Bibliography of TRACES-Sold Books and DVDs
BEHIND BARBED WIRE: Midwest POWs in Nazi Germany
ISBN 0-89279-014-8
By Michael Luick-Thrams (historian, Iowa native; BA, Iowa State University; MA Goddard
College; PhD Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany)
3 oz. 5 ½ w 8 ½ h 1/8 thick
Printed by Hansen Printing, 1st edition, 2004 Des Moines/Iowa
64 PAGES
137 illustrations (photos, drawings, maps)
$5 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, a non-profit educational organization, through private sales.
BEHIND BARBED WIRE documents the experiences of Midwest soldiers and airmen captured
by the Germans during WWII and kept as Prisoners of War (POWs) in the Third Reich. In large
part it takes an anthropological look at the men’s imprisonment: what they ate, how they worked
in or outside of the camps, what they did during their free time, what religious or artistic
expression was available to them, how they recovered from their wartime experiences, etc.
Special sections explore the death marches, the bombing of Dresden, the roles the Red Cross and
YMCA played in the camps, minorities (Native-American “code talkers” and Tuskegee airmen
who were POWs) and other special topics.
States represented in the above book: IA IL IN MI MN MO ND NE OH KS SD WI
CAMP PAPERS. Lagerzeitungen: The German POW Newspapers at Camp Algona, Iowa
1944-46.
ISBN 0-89279-010-5
Edited by Michael Luick-Thrams
1lb, 2 oz. 11 w 8 ½ h ½ thick
Date of Publication 2003
Stoyles Printing, Mason City, Iowa
$17.50 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
CAMP PAPERS gives a unique look at both Midwest-U.S. and German history, as it contains
text and drawings that comprised the two camp newspapers at Camp Algona during the WWII
years of 1944-46. With reports from branch camps across the Upper Midwest that made up the
36-site Camp Algona system in four states (Iowa, Minnesota and both Dakotas), the stories range
from sagas of daily life to humor to serious introspection of the events of the times. A companion
text to SIGNS OF LIFE, which contains the translations of 300 letters by and to the Camp
Algona POWs, it joins that book to go beyond one piece of history to reflect an interesting look
at the human spirit.
States represented in the above book: CA IA MN MO ND NE KS NY PA SD UT
CRYSTAL CITY: An Internment Camp in Texas during WWII
[DVD]
Filmed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the United States Government, circa
1945
6 oz. 5 w 5½ h 1/4 thick
Compiled by Art Jacobs at www.foitimes.com, 1st edition, 2005 Arizona
$15 ($12.50 with book order, $10 with 2/more books ordered). Marketed by TRACES, through
private sales.
THIS color DVD shows daily life at Camp Crystal City (Texas), where some of the 15,000
German-American internees imprisoned by the U.S. Government were kept, including 4,048
Latin-American Germans—some of whom were Jews who recently had fled the Third Reich.
Included are scenes of and commentary about Japanese-American internees.
States represented in the above book: TX
ENEMIES: World War II Alien Internment
ISBN 0-595-17915-0
By John Christgau
9 oz. 9 w 6½ h 1/4 thick
Printed by Iowa State University Press, 1st edition, 1985, Ames, Iowa
181 PAGES
36 photos
$17.50 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
ENEMIES consists of stories of ordinary people who were interned by the by the United States
government as enemy aliens during World War II. The Enemy Alien Internment Program was
born with the U.S.’s declaration of war on Japan, Germany and Italy, and it lasted until 1948. In
all some 15,000 enemy aliens were imprisoned in camps like the one described in this book—
Fort Lincoln, just outside of Bismarck/North Dakota.
States represented in the above book: ND
ENEMIES WITHIN: Iowa POWs in Nazi Germany
ISBN 0-89279-003-2
Edited with an introduction by Michael Luick-Thrams
Illustrations and text by Pat Schultz
12 oz. 5 ½ w 8 ½ h ¾ thick
Date of publication 2002
Stoyles Printing, Mason City, Iowa
248 pages
66 drawings, 32 photos, and 19 scanned documents
$17.50 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
ENEMIES WITHIN contains the stories of five Iowa soldiers who were captured and held in
Germany by the Nazis during WWII—including two extensive first-person journals, one set of
camp-journal art work, and two biographical sketches. The photos and documents are from the
collections of the five men; their stories combine to give a poignant impression of the
Midwest/U.S. POW experience from men who were prisoners for times ranging from over two
years to six months.
States represented in the above book: IA MN ND SD
FAR FROM HITLER: The Scattergood Hostel for European Refugees, 1939-43.
