William Fraser collection
Acquisition
Marion Lewis donated her father's collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on June 12, 2008.
Scope and Content
Consists of one bound memoir, untitled, by Bill Fraser, a soldier in the British Army who was captured at Anzio in February 1944. In June 1944, he and a group of British POWs, were deported to Auschwitz, where they worked in the IG Farben complex. He describes life in Auschwitz and the group's attempts to sabotage the German war effort, memories of air raids, the comraderie among the soldiers, and his memories of the evacuation of the camp. After a months-long march, he was liberated near Regensburg by the American Army. Includes a copy of a poem entitled "Memories of a Prisoner of War Camp," a World War I era holiday card, a copy of a letter sent to Bill Fraser (date unknown), a postcard sent by BIll Fraser from Stalag 7 on 16 May 1944, and a newspaper clipping regarding a Scottish POW named George Syme. Also includes twelve commercial slides of attractions in wartime Germany.
Genre
- Collection