Strange little story...
Last Thursday I was reading the newspaper and it mentioned a local theatre company was putting on the play "Stalag 17". Same story as the book and movie by that name. That night was a meet and greet and Q&A with the actors, and their technical advisors, several US Stalag 17 ex-POW's. So my son and I went.
4 vets and they brought their wives with them. One was prompted to tell the story about his photo. He says that he was being interrogated by the SS, standard procedure after airmen were captured from what I've seen. He had a photo of his girlfriend(and later wife) with him. The SS man asked who she was, he said his girlfriend and that he would marry her when he got home. The SS man replied "I would like to keep this photo too if she was my girl, very pretty". Then he stamped the reverse of the photo and handed it back to the POW. He said the stamp would allow him to keep the photo even in captivity. So the POW held up the photo to show the group. (Nobody was close enough to see the 2"x3" photo in any detail.)
Well, he and his wife were sitting just in front of us, and when it was over I started talking to them and mentioned I'd love to see the photo. He handed it to me and sure enough, it was a photo(Velox paper) of his wife of 62 years, and on the back had a faded stamp.
It was blue ink, with an outlined rectangle. Inside said "Stalag XVII"
the line under that in larger font said "232" I think, 3 digit number at least.
Underneath that all in caps "GES.....", it was faded enough I couldn't make out the full word. It very well could have been Gestapo, it was the right amount of space. It could have been another word for permission that I don't know.
So, does anyone have an idea what the GES.... word could have been? Has anyone else seen something similar? (I've collected WWII photos, albums, negatives for 20 years or so and have never seen a stamp like that or heard a similar story.)
I believe he said the interrogation occured before he was sent to Stalag 17, which was his permanent camp, but I may be remembering that incorrectly. With 4 airmen talking that night about their enprisonment I may have gotten the when/where the interrogation took place incorrectly.
Here is the pow's website, it mentions the evening on the front page. http://www.pownews.com/
Bob and Ima Jean Hulsey are the couple I was talking with about their photo above.
And yes, I wish I had a camera to shoot the stamp. I didn't have one with me, last minute plans you know. The men were all still firm friends from their time at the camp. They all said after the way they had to have their teeth pulled, caused from the poor nutrition, and 3 of them said they had to have their "stomachs removed" which they blamed on the sawdust bread they were eating. When the camp was liberated by the Russians, they looted the camp office and still had their mug-shot type photos the Germans took of them when arriving at the camp. Very interesting evening. I was glad I went and glad my 10 year old son got to hear the stories and meet these brave gents.
Last Thursday I was reading the newspaper and it mentioned a local theatre company was putting on the play "Stalag 17". Same story as the book and movie by that name. That night was a meet and greet and Q&A with the actors, and their technical advisors, several US Stalag 17 ex-POW's. So my son and I went.
4 vets and they brought their wives with them. One was prompted to tell the story about his photo. He says that he was being interrogated by the SS, standard procedure after airmen were captured from what I've seen. He had a photo of his girlfriend(and later wife) with him. The SS man asked who she was, he said his girlfriend and that he would marry her when he got home. The SS man replied "I would like to keep this photo too if she was my girl, very pretty". Then he stamped the reverse of the photo and handed it back to the POW. He said the stamp would allow him to keep the photo even in captivity. So the POW held up the photo to show the group. (Nobody was close enough to see the 2"x3" photo in any detail.)
Well, he and his wife were sitting just in front of us, and when it was over I started talking to them and mentioned I'd love to see the photo. He handed it to me and sure enough, it was a photo(Velox paper) of his wife of 62 years, and on the back had a faded stamp.
It was blue ink, with an outlined rectangle. Inside said "Stalag XVII"
the line under that in larger font said "232" I think, 3 digit number at least.
Underneath that all in caps "GES.....", it was faded enough I couldn't make out the full word. It very well could have been Gestapo, it was the right amount of space. It could have been another word for permission that I don't know.
So, does anyone have an idea what the GES.... word could have been? Has anyone else seen something similar? (I've collected WWII photos, albums, negatives for 20 years or so and have never seen a stamp like that or heard a similar story.)
I believe he said the interrogation occured before he was sent to Stalag 17, which was his permanent camp, but I may be remembering that incorrectly. With 4 airmen talking that night about their enprisonment I may have gotten the when/where the interrogation took place incorrectly.
Here is the pow's website, it mentions the evening on the front page. http://www.pownews.com/
Bob and Ima Jean Hulsey are the couple I was talking with about their photo above.
And yes, I wish I had a camera to shoot the stamp. I didn't have one with me, last minute plans you know. The men were all still firm friends from their time at the camp. They all said after the way they had to have their teeth pulled, caused from the poor nutrition, and 3 of them said they had to have their "stomachs removed" which they blamed on the sawdust bread they were eating. When the camp was liberated by the Russians, they looted the camp office and still had their mug-shot type photos the Germans took of them when arriving at the camp. Very interesting evening. I was glad I went and glad my 10 year old son got to hear the stories and meet these brave gents.
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