoners were put on the treadmill for up to six hours a day. It had no useful purpose. It was just monotonous hard work. In 1843 the Prison Inspectors' General Survey stated that the treadmill was 'an improper punishment for females and boys under 14 years of age'.

This photo is from Pentonville Prison in England 1895.