Dimensions
156 x 235 x 13mm
In December 1940, as the coldest winter in living memory fastened its grip on a war-torn Europe, the Nazi conquerors of France rounded up nearly 5,000 people, mostly women and children, and sent them to an internment camp. Their destination, Frontstalag 142, was in the Besan?on army barracks near the German border, in conditions so bad that many died of the cold, of food poisoning and of disease. The internees had only one thing in common - they all held British papers: wealthy expatriates, holiday makers caught out by the speed of the Blitzkrieg, wives of First World War `tommies', French nationals born in England, all were on the list. Among them were two English ladies, the Misses Kathleen and Fanny Twemlow, great aunts of Katherine Lack's husband. Aunt Kathleen soon succumbed to the terrible conditions, but was hospitalised and survived. Aunt Fan remained in the camps for a year until she was released at the age of 60. The conditions in Frontstalag 142 are revealed here in all their harrowing detail, through the diary Miss Twemlow kept and the memoirs of some of the other survivors.
