The Oflag 64 Item. [No. 13. November 1, 1944]

Altburgund, Germany: American officers temporarily detained in Offizierslager 64 (Schubin), Germany, 1944. Good. 12" x 8 ½". Newsprint. Pp. 4. Good: toned; horizontal separations at center with early tape repair; light edge chips.

This is a rare example of a monthly American prisoner of war camp newspaper from the Oflag 64 prison. According to Oflag64.us, a site run by surviving POWs of the camp and their families,

"Oflag 64 was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp for American officers located at Szubin, Poland, which at that time was occupied by Nazi Germany. It was probably the only German POW camp set up exclusively for U.S. Army officers, although other camps holding several nationalities were usually divided into separate national compounds.

The camp was built around a Polish boys' school by adding barracks. Initially it was Stalag XXI-B for Polish soldiers until December 1940. Then it became Oflag XXI-B for French and British officers, subsequently for Soviet officers until June 1943. At that time they were all moved out to other camps, some to Stalag Luft 3 Sagan, others to Oflag XXI-C Ostrzeszów.

On 6 June 1943 the camp was redesignated Oflag 64. It became an American officers camp with the arrival of about 150 officers captured in the North Africa Campaign in Tunisia. In addition to the ground force officers, there were also a few aviators and a few enlisted men held at the camp."

Also according to that website, this paper "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." This particular issue celebrates the first anniversary of the Item as "the only American newspaper printed in Germany, the biggest circulator of cheesecake in Europe and the best P.o.W. paper in the world." It features humorous blurbs recording "every squirm and turn of camp life" including camp sports, attempts at "kultur" (including music and theater), gossip and more. There is news from home that prisoners received in mail from loved ones, a poem that reflects on the previous year at Oflag and a couple of comics as well. One more serious column extols the work of the Oflag infirmary staff.

The POWs at Oflag also published a daily one sheet which does not appear in OCLC. OCLC locates no copies of the Oflag 64 Item in the United States and finds only its first issue at the German National Library. The United States Army War College has several boxes related to Oflag including "an example of a camp 'newspaper' POWs maintained.".