The Romantic Strings, the Children Edition

 

Parents recognize that face.
That wonderful moment when a child
discovers that their talent is its own reward.  

Their enthusiasm builds on itself.
An amusement becomes an obsession
as each new skill inspires
a determination to learn more.  

It starts in that innocent time of childhood
when everything is a wonder.

And as parents and grandparents know
it begins with questions.
Many, many questions
about the world,
about how things work,

and about the infinite possibilities of life.

Today I present four examples 
of antique picture postcards
that have a romantic musical theme
of string instruments
and children.
 

My first postcard is a drawing in sepia tone of a youth in his nightshirt sitting on the edge of his bed and playing a violin. His expression is one of bright fixation on his music making. In the background is a woman, perhaps his mother, watching with clasped hands. Scattered on the floor are some pages of music. A picture of an organist at a keyboard, perhaps Johann Sebastian Bach, hands on the boy's bedroom wall.    

The title of the picture is Genesung~Recovery. The artist is identified in the lower right corner, both in the etching and printed on the sidebar, as Toby E. Rosenthal. His full name was Tobias Edward Rosenthal (1848–1917), a German artist born in Strasburg in Westpreußen, a place once part of Prussia which later became part of Germany. It is now called Brodnica and is a town in northern Poland. At a young age Rosenthal's parents emigrated to America, settling in San Francisco where Rosenthal received his first art training from a French-born sculptor and an expatriate Mexican artist.  

Rosenthal's postcard of a young violinist abed has a brief greeting on the back but was never posted. The publisher was Hermann A. Wiechmann of München~Munich, Germany. The style of the printing suggestions a date of 1915-1925.

Rosenthal's tutors in California recognized his natural talent for drawing and recommended to his parents that he travel back to Germany for further art study. In 1865 he enrolled in Munich's Academy of Fine Arts. By age 22 he won a prize medal for an imaginative painting of Bach's family at morning prayers. It was considered worthy enough to be acquired by the State Museum in Leipzig. 

Morning prayers in the Bach family
by Toby Edward Rosenthal, 1870
Source: Wikimedia

I found two versions of this painting on the internet. Above is an image from Wikimedia which I presume is Rosenthal's original painting in color. It shows the great composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) at home seated at a harpsichord with his lively family gathered around. Johann was married twice, first to Maria Barbara Bach (1684–1720) with whom he had seven children including three who died in infancy, and then Anna Magdalena Bach, née Wilcke (1701–1760) who gave him thirteen children including seven who died before reaching adulthood. 

There are eleven figures in the scene which includes a baby's cradle. I count six who are clearly not adults. According to the Wikipedia entry for Anna Magdalena Bach, "Only during the ten weeks from June to August 1732 were five of the couple’s children younger than 10 years of age living in the household."  It seems very likely that Rosenthal is depicting this Bach family of 1732.

Morning prayers in the Bach family
by Toby Edward Rosenthal, 1870
Source: Wikimedia

The second version of Rosenthal's painting is an engraving(?) made for an American book published in 1914. The engraver has reproduced Rosenthal's work very accurately, preserving all the animation of the original family scene. But their faces have more fine detail and I think the sepia tone picture is much more convincing as a work of art. 

Though he made a few return visits to America, Rosenthal made his career in Munich, Germany producing many paintings inspired by great writers of his time. His style followed the German Romantic movement which depicted historic events and nostalgic folk characters. 

This next drawing by Rosenthal was made in 1907. It is similar to the young violinist because this sketch shows another youth enthralled by his craft. Here an older boy concentrates on carving a small wooden figurine of Christ's Crucifixion. It's a sculpting skill which Rosenthal as an artist was likely very familiar with. 

Study of a Boy Carving a Crucifix
drawing by Toby E. Rosenthal, 1907
Source: Wikimedia 

* * *

My next postcard is a portrait of another young violinist engrossed in the sound of his instrument. This boy has wavy red hair not unlike the color of his violin and wears a blue-green jacket with a wide white collar. It's a thoughtful pose that invites us to admire the boy's focus on his music.  

