“It lies in the nature of man to leave records of his life and his thoughts.”

Pages from “English for All, Fortnightly for Germans”, a publication issued to German prisoners of war in England, intended to teach language skills, 1946 – 1948.

The Rise and Fall of Volapük

Four volumes of clippings tracing the first 10 years of the creation and promotion of Volapük,
a constructed language claimed to have been divinely given to Johann Schleyer, a German Priest.

The pocket dictionary . . . of Sabotage!

A curious addition to the Beinecke Library’s collection:
This miniature booklet displays a cover title declaring it to be a “thumb dictionary” of French and German terms. The inside cover betrays its true role, since that is distributed by the “Parti Socialiste Clandestin”. Instead of translated words and phrases, this book is full of instructions for members of the French Resistance on how to sabotage German machinery, manufacturing plants, trains, and automobiles.

Dictionnaire Poucet: Français-Allemand (Paris: Garnier Fréres, cicra 1943)

The Island Weekly

Die Inselwoche, a hectographed newspaper issued by German prisoners of war in an internment camp on Ile Longue, an island off of Brest in France, 1914-1919.

 Complete with advertisements:

 See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Ele_Longue#First_World_War
and: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-31312207_ITM