WARTIME GUIDES

There are moments when our trips looks like  investigation than normal tourism. A story of Johny Walker is one of the most interesting at this time. He was an Australian POW who was imprisoned in Fort XV. During his stay he was preparing Whisky and apart from that he also made false keys to food storage. Before Australians were moved from Torun he hid keys in a hole near a window in  a Fort.  After 70. years his grandson Peter came to Torun to see where John spent 5 years and also we tried to find  keys. After few hours of walking and searching we found wires which look like the faked keys. But even John isn't sure that the wires were the same like these during WWII. By the way this is another prove for us that a lot of issues aren't closed. Probably parts of faked keys Preparations of whisky in Fort XV

       It's very nice when an international cooperation isn't limited only to the internet. On 1.08 (in Poland this is an  anniversary of Warsaw uprising) we opened an exhibiton dedicated to Australian POW. The exhibition visited  President of the town, members of the Historical War Museum (who have given us space for the exhibit) the and local media Thanks to members of the 2/5 Australian General Hospital Association we possessed a lot of worthy things: unique pictures, books, posters, postcards etc. The most important is the flag (Red Ensign) based on the same one which was created in Stalag XX A in Thorn. To see the TV relation from the event click HERE  An Exhibition in Historical War Museum an original flag during sport parade in Fort XV

If anybody believes that world is small, it is! At the begining was an email for some information about Australians soldiers in Stalag XX A. From word to word our cooperation  with the southern part of the world has given us fruitful results such as sensational materials about a small regiment of Australians in Stalag XXA, Torun. We may also boast that now we are honored members of 2/5 Australian General Hospital association! From our blog we would like to thank for whole help and knowledge to: Ray Butterfield and all memmebers. The badge of 2/5 Australian General Hospital

After July we are sure that Stalag history is totally undiscovered. Single stories are such exciting that we could make a lot of movies. Below we publish a short story of Sgt Neil McLellan whose traces we had chance to follow.  Looking for founds of  barracks "My Grandfather, Sgt Neil McLellan, 202 Anti-Tank Battery (Isle of Bute), Royal Artillery, 51 st Highland Division was a Prisoner of War for 5 years in Stalag XXA during the Second World War. During this time he became the official camp photographer taking many pictures of events such as Theatre Plays, Boxing, Football and Rugby. He also attended the Funerals of many British POW’s so that the event could be recorded for military records. On leaving the camp to begin the infamous “Death March” he managed to hold on to many of these pictures and later traced some of the Families of the fallen. Like many others he would not talk about it in the years after the war. However in my years at School during the...

Lately, we went to Gdańsk (Danzig) for a studytour devoted to Stalag XXB. Mainly to see the last two baracks from Stalag XXB. And we found it! Sadly they are in very bad conditions and probably this year they will be distroyed. Therefore, we attach pictures and movie for you to see.   Above a movie from the area!

Not so long ago, we found a trace of prisoners of war in Deutsch Eylau (now Iława,Poland) Stalag XXB.Therefore, we went there to check that information. Happily, thanks to Mr Michał Młotek the author of a blog fabryka-historii.pl we were able to see what is left from the camp. We have found a monument and an unique plan! This summer we will do more research about this and for sure we will add some more information on the blog. a plague on the monument To those brutally murdered during WWII  prisoners of Hitler's working camps in Iława - citizens                                                                 a monument an engine house which was built by ...

We have just returned from Poland where as a family we went to see where our father,Signalman John Fenwick had been a prisoner of war for 5 years. He spent half of his time at Stalag XXA and then he was sent to Stalag XXB. Dad did not talk very much about his time in Poland so we had very little information. We found some photos and a few cards,letters etc in a file after our father died. My sister and I both felt we would like to go and see where dad had been. We did not know where to start but luckily for us we found Pawel and Hania's web site and so we contacted them to see if they could help us with our journey of remembrance. Pawel took us to visit the forts,memorials and war cemeteries.. He took us to the museum where we met Peter who showed us his collection of  WWll memorabilia,and then to  see Thomas and his collection of bunkers,gun emplacements etc. These people are so dedicated to the preservation of the history of WWll and Polish history in the past,...