ISBN 0-89279-015-6
Produced for the Iowa Jewish Historical Society by TRACES (director, Michael Luick-Thrams)
8 oz. 8½ w 11 h 1/4 thick
Printed by Hansen Printing, 1st edition, 2003, Des Moines, Iowa
50 PAGES
164 illustrations
$7.50 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
FAR FROM HITLER tells the story of 186 European refugees who spent time at Scattergood
Hostel in West Branch/Iowa. Originally a Quaker boarding school, Scattergood re-opened as a
refugee center in 1939 and served as a safe haven for individuals and families—particularly, but
not exclusively, Jews—who fled Nazi persecution in Europe. This exhibit catalog includes
discussions of the "guests," staff, and everyday life at Scattergood.
States represented in the above book: AZ CA CO CT IA IL IN KY MD MA MI MN MO NE
NY OH OK KS PA TX WI
LIFE AFTER LIBERATION: Understanding the Former Prisoner of War
ISBN 0-9633008-1-4
By Guy J. Kelnhofer, Jr., PhD
1 lb. 4 oz. 8½ w 11 h ½ thick
Printed by Banfil Street Press, 1st edition, 1992, St. Paul, Minnesota
176 PAGES
18 photos
$20 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
LIFE AFTER LIBERATION consists of eight essays depicting the ex-POWs’ lives after
liberation, and the challenge of adjusting to the everyday world and the hardships endured by the
ex-POWs, their wives and family, in their own. (The book includes a guide to applying for
benefits from the Veterans Administration.) The author was captured on Wake Island in 1941
and survived three years/10 months as a prisoner of the Japanese. He has spent much of his
lifetime examining and writing about the ex-POW experience.
States represented in the above book: former POWs from virtually all U.S. states
MILITARY AIRCRAFT OF WWII: The Story of Flight
ISBN 0-7787-1219-2
By Ole Steen Hansen
10 oz. 11 w 9½ h 1/4 thick
Printed by Crabtree Publishing Company, 1st edition, 2003, New York
32 pages
illustrated
$10 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
MILITARY AIRCRAFT is a richly illustrated, young-reader-targeted look at the aircraft used in
World War II. It includes information on the history and specifications of the machines and their
use, the science of flight, and about some of the pilots who flew them.
MINNESOTA GOES TO WAR. The Home Front During World War II
ISBN 0-87351-506-4
By Dave Kenney
2 lb. 3 oz. 10 1/4 w 7 1/4 h 1 thick
Printed by Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1st edition, 2005, St. Paul, Minnesota
269 PAGES
103 photos, 2 illustrations
$30 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
MINNESOTA GOES TO WAR. The stories of Minnesota at war illustrate much that was going
on in the U.S. at that time, but also what was unique about wartime in Minnesota. The state
virtually exhausted its supplies of high-grade iron ore, one of its most highly prized natural
resources to provide raw material for the nation’s arsenal. Its companies churned out wartime
products with diverse brand names such as Spam and Scotchlite. Its brightest minds conducted
extraordinary wartime research using animal and human test subjects. The city of Brainerd
suffered wartime casualties greater than most American communities endured. The Minnesotans
who lived and died during the World War II years were a complicated group capable of great
bravery, selfless sacrifice and a variety of other deeds—many admirable, some not: that’s what
makes them so interesting.
States represented in the above book: MN
THE MISPLACED AMERICAN: Based on the Memoirs of Elsie, Karl,Marta, Mina,
Lisbeth, Armin, and Ursula Vogt
ISBN 1-4107-4413-2
Edited and compiled by Ursula Vogt Potter
1 lb. 7 oz. 8½ w 11 h ½ thick
Printed by Ursula Vogt Potter, 1st edition, 2003, Bloomington, Indiana
225 PAGES
63 photos, 3 maps, 84 other illustrations, mostly letters.
$20 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
THE MISPLACED AMERICAN is a story about one family’s struggle to survive the turmoil of
having loved ones separated by the Atlantic Ocean during one of the most horrific wars of our
time, World War II. In the center of this struggle was the internment of the author’s father, Karl
Vogt, from December 1941 until his release in 1943. It tells how his family came to be here and
why most of them returned to Germany before the beginning of the war. Now more American
than German and homesick for the language which they had adopted, they were forced to
become part of Hitler’s war effort. The author’s father and his brother, Bill, had friends and
relatives in America also who were serving in the U.S. armed services, both in Europe and in the
Pacific. It also is a story of how patriotic fervor during the crisis of a war can create a nightmare
for a family with “enemy” ethnic roots even though they were and remained patriotic and proAmerican.
