How Their World Changed

Most of these images, with the exception of the final three from Jeanerette (2017), were taken about forty years ago. It doesn't take long for nature to reclaim her territory, and it is likely that much of what is photographed here has been entirely wiped out of sight.

While some old POW camp buildings still stand in isolation, serving some other purpose than they did over seventy years ago, for the most part, the years have seen their demise. Decaying foundations swallowed by nature's creep is an echo of a lost time when life was bustling behind the barbed wire, more than one looking back might first expect. 

While not many words can be ascribed to such haunting ghosts of the past, here are just a few more to indicate the fragile nature of time and place: One camp guard-house in Minnesota once went to a local family for one dollar. The purpose?

To serve as a child's playhouse.

Truly, wherever we stand at any given moment, even where you stand right now as you peruse this exhibit, might very well be gone some time in the not-so-distant future.

Maybe that's what the P.O.W. acronym means after all. If Shakespeare was right in saying that all the world's a stage, and for a brief spell of time these prisoners' entire world was camp-life, then indeed, perhaps they were simply playing their part. 

Actors bustling about in the great Playhouse of War.