bavarikon4UDescription
During the First World War, specially erected barracks on the outskirts of Amberg served as prisoner-of-war camps, which could hold up to 5,000 people. French soldiers were brought in from as early as November 1914, Russian and Italian soldiers were also interned there later on. The camp inmates pursued sporting and cultural activities in spite of, or perhaps in order to distract themselves from the inadequate and depressing living conditions in captivity and oppression far from home and their families. A camp life was established with sports competitions, theatre, concerts, educational events and its own camp newspaper. Baracke ! was published weekly in a print run of 200 to 300 copies, usually comprising of four sheets and was produced in the camp itself. Text written by hand in a space-saving font was supplemented by drawings, often in several columns. The newspaper maintained a good linguistic and general style and satisfied the prisoners' need for information, encouragement and opinions. It brought the internees reliable variety and entertainment during oppressive times. If it is not subject to censorship, it also conveys a picture of prisoners' everyday life to the outside world, as the newspaper was distributed to other camps and as far away as France. The newspaper addressed the then current French politics, events in the prisoner-of-war camp itself and draws on French educational content with irony, wit and (well disguised) criticism. The high level of journalistic aptitude of the intelligently made newspaper was certainly also due to one of its first editors, Roger Salengro, who later made a career as a member of parliament, mayor and finally Minister of the Interior in France.
Author
Siglinde Kurz