This artist's name is signed in the lower right corner and printed on the back. He is Albert Louis Aublet (1851–1938) a French painter born in Paris. Aublet's first Paris exhibition was in 1873. He traveled to the Middle East in the 1880s where his experience in Istanbul inspired him to develop an "Orientalist" style by painting exotic subjects and themes. He also produced a number of genre paintings and female nudes.     

This postcard was sent from Bern, Switzerland on 9 May 1918. The painting's title is printed on the back: le jeune vilon~The young violinist. It was printed in Paris.

Bathing Time at Le Tréport
painting by Albert Aublet, 1885
Source: Wikimedia

Wikimedia offered a several examples of Albert Aublet's work. This summer scene shows a crowd enjoying a stony beach at Le Tréport, a port town in Normandy, France. The swirl of women's umbrellas adds more movement than we would see on a modern beach.

French artist, Albert Aublet (1851–1938)
in his studio, photograph, date unknown
Source: Wikimedia

Another image from Wikimedia is a photo of Albert Aublet working at his studio in Paris. The date is unknown but judging from his appearance it likely late 1890s or 1900s. Notice that the painting Aublet has on his easel is a portrait of three young girls, likely three sisters. Remember to click any image to enlarge it. 

* * *

 

This next postcard shows a lovely father/daughter moment when a cellist plays for his little girl. She wears a golden gown and pulls her dress out as she marvels at this grown-up costume. Music is scattered on the floor by the man's chair. His concentration is, of course, focused not on his cello but on his child. 

The title of this painting is Chaconne, a Spanish dance form from the Baroque era involving variations over a repeated bass line. The artist's name, written in the lower corner of the painting and printed on the sidebar, is John Quincy Adams. 

Despite his American-sounding name, John Quincy Adams (1873–1933) was actually Austrian. He was the son of American tenor Charles Runey Adams (1834-1900) and Hungarian singer Nina Bleyer (1835-1899) who both sang in the company of the the Vienna Court Opera. Their son was named after the 6th President of the United States, John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), but there was no direct family connection. In 1879 the family moved back to Boston but when his parents separated in 1887 Adams returned to Vienna with his mother. He studied art at the Wien Academy of Fine Arts from 1892-1896, followed by a year of artistic training at the Munich Academy and another year in Paris at the Académie Julian.

This postcard was never used but I present the back for its beautiful floral border. The publisher was B.K.W.I. or Brüder Kohn Wien I, one of the most successful postcard companies in Vienna and Europe. This is the same publisher that produced the postcards of my favorite artist Fritz Schönpflug (1873 – 1951). Since he and Adams were contemporaries I expect they must have known each other. 

Kitty Baronin Rothschild
painting by John Quincy Adams, 1916
Source: Wikimedia

According to a biography of Adams, he produced around 500 paintings in a large variety of genres with different subjects and styles. Nonetheless his main work earned Adams a cliché as "painter of the beautiful, elegant Viennese lady". One example is this portrait of Kitty Rothschild (1885–1946), an American socialite who was considered by noted Parisian dress designers as one of the world's ten best-dressed women. Born in Philadelphia, as a young woman she studied music in Munich, where she met and then eloped with Dandridge Spotswood, a industrial and mining engineer from New York with a Virginian ancestry. For a time the young couple resided in New York but the marriage did not last and they divorced.

In 1911 Kitty married an Austrian nobleman, Count Erwin Schoenborn, from an ancient noble family of the Holy Roman Empire. This painting was made in 1916 when they were still together as in 1924 they divorced. I don't know who got the dog. That same year Kitty married Baron Eugène Daniel von Rothschild (1884–1976), a member of the notable Rothschild family. The Rothschild's made their home in Paris and became prominent in continental European society until the start of World War Two. 

 

Kaiser Franz Joseph I
painting by John Quincy Adams, 1914
Source: Wikimedia

It is this portrait of Austria's Kaiser Franz Joseph I by John Quincy Adams that I find most interesting. It was completed in 1914 when Franz Joseph was 84 and shows a man bowed down by the weight of 66 years as monarch. What I don't know is if this portrait was finished before or after 28 June 1914 when his nephew and heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo by Serbian terrorists. This terrible murder of the Archduke and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, triggered the start of World War One. Franz Joseph would die two years later on 21 November 1916. 

