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Memories from a POW Camp: A scrapbook by Sergeant first class Mirko J. Mihailovic, a Moosburg inmate

Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: During the Second World War, about 200.000 officers, soldiers and privates from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia were taken prisoner, most of whom were subsequently transported to Germany. The main prisoner-of-war camp, Das Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager VII A, operated between 1939 and 1945 in the Bavarian town of Moosburg on the River Isar. According to available records, approximately 150.000 prisoners were heldthere, out of whom about a thousand perished. In addition to its watchtowers and barracks, the camp also had a library, a sports ground, an improvised theatre and a chapel for worship and prayer. The few testimonies published in the Serbian language offer only selective data on the operation of this major camp. Newspaper articles and personal or literary accounts published hitherto - most often in the form of letters or short memories - testify on the life within the Moosburg Stalag VII A camp, primarily in relation to culture, sport and religion. The contents of the previously unknow diary Memories from a POW Camp of sergeant first class Mirko J. Mihailovic provide previously published sources with visual confirmation and clarification, thereby facilitating a better understanding of the way of life in this POW Camp. They provide evidence on human resilience, the will to survive, and the inmates? never-ending inspiration and creative drive that defied the circumstances of imprisonment in a Nazi camp. Memories from a POW Camp is a scrapbook containing 153 photographs, several original drawings by inmates, two banknotes and a few written records, along with contributions from certain prisoners - mostly clergymen - offered as tokens of gratitude to Mihailovic for his fraternal love, tireless effort and dedication. The final section of the scrapbook features short notes on Mihailovic?s post-war encounters and his care for the graves of deceased prisoners. For the first time, this paper publishes a photograph of a holy liturgy held in a German Nazi camp according to Orthodox Christian rites, a drawing of one of the watchtowers and an acrostic dedicated to the owner of this unknown yet significant small-scale historical source.
Language: English
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4417488706
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