The "Post Oflag 64" ITEM
(For an article by Leo Fisher about the origin and printing of The ITEM, click here.)
To read the
MOST RECENT ISSUE,
(3rd Quarter 2024) click HERE
For back issues of the ITEM click here
(1943 to 1945, a few from the 1960s and 1970s, and 1984 to present).
Postage Fund note: The ITEM is published quarterly in hardcopy for members of the Oflag 64 Family who are unable to receive it electronically. This is made possible by donations to the Oflag 64 Remembered Postage Fund. Click here to email for details of how you can contribute.
Most of our archive files are in PDF format and require Adobe Reader.
The ITEM was the name given to the monthly newsletter published by a group of POWs during their captivity.
From Achtung Oflag 64, by Jim Bickers: “Always innovative, Oflag 64 was probably the only prison camp in the history of the world to have its own printed newspaper. No one yet knows why the Germans permitted it, in view of their sorry record in other matters. But the Oflag Item was actually printed by one of the German guards and his surly wife who had taken over a Polish print shop, with its old linotype machine and many fonts of type. They did a good job of it, too, after the many language typos were corrected.”
The newsletter was revived several years after liberation as the “Post-Oflag 64 ITEM”, and is currently published quarterly by editor Elodie Caldwell. It keeps the former “kriegsgefangenen”, their families, and others informed of group news and events. A look at the ITEM over the years provides insight into the activities and thoughts of the men, during and after captivity. Follow the links on the right to read the current issue of the ITEM or one of the archive issues.