Art by American prisoners of war

[jchwalibog]

The additional artwork that posted (in addition to the original paintings) were other paintings that my grandfather did during his time in camps. We know he was in 2 camps. 1 near/in Tittmoning and 1 in Lauffen. He painted a lot in the camps (or relatively so) and was able to do paintings for the guards and Red Cross workers that visited. He exchanged these paintings for things like cigarettes and food. He told one story many times about exchanging paintings with a Red Cross worker (makes me wonder if this is the painting?). He was actually born here in the USA and went to Poland as a child after his father completed his masters degree from Purdue. His fathere was a civil engineer and went back to Poland to build bridges. My grandfather was a sign painter as a young man and actually went to school with Pope John Paul II. When the war broke out he joined the Polish army / resistance and was a messenger (motorcycle and sidecar). He was captured and was fortunate enough to be recognized as an American citizen and was sent to a POW camp for American and British (allies) soldiers. His wife was also interned for a period of time in France and my father spent 60 or so days of the first 90 of his life in the camp with her. They were reunited after the war and moved to Cleveland. He worked in a train yard until a train accident cost him one of his legs. His settlement was the railroad paying for him to attend art school. After graduating from Art School, he was hired by Ford Tractor and worked there for about 30 years. With this job, they moved (with 2 sons) to Detroit.

[NARVIK1940]

Art by American prisoners of war

Great info. Glad to find you and that you are willing to share this information with us!

[NARVIK1940]

Anders - are these still available?

[jchwalibog]

Update

I just wanted to update everyone. Thanks to Scott and Anders, the painting my grandfather did while imprisoned are back with family! We couldn't be happier and owe a ton of thanks to those 2 and everyone else that may have helped along the way!

[WalterB]

I just wanted to update everyone. Thanks to Scott and Anders, the painting my grandfather did while imprisoned are back with family! We couldn't be happier and owe a ton of thanks to those 2 and everyone else that may have helped along the way!

Great to read about this! A happy ending!

[NARVIK1940]

Here is a picture of Anders giving the painting to John when they met recently in Michigan. John asked me to post it up.

[NARVIK1940]

I just wanted to update everyone. Thanks to Scott and Anders, the painting my grandfather did while imprisoned are back with family! We couldn't be happier and owe a ton of thanks to those 2 and everyone else that may have helped along the way!

A real satisfactory experience all around! I'm glad that we on WAF could help reunite you with this unique piece of WW2 and family history, John! And make a new friend in the process!

It was a shot in the dark, but luckily the surname Chwalibog is very unusual. I contacted several Chwalibogs on Facebook, and John spotted my message in the message box for 'non-friends' about 5 months after I tried to contact him, and luckily everything fell together perfectly. Anders was able to act as a go-between between John and the Swedish seller, and bring the painting with him when he came to the US for the SOS. It was pure coincidence that he was flying to Michigan, which was within striking distance of where John lives. A happy ending to an amazing story. I'm really glad this worked out so well. That is what is cool about WAF - the amazing human stories and coincidences linking the items we collect to families and individuals. The internet makes things possible we could not have dreamed of a few decades ago.