We are incredibly fortunate to have been given kind permission to put a copy of the Kitchener camp magazine on the website as part of this project. This copy is owned by one of our Kitchener descendant families.
To date, three of the men in the photographs have been named by descendants, and if you recognise your family member in any of these pictures, as usual, please do get in touch and let us know.
The magazine is quite extraordinary. It is a curious mix of what we would today consider to be Soviet-style propaganda pictures, with text that appears to take the brutal aims of the National Socialist concentration camps and, by drawing on and yet subverting their language and imagery, turning them into something that instead works for the good of the men living here:
“There is no barbed wire, no armed sentry … They find happiness in their new work”
Anyway, we hope you’ll find it an interesting read – and don’t forget to look out for your fathers and grandfathers in the photographs!
And as usual, as more information comes in, it will be added to the relevant pages.
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