Brown County Historical Society sponsoring lunch program with visiting former German POWs

NEW ULM -- The Brown County Historical Society (BCHS) is sponsoring a special brown bag lunch program featuring guests from Germany who are exploring World War 11 German POW camps in the Upper Midwest. The event will be held on Tuesday, October I in the Museum Transportation Annex, 12 North Broadway. Participants are invited to bring brown bag lunches to this free event beginning at 12 noon.

The forum will feature up to ten family members of German POWs. None of the relatives of these visitors were imprisoned in the New Ulm camp; however, they would like to meet New Ulm area residents and share experiences. The tour of German POW camps is being organized by Michael Luick-Thrams of TRACES, a non-profit group which colIects artifacts and information related to the camps. Mr. Luick-Thram will introduce the guests and the tour and then participants will have a chance to ask questions and meet the German guests.

After lunch, the German visitors will take a tour of the New Ulm POW camp in Flandrau State Park, to which community participants are invited. There will be a more extensive program in Fairmont at 7 p.m. that evening at the Martin County Pioneer Museum, to which the public is invited. The German guests win conclude their U.S. tour by attending a conference on World War II-era POWs and visit a related exhibit in Muscatine, Iowa on October 5-8, 2002.

For more information about this event, please contact Marilyn at the Brown County Historical Society Museum at 233-2616.