States represented in the above book: MT ND OK WA WI
NOT AS BRIEFED –From the Doolittle Raid to a German Stalag
ISBN 0-87422-259-1
By Colonel C. Ross Greening
2 lb. 10 oz. 10½ w 9 h 3/4 thick
Printed by Washington State University Press, 1st edition, 2001, Pullman, Washington
265 PAGES
60 photos, 83 drawing, and painting illustrations, 2 maps
$32.50 (30 with discount) per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
NOT AS BRIEFED tells the story of Iowa-born Colonel C. Ross Greening’s WWII experiences
who from Tokyo to Berlin, as he had painted and wrote a one-of-a-kind record of action in
WWII. An art graduate of Washington State University who entered combat in April 1942, he
piloted a B-25 in the famous Doolittle Raid on Japan. Next assigned to North Africa, his luck ran
out when, after 27 missions, his plane was shot down over erupting Mt. Vesuvius. He was held
captive by Axis forces for 11 weeks, then escaped when Allied bombers blew up the prisoner of
war train he was riding in. He was eventually recaptured by German soldiers in Italy. He was
then placed in Stalag Luft 1 at Barth, Germany where he continued to make an amazing pictorial
record of the war—of his own experiences and of dozens of other POWs who related their
accounts to him.
ONLY THE LEAST OF ME IS HOSTAGE: Midwest POWs in Nazi Germany: Volume 1 –
Soldiers
ISBN 0-89279-092-X
Edited by Michael Luick-Thrams
1 lb. 4 oz. 6 w 9 h ¾ thick
Date of publication 2004
Stoyles Printing, Mason City, Iowa
270 pages
15 drawings, 45 scanned documents, 46 photos
$17.50 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
Volume I of ONLY THE LEAST OF ME includes the stories, documents, letters, journals, art
and photos of nine Midwest soldiers who were taken captive by the Germans during WWII.
Their experiences reflect the enlisted man’s forced labor and the officer’s tedium as both
experienced near-starvation and deprivation in the camps. The spirit reflected in their narratives
gives the reader insight into the values and skills it took to create survivors who endured not just
the camps, but the incredible death march into central Germany at the war’s end. Each section is
introduced with background material and a poem from a collection written by the Heydekrug
sergeants, whose “run” for their lives has been presented to Congress.
States represented in the above book: IA IL IN MN ND SD
ONLY THE LEAST OF ME IS HOSTAGE: Midwest POWs in Nazi Germany. Volume 2 –
Airmen
ISBN 0-89279-093-8
Edited by Michael Luick-Thrams
Illustrations and text by Pat Schultz
1 lb. 3 oz. 6 w 9 h. ½ thick
Date of publication 2004
Stoyles Printing, Mason City, Iowa
170 pages
16 illustrations 17 scanned documents, 2 maps and 17 photos
$17.50 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
Volume II of ONLY THE LEAST OF ME, like the first volume, includes the stories, documents,
letters, journals, art and photos of Midwesterners who were POWs in Germany in WWII. The six
airmen spotlighted in this volume are also introduced with background material and a poem from
the collection written by the Heydekrug seargeants, whose “run” for their lives has been
presented to Congress. Sgt. Lester Schrenk, a Minnesota native, was one of those sergeants, and
he managed to carry the entire collection of their writing for more than 80 days and 500 miles on
the infamous “death march” into central Germany at the end of the war. The narratives join with
those of volume one to give a remarkably vivid picture of the POW experience, and the
endurance and spirit exhibited by the Americans who survived it.
States represented in the above book: IA IL IN MN ND SD
OUT OF HITLER’S REACH: The Scattergood Hostel for European Refugees 1939-1943.
ISBN 9-12072-25-1
By Michael Luick-Thrams
1 lb. 5 ½ w 8 ½ h 1 thick
Printed by Goodfellow Press, 2nd edition, 2002 (1st edition 1996) Iowa City, Iowa
319 pages.
40 illustrations
$17.50 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
OUT OF HITLER’S REACH grew out of the author’s interviews with the Quakers who staffed
Scattergood and the refugees who lived there as the second group attempted to rebuild their lives
and learn the skills necessary to survive in their new country. Fleeing Europe ahead of Hitler’s
onslaught, they came to the former boarding school to rest, recuperate and learn English.
Alongside the volunteer staff, they gardened, took care of livestock, cooked and did the other
tasks central to their daily lives while they got to know the surrounding Iowa countryside and
their neighbors. Their honest responses to the situation fill the book with a rare story of a unique
place in the American Heartland that offered them what few other places would in those years.
