The Enemy Among Us: POWs in Missouri During World War II

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: Growing up in Missouri, I never knew about Enemy POW's being here during WWII. This book really does a fine job of painting a picture of life for both the POW's and the Missourians that worked with and befriended them.

The photographs are excellent and Fiedler does a wonderful job of sharing a fascinating story!

Especially in light of the current news about POW's, this book is very timely and interesting.

Rating:
Summary: A masterful telling of a little-known story
Review: History books generally get a bad rap because so many end up dry in the details, dry in the telling. Thankfully, the Enemy Among Us avoids this trap, and with an emphasis on telling the story in the words of the people who were there, David Fiedler offers a delightful account of when 15,000 German and Italian POWs came to Missouri in WWII.

The Enemy Among Us is richly spiced with first-person accounts from many perspectives of the POW camps, from prisoner and guard, camp worker and ordinary citizen, and beyond. Accounts of friendship, escape, mischief and romance keep it lively, and Fiedler's eye for detail and human interest make his narrative sparkle.

The Enemy Among Us offers first an overview of the POW program, and then works its way geographically through the Missouri camps. The four big camps (Clark, Crowder, Leonard Wood and Weingarten) each merit their own chapter, and subsequent chapters examine the smaller branch camps as they were clustered in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas, in the Missouri Bootheel, in central Missouri, and other parts of the state. Fiedler closes his book with a chapter that details the POWs' return to Europe, their experience after the war, and in some cases, their return to the U.S. as visitors or immigrants. Over a hundred photographs put faces on the people involved and provide a nice accompaniment to the text.

Because of its easy-reading examination of a fascinating, yet little-known subject, The Enemy Among Us will appeal to just about anyone, whether WWII history buff or someone simply interested to hear about the time when 30 POW camps dotted the Missouri landscape, and German- and Italian-speaking soldiers worked in the fields.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: There's not much I can say about this book that has already been said. It is absolutely wonderful, very colorful and easy to follow, it doesn't bore you to death with useless facts. The stories are rich and fascinating and the pictures captivating.
If you have even the tiniest bit of interest in POWs in America or Missouri - this is a definite must-have.