Barbed Wire Ballads

[John_Hartley]

This was on this morning (but I forgot). But you can hear it through the BBC website.

A sound archive recorded by the Germans of British POWs. Well worth a listen

John

[zooloo]

BBC listen again

Scroll down to B and find Barbed Wire Ballads.

It left me wanting to know more. Hats off the fellow in Berlin who's digging up this stuff.

Worth half an hour of your life to hear,

zoo

[George Armstrong Custer]

One of the strangest programmes you will hear this year was broadcast by the BBC's Radio 4 at 11am (BST) yesterday morning. It features Miles Kington in Berlin, touring an archive of shellac and wax cylinder recordings of men held in German PoW camps during the First World War. The Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission visited more than 70 camps between 1915 and 1918, recording more than 250 languages and dialects as they attempted to draw an oral map of Europe. The strangeness lies not only in the sound of these long-dead voices, but in the fact that, during a particularly long and terrible war, one of the combatants should undertake a task so essentially useful. The programme can be accessed and listened to for seven days ('till 18 May) at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/

When you get there, click 'Launch BBC Radio Player'.

On 'Choose a Radio Station' click 'Radio 4'.

Go to the column 'select a type of show' and scroll down to and click 'factual'. Then click 'Go'.

In the 'A-Z' of shows which comes up, click 'Barbed Wire Ballads' and listen to the show! (runs for 30 mins.).

Ciao,

GAC

[marina]

One of the strangest programmes you will hear this year was broadcast by the BBC's Radio 4 at 11am (BST) yesterday morning.

I listened into this proramme today - very strange and very moving to hear the men. There was even a prisoner playing Jewish wedding music, and Jack Agars (?), a fisherman, still quite indignant at being taken prisoner at the outbreak of war. Very interesting programme indeed.

Marina

[Tim Godden]

Thanks for the link - it does sound very interesting so far.

Cheers,

Tim