Photos and documents support their stories and the history of Scattergood, which reopened its
school doors after the war and remains in operation today near West Branch/Iowa.
States represented in the above book: AZ CA CO CT IA IL IN KY MD MA MI MN MO NE
NY OH OK KS PA TX WI
THE PRISON CALLED HOHENASPERG: An American Boy Betrayed by His
Government during World War II
ISBN 1-58112-832-0
By Arthur D. Jacobs
6 oz. 8½ oz. 5½ w 8½ h ½ thick
Printed by Universal Publishers, 1st edition, 1999
161 pages
$20 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
THE PRISON CALLED HOHENASBERG documents the “long story” of the Lambert Jacobs
family—of the devastating effects of the internment and deportation of German-American
civilian internees during WWII.
States represented in the above book: AZ IL NY KS TX
PRISONER OF WAR AND CONCENTRATION CAMP MONEY OF THE 20TH
CENTURY
ISBN 0-931960-32-0
By Lance K. Campbell
1 lb. 11 oz. 8½ w 11 h ½ thick
Printed by BNR Press, 1st edition, 1993, Port Clinton, OH
200 pages
illustrated
$20 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
CAMP MONEY OF THE 20TH CENTURY is a comprehensive catalog, focused mainly on
camps in Europe (plus the U.S., Japan, Australia and New Zealand), and on the scrip monies
used to pay prisoners for their labor. Each is represented by illustrations, listings of value, and
notes on materials and use.
THE RED TAILS – World War II’s Tuskegee Airmen
ISBN 0-7891-5487-0
By Steven L. Jones
7 oz. 6 w 9 h 1/4 thick
Printed by Perfection Learning Corp. 1st edition, 2001, Logan, Iowa
64 PAGES
46 illustrations
$10 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
THE RED TAILS is the story of the 99th pursuit squadron, also known as the Tuskegee airmen.
In 1939 the United States was deeply embroiled in the war in both Europe and the Pacific. While
the military was skeptical about African Americans’ abilities to serve as military pilots, they also
had a great need for pilots. Jones chronicles the creation of the 99th from its experimental
beginnings to eventual integration in 1948.
A SAD STORY BUT TRUE
ISBN 0-89279-090-3
By Roger Wilco (Lt. K.C. Reimer)
3 oz. 5½ w 8½ h 1/16 thick
Printed by Hansen Printing, 1st edition, 2004, Des Moines, Iowa
22 pages
illustrated
$3 per copy ($5 for two, or 1 sold with “Should You Be Captured”). Marketed by TRACES,
through private sales.
SAD STORY is a comic book written and illustrated by U.S. airmen held at Stalag Luft I in
Germany. Begun while in the camp, and completed after their liberation, it illustrates and
describes the experience of Allied troops' capture and imprisonment by the Nazi regime. An
excellent example of the sense of humor many prisoners of war used as a coping strategy.
SEARCHING FOR ANNE FRANK. Letters from Amsterdam to Iowa
ISBN 0-8109-4514-2
By Susan Goldman Rubin
1 lb. 5 oz. 6½ w 9 1/4 h 1 thick
Printed by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1st edition, 2003, New York
144 PAGES
100 illustrations
$20 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
SEARCHING tells the story of Anne Frank, with new insights provided by her correspondence
with pen pal Juanita Wagner of Danville/Iowa (whose sister Betty Ann corresponded with Ann’s
sister, Margot). Stories of the two girls' lives are told in alternating, chronological chapters and
given depth with many illustrations and excerpts from each of their letters.
States represented in the above book: IA
IF YOU SHOULD BE CAPTURED THESE ARE YOUR RIGHTS
ISBN 0-89279-091-1
1 oz. 4 1/4 w 5 1/4 h 1/16 thick
Printed by U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., reproduction of 1944 edition
19 PAGES
7 illustrations
$3 per copy ($5 for two, or 1 sold with “A Sad Story”). Marketed by TRACES, through private
sales.
IF CAPTURED is a reproduction of a pamphlet issued to American troops in the field by the
military and describing what to do if captured. It includes an illustrated description of prisoners'
rights under the Geneva Convention.
SIGNS OF LIFE. Lebenszeichen: The Correspondence of German POWs at Camp Algona,
Iowa 1943-1946.
