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WWII POW STALAG LUFT I BARTH ILLUSTRATED DIARY


KASTAUFFER
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I recently acquired this diary , and decided to post it. Its not very long so it wasnt difficuly to photograph the entire book.

 

The book itself is entirely hand made in the camp from " faux " German leather for the cover and low quality paper on the inside. Attached to the cover is an ORIGINAL camp made lead POW wing. Most of the cast wings said to be real POW wings are questionable. What is amazing is the quality of the casting. All of the real POW wings I have acquired in groupings are of this same decent quality.

 

The creator of this diary was a gunner with the 445th Bomb Group serving on B-24 # 41-28666 named " Dixie Dudrop " shot down March 18,1944 on a mission to Friedrichshafen Germany . The pilot along with 3 other men were killed . The balance became POW's .

 

Here is the cover of the diary with the lead POW wing. I have photographed the diary and am presenting it here in order .

 

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Disney Dave..... This page is for you thumbsup.gif

 

The Donald Duck " I Wanted Wings " illustration is very common in Stalag Luft diarys .

 

 

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Self Portrait . Picasso would have been proud .

 

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Kriegie Calls !!! A list of common phrases a POW would have used.

 

 

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List of mail he sent and received while in Stalag Luft I .

 

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Picture of his wings .

 

 

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The gate to the resort facility

 

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This is hard to see but it is a pencil drawing of his B-24 going down in flames.

 

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The honeymoon suite

 

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A POW's favorite items... A pack of Lucky Strikes and a can of KLIM . For you youngsters , KLIM is MILK spelled backwords and was a can of processed milk. I dont think this is sold anymore, but was quite popular at one time. The POW's saved the KLIM cans and scraped the lead from the seal on the lid to make the POW wings out of. They also saved gum wrappers .

 

 

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I wonder how may POW's could have won the " World Poker Tour " with as much practice as they got .

 

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The one thing every POW could not wait to see.

 

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The " library " at Stalag Luft I . Also known as a latrine .

 

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The only page in the dairy with a written entry. It was made the day the Russians liberated the camp.

 

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It says :

 

April 26, 1945

 

The Russians are not that far and the Germans are leaving the camp before they get here. They do not want to be here as they may be shot. We have the run of the camp and the city of Barth, Germany. Not much to do and looking for food and anything to take. The SAO ( Senior Allied Officer ) is holding us all together until we are free once more. "FREEDOM" .

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The last few pages. He outlined a dogtag and wrote the names and addresses of his buddies in them.

 

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Until a person has lost their freedom they do not realize how precious it is.

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One last item :

 

This is a German Seal that was made in Stalag LUFT I and brought home by the POW who made the diary . It is made by a POW cast from lead and attached to a piece of wood. It says " Waffen SS - Liebstandarte Adolf Hitler " .

 

I dont know if this was used as a stamp for false escape documents , or just a souvenir . I do not think it is a modern " fantasy piece " .

 

Kurt

 

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That is a great diary. Do you know if the soldier survived the war?

 

He did survive. Only about 3% of the Americans held by the Germans died while in captivity . The same can not be said about other POW nationalities the Germans held. The Russian POW's held by the Germans especially suffered great losses. The Geneva convention was not followed in their case.

 

Kurt

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It will be interesting to see if any POW diarys are sold from the " world class collection " on Ebay and what they might bring. I will be watching .

 

The nice thing about these diarys is that you generally dont have to worry if they are real or not and glow under a black light :lol:

 

Kurt

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Another great addition to your collection Kurt.

 

When the time comes I may ask you about loaning some of your diaries with the Luft III Donald Duck design to the museum project I am working on. Just think...I was able to track down and speak with the originator of that design and he gave me that postcard I showed in a post in the Disney sub-forum. I was told by his family that his diary is in the process of being donated to the Air Force Academy Luft III holdings in Colorado.

 

Congrats again.

 

David

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  • 1 year later...

Hello Kurt ,

I'm in touch with Kenneth Bradford's son , he is very moved seeing his father's diary from your collection . His plane went down in my area near Rouen , Normandy during WW2. Could you possibly contact me please ?

Either Zorglub on this forum or email : [email protected]

Thanks Kurt.

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Kurt-thanks for posting. Amazing! Have you let the folks at the Eighth Air Force Museum know about it? For those who haven't been, it's in Savannah right off I-95 and well worth the visit. They have an entire section on the POW experience.

Thanks again,

Fielding

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Kurt-thanks for posting. Amazing! Have you let the folks at the Eighth Air Force Museum know about it? For those who haven't been, it's in Savannah right off I-95 and well worth the visit. They have an entire section on the POW experience.

Thanks again,

Fielding

 

I have a number of WWII POW diaries, but unfortunately I traded this diary to another collector a while back since I already had 2 other Stalag Luft 1 diaries. I kept the 2 I liked the best.

 

Kurt

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