* * *

My last picture postcard is another drawing that shows a small boy crouched behind an elderly cello player, presumably the boy's grandfather, who sits on a rustic stool. He grins with delight as he watches the bow race over the instrument's strings. Grandfather is bearded, barefoot, and dressed in shabby clothing. He smokes a long pipe as he looks directly at us. A violin hangs on the wall. He resembles characters in antique illustrations of Gypsy fiddlers that I have featured on another post, A Fiddler on the Street. 

There is a long message on the front around the drawing (more about that in a minute) and on the back is Kaiser Franz Joseph's picture in profile on a green 5 heller postage stamp. The stamp dates from 1908 in celebration of the Kaiser's 60th year as king and emperor. It was sent from Zadar, a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea, to an Oberleutnant~First Lieutenant Peteani in Dalmatia. The postmark date is illegible, but 1908-1910 seems reasonable.   

The artist of this little drawing signed his name in the lower corner: Valentini, 1882 but there is no other identification. After a hunt, I believe this was Valentino Valentini, (1858–?) an Italian artist who was born in Florence, Italy. Nothing much about his life is recorded on the internet but I did succeed in finding enough examples of his work to show that he understood musicians and musical instruments. 

Monk Musician
painting by Valentino Valentini, 1882
Source: MutualArt.com 

This painting by Valentini recently sold at auction. It shows a bearded monk playing a double bass. The monk stands in front of a heavy wooden music stand suitable for two players or even four. Scattered on the floor are more pages of music which seems to be a popular cliché to use when depicting earnest musicians. This painting is dated 1882 like the drawing so maybe the bearded man modeled for the cellist too.  

The Accordion Player
painting by Valentino Valentini
Source: MutualArt.com

This painting by Valentino Valentini shows a humble accordion player scanning the room or street in order to catch the eye of someone who will drop a few coins at his feet. It's a nice portrait of a folk musician as typical of Italy today as it was in the 19th century.   

* * *

Today in the 21st century we look at countless photographs and videos of people doing all sorts of things while expressing every kind of emotion. They are now so common that we forget how incredibly difficult it once was to capture a special moment on film. Just as they do today, people in the past smiled, laughed, cried, and hollered. But early photographers had to be very skilled, and lucky, too, to record those fleeting memories on film. 

Artists, on the other hand, have always relied on just a good eye and a deft hand to draw those human moments. With a good imagination and a familiar understanding of facial features, an artist can recreate an experience like love, joy, sadness, or anger that is instantly understood by any person, regardless of their language or point in time. It's that mastery of art which I think enhances our appreciation of this era when a picture postcard of a musician was more than just a pretty image. Sure, they were sentimental and designed to charm, but they also validate how prevalent it once was to have the wonder of music in people's lives. 

  Coda  

The German handwriting on this last postcard's message was made with a fountain pen and was consistent enough for me to recognize most of the letters if not the full words. For an experiment I removed the picture, increased the contrast, and rearranged the second part of the message into just a clear image of the script. I then uploaded it to three different AI services: ChatGpt, Perplexity, and Claude, giving each the same instruction: "Transcribe this handwritten German message from a 1910 Austrian postcard and translate it into English."

All three came up with pretty good equivalents for the German handwriting catching most umlauts, often written as just a dash over a vowel instead of '', and noting the funny German character ß for ss. Of the three, Claude was the most accurate. It produced this transcription:

Original: 

                    Lieber Harry! Nachdem mein Gagenzettel größer ausgefallen 

                als ich gedacht habe und etwas so noch hatte, habe ich mich
                entschlossen nach Hause zu fahren. Fahre am 3/9 um 8h früh weg.
                Werde niemandem sagen, dass du kommst, auch ich 
                werde momentan erscheinen. Almuier (?) wird 
                wahrscheinlich mit dir hinauffahren. Habe mich bezüglich deines
                Urlaubs erkundigt, da wurde mir gesagt vom...

                * 1–4 habt ihr Trainübungen und dann 
                    kannst du fahren, wenn es dir unten vom Kader 
                    bewilligt wird. Auf Wiedersehen recht 
                    bald. Mit Gruß und Kuss Karl.

