Photo by Phyllis Stokes
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis were honored to host Isabella Lyste and her parents Lacy and Dave from the keeper’s hometown of Barron as part of Isabella’s UW Superior project of researching the history of German POWs in Wisconsin toward the end of WWII. There were thousands of them at Camp McCoy and in 38 seasonal camps across the state where there was unique bonding with many German residents.
The subject is close to the keeper’s heart as he has sketchy memories of the POWs being in Barron in 1944-45 and he used their presence as the setting for his novel “Margaret’s War,” published several years ago, in which he tried to make the point that when varying elements of war-involved populations are brought face-to-face they recognize their commonality and ask: “Why the hell are we killing each other?”
Isabella very professionally set up her recording devices and encouraged the keeper to talk about the POWs and himself–his favorite subject of course, and he came away much gratified that a delightful, motivated young woman from his hometown is enthused about resurrecting the message that the German POWs brought to Wisconsin some 80 years ago: “Why the hell are we killing each other?”
Go, Isabella!
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