Client:
Imperial War Museum North
Title:
Captured: The extraordinary lives of Prisoners of War
“Presenting such a wealth of content in an engaging and interactive way has been a real challenge, but Hemisphere have really pulled it off with creativity and flair.”
Rachel Knight
Head of Exhibitions,
Imperial War Museum North
Exhibition telling the story of the lives and experiences of both prisoners of war and civilian internees during the Second World War in Europe and the Far East.
Read moreTimed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, this major temporary exhibition tells the story behind the myths of iconic movies such as The Great Escape and Bridge over the River Kwai in an attempt to convey 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 in a POW camp in Burma 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 can 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.