ISBN 0-89279-008-3
Edited by Michael Luick-Thrams
12 oz. 8 1/2 w 11 h ¼ thick
Date of Publication 2003
$17.50 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
Stoyles Printing, Mason City, Iowa
300 letters, 125 photos and documents
98 pages
SIGNS OF LIFE contains the translations of 300 letters by and to Germans who were prisoners
of war at Iowa’s Camp Algona and its 35 branch camps in four Upper Midwest states during
WWII. The letters join with the photos and documents (contributed by the men and their
families) to tell the story of the POW experience. Despite humane treatment and good conditions
in the camp, the letters reflect the isolation and longing for home and family the men felt, as well
as recording the day-to-day life of the camp. It is a companion text to CAMP PAPERS, which
includes translations of the camp newspapers.
States represented in the above book: IA MN MO ND NE KS NY SD
SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE
ISBN 0-440-18029-5
By Kurt Vonnegut
4 oz. 4 1/4 w 7 h 3/4 thick
Printed by Dell Publishing, 1st edition, 1969, reprinted 1991, New York, New York
215 PAGES
3 illustrations
$7.50 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
SLAUGHTERHOUSE - FIVE remains one of the world’s great anti-war books. Centering on the
infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time reflects the mythic
journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.
States represented in the above book: IN
SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES: Minnesota’s POW Camps during World War II
ISBN 0-9669001-0-3
By Dean B. Simmons
13 oz. 5 ½ w 8 1/4 h 3/4 thick
Printed by Cathedral Hill Books, 1st edition, 2000, St. Paul, MN
235 PAGES
83 illustrations
$17.50 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES is an in-depth study of 20 POW camps in Minnesota that held
captured German (and, earlier, Italian) troops. It features illustrated essays that focus on each of
the camps, interspersed with short essays on "prisoner perspectives."
States represented in the above book: IA MN ND NE SD
UNDUE PROCESS: the untold Story of America’s German alien Internees
ISBN 0-8476-8518-7
By Arnold Kammer
14 oz. 6 1/4 w 9 1/4 h 1 thick
Printed by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 1st edition, 1997, Lanham, Maryland
209 PAGES
16 illustrations
$28 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
UNDUE PROCESS is the shocking story that most American’s do not know—that the American
government ordered the arrest and internment of some 15,000 German aliens, including women
and children in federal prison camps without trials or the opportunity for appeal. This is the first
book on this neglected topic, the shocking story of America’s treatment of German aliens during
World War II is revealed by prominent Texas A & M historian Arnold Krammer. Using
extensive research, including interviews with former prisoners and recently released government
documents, Krammer illuminates the government’s motives and methods, identifies the victims
of the persecution, and describes the quality of life in the camps. His book includes many
revealing, never-before-published photographs. It is a fascinating, disturbing and eye-opening
look at one of this country’s best-kept [WWII] secrets.
VANISHED: German-American Civilian Internment, 1941-48
ISBN 0-89279-16-4
Edited by Michael Luick-Thrams
10 oz. 8½ w 11 h 1/4 thick
Printed by Stoyles, 1st edition, 2005 in Mason City/Iowa
104 PAGES
illustrated
$10 per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
VANISHED documents how the U.S. Government interned some 15,000 German Americans
immediately following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, using lists made months in advance. Some
of those interned were Nazi sympathizers, but many more (some 4,058) were Latin-American
German Americans forcibly brought to this country to exchange later for German-held U.S.
nationals, and even Jews who had fled the Holocaust. Not one of the internees was ever charged
with, tried for or convicted of a war-related crime against the U.S.; the internees—including U.S.
citizens—were allowed no legal defense.
None of the TRACES-published books currently are offered in book stores.
Titles to be added at a later date:
AMERICA’S INVISIBLE GULAG: A Biography of German American Internment and
Exclusion in World War II
ISBN XXX
By Steven Fox
DESCRIPTION 1 lb. 5 ½ w 8 ½ h 7/8 thick
Printed by XXX Press, 1st edition, YEAR PLACE
XXX PAGES
XX illustrations
$TBA per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
ABRVTD TITLE followed by description.
STALAG WISCONSIN: Inside WWII Prisoner-of-War Camps
ISBN 1-878569-83
By Betty Cowley
DESCRIPTION 1 lb. 5 ½ w 8 ½ h 7/8 thick
Printed by XXX Press, 1st edition, YEAR PLACE
XXX PAGES
XX illustrations
$TBA per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
ABRVTD TITLE followed by description.
States represented in the above book: WI
TEMPLATE
ISBN XXX
By AUTHOR
DESCRIPTION 1 lb. 5 ½ w 8 ½ h 7/8 thick
Printed by XXX Press, 1st edition, YEAR PLACE
XXX PAGES
XX illustrations
$XXX per copy. Marketed by TRACES, through private sales.
ABRVTD TITLE followed by description.
States represented in the above book: IA IL IN MI MN MO ND NE OH KS SD WI