NORTH MANCHESTER - Hardly anyone alive today is aware that the first U.S. troops sent to fight in World War II came from the Upper Midwest, or that the region's 34th "Red Bull" Division served the longest uninterrupted duty in U.S. military history - about 600 days.In February 1943, some 1,800 mostly Midwest soldiers were captured in one night in North Africa and, until the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, the most U.S. POWs in Nazi-German camps came, per capita, from the same region.
"Behind Barbed Wire", a mobile exhibit touring seven Midwest states in the spring and summer of 2008, including Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, explores the experiences of Midwest prisoners of war who were imprisoned in Hitler's Third Reich, and the human context in which their experiences took place. The St. Paul-based, non-profit educational organization TRACES created this exhibit. The exhibit, housed in a converted school bus, will reach nearly 120 schools, libraries, and historical societies along the way.
Barring unforeseen difficulties, the exhibit, sponsored by the Friends of North Manchester Public Library, will be in North Manchester from 9 a.m. to noon May 7. The bus will be at the Manchester High School parking lot.
