Hemisphere Captivates Imperial War Museum North with Prisoners of War Exhibition
20 May 2009
Hemisphere has designed Imperial War Museum North's major exhibition for 2009 – Captured: The Extraordinary Life of Prisoners of War.
The exhibition, which opens on 23rd May and will run until January 2010, is timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War and tells the story of the lives and experiences of both prisoners of war and civilian internees during the conflict in Europe and the Far East.
Most people's idea of what life was like as a POW has come from iconic films such as The Great Escape and Bridge on the River Kwai and, through the exhibition, we’ve set out to tell the story behind the myths and to get across the reality of what POWs experienced in captivity, from courage and comradeship through to hunger, deprivation and cruelty.
The exhibition is jam-packed with a wealth of fascinating objects, art, documents, photographs, sound and film footage, ranging from drawings made by Ronald Searle during his time as a prisoner held by the Japanese, to a specially recreated 5m replica of a glider that prisoners at Colditz managed to build unnoticed in the infamous castle’s attic. Visitors can also find out more about ingenious escape attempts and the imaginative ways that POWs found to keep their spirits up, showing the incredible resilience of the human spirit even in the most appalling conditions. Younger visitors will be able to crawl through an escape tunnel, try on escape disguises, send secret messages and get a lesson in camp slang at different interactive stations around the exhibition.