Translation:

                         Dear Harry! Since my pay slip turned out larger 

                    than I had expected and I still had something left over, I have 

                    decided to travel home. I am leaving on the 3rd of September
                                at 8 o'clock in the morning. 

                    I will not tell anyone that you are coming, and I myself
                    will appear for the time being. Almuier (?) will probably travel up 
                    with you. I inquired regarding your vacation, and I was told by...

                    * From the 1st to the 4th you have training exercises, and then 

                        you can travel if it is approved for you 

                        down at headquarters. See you again quite soon. 

                        With greetings and a kiss, Karl.

All three AI websites offer a free service and were very quick, producing a neat transcription and translation in 15-25 seconds. The key for using this tool is to prepare the image carefully so that there is nothing except the script for the AI engine to analyze. I'm very impressed that it correctly found letters that I would not have guessed because it recognized the context and the typical syntax of a message written in German. I'm eager to try it with other languages.  

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where feather bolsters are on sale all weekend.

Postcards from Captivity

 

It was an unusual place to take a holiday. 
Far from the raucous bedlam of a big city,
this tiny town, a village really,
was tranquil and untroubled. 
Like a resort
there was recreation
for every season. Even in winter
when snow and ice made it slippery to get around.

If the weather was too cold or wet
then one could find distraction
with indoor activities
like making music with friends.

In some ways this place was like a spa
with opportunity to pursue healthful exercise
that restored ones physical fitness.

But few tourists would ever choose
this place as a holiday destination.
Indeed, at the time,

most people were far too busy
to imagine taking a vacation anywhere.

It was 1917 and the world was at war.

Today I present a set of picture postcards
sent by one man from a place he never expected to visit,
much less stay confined to for over two years. 
He was a young officer in the Belgian army
held captive in a prisoner of war camp.

This is his story
told in small fragments of a life removed
from the horrible turmoil of the battlefield.
 

We begin in the winter. A camera positioned at high vantage point takes a photo of men skating (or maybe sliding) around on an outdoor ice rink. It's a large space, at least 30 m (100 ft) wide and maybe twice as long. It doesn't look like a pond but more like a flooded field. Surrounding it is a double row of tall fencing with a snow-covered hill beyond. 

Over two dozen men are on the ice which has been swept of snow. They might be playing a team game like hockey but I think they are too disorganized for that. It's really just a picture of fun. 

The back of the card has no message but does have an official printed form. It's a Kriegsgefangenensendung, a 23-letter German word for "prisoner of war letter". On the left edge is a line for the Name of the Sender and the  address: Offizier-Gefangenenlager, Wiesa b. Annaberg. On the other side is the name of the photographer: Albin Meiche, Hofphotograph, Annaberg,  Sa[xony]. 

Annaberg-Buchholz is a modest-sized town in Saxony, situated in the Ore Mountain region of eastern Germany. It is now the capital of the district of Erzgebirgskreis which is on the northwest border of Czechia, though until 1919 it was the border of the Austria-Hungary empire. Wiesa bei Annaberg is a small village about 4km (2.5 miles) north of Annaberg. It is now called Thermalbad Wiesenbad.  

My guess is that this photo was taken in the winter of 1916-17 or 1917-18, but it really doesn't matter since it's a cheery wintertime image to set the first scene of my story.

The next postcard is literally a scene. This photo shows a tiny theatre stage with a group of 19 costumed characters squeezed together in front of a paper mâché forest grove. Most are men, some in military uniforms of the Imperial Russian army, but three are women, one in a white dress. Could this be a wedding scene from some play or operetta? The women look suspiciously masculine.  

The postcard is signed:

A Maurice Dardene
de Voldemar Piotrovitch
3 (16). 2. 7
"Le Mariage"

The annotation on the back gives a man's name and a title of the scene or play: A Maurice Dardene and "Le Mariage" or The Wedding in French. Was Maurice in this theatrical troupe? I don't know, but, as we will see, it's possible he was. The photo is similar to other postcards of theater scenes produced in prisoner of war camps that I've featured before. Check out The Role of a Lifetime, or The Königsbrück POW Camp, A Theatre of War. 

