An international "Conference on WWII-Era POWs" will take place 5-8 October 2002 in Muscatine, Iowa, the site of a former German POW camp and a current exhibit, "The Third Reich in Iowa: German POW Art and Artifacts". 20 former German POWs and their families will be present, as will Iowa POWs who were in Germany.

Keynote speaker Lewis Carlson (Western Michigan U.)co-authored--with Dresden museum director and panelist Norbert Haase--"We Were Each Other's Prisoners/Warten auf Freiheit". Additional panelists include Heino Erichsen (former German soldier and POW, now head of the adoption agency los Ninos) and Howard Hong (one-time War Prisoners Aid of World YMCA representative who toured most Midwest POW camps during WWII) and Mike Waters, a Texas A & M anthropology professor who heads POW-camp excavations. The Monday Film Night will feature at least 3 POW-related films and their makers.

The exhibit will feature some of the more than 1,500 items from TRACES' collection, including many works of art, photographs, letters, journals, personal affects and other relics, 6 October 2002 till 5 January 2003 at the Muscatine [Iowa] Arts Center. For more information, to register or submit proposals for conference presentations, visit TRACES.org, the web site below, or contact Kari Allen.