Ukrainian POWs in Germany

Vybir poezii [A selection of poems].

Fed'kovych, O[syp Iuriy].

Vetsliar (Wetzlar): Vydavnytstvo "Struia", 1920. Small octavo (13.8 × 10.8 cm). Original staple-stitched pictorial wrappers; 32 pp. Very good.

Published by the education department of the Ukrainian Military Mission, this volume of poems was published for the benefit of Ukrainian prisoners of war in and near the camp at Wetzlar, Germany. The Wetzlar camp was one of three (in addition to Rastatt and Salzwedel) created at the behest of the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine, which housed some 50,000 Ukrainian prisoners from among the estimated 300,000 Ukrainian prisoners from the former Russian Empire which were held in German camps by the end of WWI. (See the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, "Prisoner of war camps"). The Military and Sanitary Mission of the Ukrainian People's Republic was tasked with repatriating Ukrainian POWs, among other places from Germany. In addition to organizing their evacuation and providing basic sustenance, the Mission was also tasked with basic educational and information services in the camps.

Fed'kovych (1834–1888) was a Ukrainian late Romantic writer and folklorist from the Chernivtsi region in the Bukovina. His poetry is known for incorporating themes of the Hutsul people, such as the despair felt by recruit soldiers far from home. Fed'kovych edited the first Ukrainian-language newspaper in the region.

On publishing in the three Ukrainian camps in Germany, see: M. H. Palienko and I. V. Sribniak, "Knyzhkovyi rukh u taborakh polonenykh boiakiv-ukraintsiv u Nimechchyni pid chas pershoi svitovoi viiny" (2020). For more on the work of the Mission in Germany, see O. V. Molchanova, "Repatriatsiia polonenykh ta internovanykh voiakiv-ukraintsiv z Nimechchyny u 1919–1920 rr" (2015).

As of October 2022, KVK, OCLC show two copies, both in Germany.

Book ID: 52444

Price: $350.00