Also printed on the back is the photographer's name: Julius Dürr, Photograph, Bischofswerda i. S. Bischofswerda is a town in Saxony at the western edge of the Upper Lusatia region, about 12okm (72 miles) east of Wiesa. During the Great War it was the site of a prisoner of war camp for officers, mainly Russian and Canadians. 

Now for a different play. This next photo shows a small group of eight characters, five men and three women, in a drawing room. The stage is about the size of the one in the previous scene and shares some clues that make me think it's the same theatre. The prompter box looks identical, and in the top corners are hanging light fixtures (?) that look the same. One actor with a huge mustache (or Schnurrbart in German) wears a Napoleonic army uniform which suggests this is a French play. One character, a woman, is marked below with an X 

During the war German and Austria-Hungary built hundreds of prisoner of war camps to house enemy soldiers who surrendered or were captured. In these POW camps soldiers were held captive as a prize of war, but they were not incarcerated as punishment for a crime. They were granted a level of freedom that allowed them, within the confines of the camp, of course, to organize many activities and recreations like theater, music, and athletics. Officers, who were a much smaller portion of the total POW population, were accorded an additional level of respect for their rank that freed them from being assigned to work details outside the camp as the enlisted POWs were.  

This postcard was sent through by special post service following a convoluted route from Germany to Belgium.  

Bon et Joyeux anniversaire    [X moi] 
5 Mai 1917
Lovely and Happy Birthday  [X me]
5 May 1917

Moi with an X was Maurice Dardenne, Lieut(enant) d'artillerie belge. He was sending birthday greetings to Mademoiselle Marthe Dardenne of 31 impasse du Chemin de fer ~ 31 railway cul-de-sac, Châtelet, Belgium. Châtelet is a city on the river Sambre in the Walloon region of the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

Lt. Darenne had been prisoner since 1914 when he was captured at Fort Liesele on 12 October 1914. This information was carefully recorded on 13 March 1917 in an Imperial German Army account book of enemy prisoners of war. Neatly typed onto three rows across six columns was the full name of each soldier along with his rank, unit, date and place of capture, and date of birth with birthplace. Lt. Darenne was number 3 on page 16715. 

Prisoner of War record for 
Maurice Arthur Joseph Dardenne
Source: Prisoners of the First World War
ICRC historical archives

His full name was Maurice Arthur Joseph Dardenne, Leutnant~ Lieutenant in the 15th battalion of the Fest(ungs)~fortress artillery of Fort Liezele in Belgium. He was captured there on 10.10.14 (10 October 1914) during the German invasion to take Belgium prior to advancing on France. He was born on 12 August 1892 in Châteletville (Heinaut~Hainaut). So in May 1917 when he marked his X, Lt. Maurice Dardenne was approaching his 25th birthday. His youthful handsome face made him perfect to play a female role in that play.

Map of the National Redoubts
around Antwerp, Belgium in 1914
Source: Wikipedia

Belgium's security was invested in guarding the important port city of Antwerp. Between 1859 and 1914 the Belgian military constructed a series of 28 forts called the National Redoubt that were arranged in two rings around the city of Antwerp. On this map of the fort system, Fort Liezele is located at the 7 o'clock position. Like many of these fortresses, Fort Liezele, was built out of masonry and concrete 2.5 m thick but woefully unreinforced. By 1914 these forts were armed with two or three mounted turrets of heavy artillery. 

But Belgium lacked Germany's huge armament industry and its cannons could not compete against the larger and heavier German field artillery. When the German army besieged Antwerp in late September 1914 their guns fired at the Belgian forts from a distance that the smaller Belgian cannons could not reach to do any damage. In August the Germans had also used Zeppelins for the first aerial bombardment of a city. 

When the final German assault broke through the outer ring of forts the city fell 12 days later. On 10 October the last Antwerp garrison surrendered and those Belgian troops unable to escape west to France or east to the  Netherlands were captured. Lt. Dardenne was one of them. Altogether 730 Belgian officers and 40,500 Belgian soldiers were taken to Germany as prisoners of war. Around 2,000 would die in captivity.   

