German Prisoners of the Great War: Life in the Skipton Camp

In Munich in 1920, just after the end of the First World War, German officers who had been prisoners of war in England published a book they had written and smuggled back to Germany. Through vivid text and illustrations they describe in detail their experience of life in captivity in a camp at Skipton in Yorkshire. Their work, now translated into English for the first time, gives us a unique insight into their feelings about the war, their captors and their longing to go home. In their own words they record the conditions, the daily routines, the food, their relationship with the prison authorities, their activities and entertainments, and their thoughts of their homeland. The challenges and privations they faced are part of their story, as is the community they created within the confines of the camp. The whole gamut of their existence is portrayed here, in particular through their drawings and cartoons which are reproduced alongside the translation. German Prisoners of the Great War offers us a direct inside of view a hitherto neglected aspect of the wartime experience a century ago. AUTHOR: Anne Buckley is a lecturer in German and Translation Studies in the German Department at the University of Leeds. In addition to her research work on the experiences of German prisoners of war in the UK during the First World War and the legacy of their captivity, she is working with the Craven and the First World War Heritage Lottery Funded project which aims to build a greater understanding of life in Craven during the First World War through public engagement activities.
30 b/w illustrations