WARTIME GUIDES

Ken came to Toruń with his wife Sue tracking his father's steps in Stalag XXA (20A). His father worked in a workshop repairing shoes, clothes and theatre costumes. His comrades were Sam Kydd and Albie Tomson. The first one, after the war became a famous actor and the latter after leaving the camp died in the plane crach near Paris, France. Thanks to numerous documents and materials we were able to move back in history and see Torun in a wartime persepective. The reason for our visit to Torun was to try and identify and visit as many sites that my father Corporal Ron Harrison, 7th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment, would have been at during his five years in captivity at Stalag XXA during the Second World War. Ron rarely spoke about his time as a POW but he did have a considerable collection of wartime pictures plus a number of hand drawn sketches from publications such as “The Prisoners Pie”, which was an official paper produced by the prisoners. Ron signed up...

Now in Torun left only few remains of  Stalag XXA. When we retraced paths of exPOW the really treasure is heritage cointained in stories. There are many fascinating about escapes from Stalag XXA. But each one is worthy to read:

Thanks to our cooperation to Museum of Dobrzyńska Land in Rypin , Poland we had a great opportunity to give a short presentaion about Stalag XXA and working camps around Rypin. This city is located on the East of Kujawsko - Pomorskie region and since 1941 there was a working camp of Stalag XXA, Thorn (now Torun). Thanks help of the locals we possessed a lot of new facts: how did the camp worked and relations between citizens and Pows. What is more interesting,  we learnt about how partizans helped imprisoned soldiers, ways of escapes and farmers who hid soldiers who had decided to escape. Sometimes these stories could be script for a movie. We hope that with time we'll find new folders in local archives which fulfill white gaps in the history dedicated to personal storiers of British PoW's there. 

More than 20 000 people from different countries like never before  waited for consignment from a camp post...  Christmas time was well celebrated especially by POW's. Men from rooms and wooden huts  prepared their own Christmas dinner, sometimes small gifts, and of course interiors, were well decorated by hand made ornaments and Christmas tree. What is more, actor groups prepared special shows (concerts, dance bands, plays, pantomimes) related to Christmas tradition and very often written in the camp. For Christmas were also published special number of a camp newsletter: Prisoners Pie (or New Prisoners Pie) Very interesting is also fact that POW's assoctations in motherslands organised events like competitions for the best Christmas hand made postcard! Front page of  the Christmas Number The New Prisoners Pie Front page of  the Christmas Number The New Prisoners Pie When it comes to the Christmas dinner, it's necessary to point out that the...

I'm happy to say that my article about Stalag XXA was published in a Ex-Prisoner of War Association newsletter! If you interested in it please write to us.