According to records at the archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) based in Geneva, after his capture Lt. Dardenne was first sent to a POW camp in Döbeln, a large town in Saxony. The German military account with his name is dated 23 January 1915. The list has six artillery officers from the 15th battalion at Fort Liezele and three from the 14th at Fort Breendonck. This camp was run by the German XIX Corps which also ran the camps at Bischofswerda and Wiesa.

At some point in late 1916 or early 1917 Dardenne was transferred to a new officers' camp in Wiesa. This postcard shows a nighttime scene of the main building there where he was housed shimmering in winter snow. A caption reads: Offizier – Gefangenenlager Wiesa. The building has four floors plus attic rooms with windows aglow in electric light. It looks a bit like a large school adorned by a central cupola dome. 

Puis en bonne santé - Embrassements
No. 21,  30 Mai 1917
Then in good health - Kisses
no. 21,  30 May 1917

Like the previous one, this card was sent by Maurice Dardenne to Mademoiselle Marthe Dardenne of Châtelet. Written in one corner is "no. 21", a reference to his 21st correspondence to Marthe. Soon after the belligerent nations began taking prisoners, the International Red Cross, worked to establish a postal service for captured soldiers. It was complicated because the war closed all borders which meant letters and parcels could only shipped via neutral nations. It also soon required a massive cost for rail transport which snatched valuable time and resources needed by the military forces. Soldiers and their families learned to add special codes to keep track of their letters and parcels which were often mixed up due to long postal delays. Belgian soldiers likely had an advantage over their French, British, and Russian comrades for less delayed postal service since Belgium was now occupied by the German armed forces.

former Robert Friedrich Kartonnagenfabrik (now hosiery factory)
at Wiesa bei Annaberg, Saxony, Germany
Source: 28 February 1932 Illustrated Erzgebirge Sunday Paper

In February 1932 a small regional German newspaper reported on the history of the officers prison camp in Wiesa. It even provided a wonderful non-winter photo of the same building as in Lt. Dardenne's postcard. According to the report the building was a cardboard factory newly constructed in 1914 for an Annaberg businessman, Robert Friedrich, but never made operational. It was conveniently situated near a train station and had grounds large enough to construct three more barracks for imprisoned officers and their German guards. 

The Wiesa camp first opened on 3 August 1916 with the arrival of "180 French and Russian officers and 65 boys. The French came from the fighting at Verdun, where the surprise German attack began on 21 February 1916, which achieved a gain of 20 kilometers wide and 10 kilometers deep by March 8 and captured the armored fortress of Douaumont. 25,000 French were taken prisoner. The captured officers were distributed among the four officer prisoner camps in Saxony in Bischofswerda, Döbeln, Königstein and Wiesa. The arrival of the transport was known only to a few people, so that the prisoners entered the Wiesa camp almost unseen."

This picture postcard shows a painted landscape view of Wiesa bei Annaberg, Saxony. The tall steeple in the center is St. Trinitatis Evangelical Lutheran church of Wiesa, Just beyond to left center is a building very like the cardboard factory. Though this card was sent before the war on 25 October 1913, I think it still may show the factory as it was being constructed

This officers' camp in Wiesa was probably set up to deal with the great influx of enemy prisoners taken as the war moved into its second year. Apparently it was too small to be described in British catalogs of the camps, and in fact, it may never have housed British officers. Belgian and French officers could be kept together as they generally shared the same language. (Though many Belgians speak Dutch or German as their native language.)

In 1921 a German scholar, Dr Wilhelm Doegen (1877-1967), director of the Sound Department at the Prussian State Library in Berlin, published a book entitled: "Peoples Held as Prisoners of War, The Attitude and Fate of Prisoners of War in Germany". The book is a terrific compendium of statistics, photos, and descriptions of how the German prisoner of war system was devised and managed. It covers issues of housing construction, health, and morale. According to this webpage for an archive of Wilhelm Doegen's work,"during World War I, he visited 70 POW camps where he recorded over 250 languages and dialects, as well as examples of traditional music." 

Dr. Doegen included a short outline of activities at the officers' camp at Wiesa.
 

