The Camera Became My Passport Home
Ben van Drogenbroek and Steve Martin document Stalag Luft III through Charles Woehrie’s lens in a lavish, limited-edition history.
- Author
- Ben van Drogenbroek and Steve Martin
- Publisher
- Stalag Luft III Archives of Holland & POW Archive of Canada
- Price
- Contact authors
- Published
- 2017
The Camera Became My Passport Home by Ben van Drogenbroek and Steve Martin
This meticulously researched volume recounts the wartime experience of Charles Boyd Woehrie, a prisoner in Stalag Luft III. Drawing on years of research by ELMS member Ben van Drogenbroek and historian Steve Martin, it broadens Woehrie’s story to include 575 RAF and USAAF airmen as well as the Germans who ran the camp.
Lavishly illustrated with 850 photographs, maps and drawings—many published for the first time—the book documents camp life in forensic detail. It covers overt routines and covert activities, including well-known escape attempts such as The Wooden Horse, the Mole Tunnel, the Great Escape and wire breakouts. Three major themes shape the narrative: daily life, escape efforts and the forced march that ended in liberation at Moosburg.
Additional chapters explore MI9 and MIS-X codes and procedures, the experiences of Jewish prisoners, life in Nazi Germany and the fate of airmen diverted to Buchenwald. Produced as a numbered, limited edition weighing 2.5kg, each copy is signed by the authors with Charles Woehrie’s signature added. A personalised nameplate can be inserted, but it is not a volume for bedtime reading.
The project took twelve years to complete and will fascinate anyone connected with or interested in Stalag Luft III. Order directly from the authors via B_V_Drogenbroek@hotmail.com.