WIESA __
    a. Lectures (in November 1917):24 hours of instruction and lectures weekly on German, English, Spanish, differential and integral calculus, trigonometry, mechanics, geometry, arithmetic, algebra, electricity, history, and Russian (with explained reading passages), literature, philosophy, mathematics, natural sciences, and law. Library. Music studies, concerts, a puppet theater, film screenings, board games, and card games.
    b. Sports, gymnastics (parallel bars, horizontal bar, and vaulting equipment), tennis, croquet, and ball games; walks, gardening, handicrafts (wood carving, ivory inlay work, macrame, clay modeling, painting, knitting, and knotting).

This is a photo of the music room in Wiesa. Six chairs and music stands are arranged  next to an upright piano. On the piano and chairs are three violins, a cello, a mandolin, and a guitar. Bright sunlight fills the room. The caption reads: Offizier – Gefangenenlager Wiesa.

This postcard was no. 24 from Lt. Dardenne and this time is addressed to Madam Gustave Dardenne at the same address in Châtelet.

Recu lettre Victor 7 -  Bon baisers
No. 24,  13 Juin 1917
Received letter Victor 7 -  Best kisses
no. 24,  13 June 1917

The short note refers to Maurice receiving Victor's letter no. 7. Like the first postcard of the men on the ice rink, this photo was taken by Albin Meiche of Annaberg. 

In the summer the officers at Wiesa took advantage of their ice-free playing field for other sports. In this postcard there are two different matches going on. In the foreground a dozen men playing football. The camera has caught the ball in motion and someone is about to do a header. In the background behind a tall fence is a tennis court with a couple of players next to the net.   

This card was addressed to Madame Gustave Dardenne of Châtelet and postmarked on 22 July 1917 in Wiesa, though Maurice Dardenne dates his short message, no. 29, 11 July 1917. Since he has already demonstrated the use of X marks moi, I don't think he is pictured in this group of football players.

Bonne Fête Victor et Marthe - Baisers 
No. 29,  11 Juillet 1917
Happy Holiday Victor and Marthe - Kisses
no. 29,  11 July 1917

Maurice's good wishes to Victor and Marthe on a card addressed to Madame Gustave Dardenne makes me think that they are his younger siblings and that Madame is his mother. This might have been the start of the school holidays in Châtelet. 

Pursuing physical culture was a part of military training that would understandably become very common in prison camps. This photo has a surreal quality as a man hangs horizonal on a high bar. Whether the camera has caught him planking stationary or in mid-swing, I do not know. But it looks hard to sustain either way. Beyond him is a compatriot in uniform. Officers and soldiers considered themselves still in service and under command of their nation's senior officer in the camp. Almost all of the soldiers in my collection of prisoner of war camps wore appropriate military uniforms even though the fabric became threadbare and dirty as the years went by.

Just to the right of the other soldier is a little hut for a German guard. They were stationed around the Wiesa camp playing field and I believe this one is visible on the far side of the ice rink photo. It marked as number 10 under the little roof.       

This card was sent to Marthe Dardenne and marked by Maurice as no. 32. dated 24 July 1915, but the postmark date is 3.8.17. Prisoner mail got low priority. 

Vive  Ste. Marthe! Bons bécot
No. 32,  24 Juillet 1917 
Long live Saint Marthe! Good kisses
no. 32,  24 July 1917 

This message seems a more personal note for Marthe. Was Maurice praising her for an scholastic award? Could it be for her Catholic confirmation? In that case she would be around age 7 or 8. His 24 July date might be a clue as there is a biblical Sainte Marthe of Bethany whose feast day is July 29 and maybe he is connecting the postcard to her name day. Sainte Marthe is venerated by Roman Catholics in Provence, France, as she took care of the hungry, and is traditionally considered the patroness of housewives, waiters, waitresses, and cooks. But without more clues Marthe's age and relationship to Maurice remains a mystery.

Within the cardboard factory a room was reserved for a Catholic chapel. This photo shows a fairly elaborate altar with a central crucifix and two supporting statues. At the bottom of the photo is the caption: Offizier – Gefangenenlager Wiesa. All the armies, of course, had chaplains in service, but they were not captured in sufficient numbers to administer to their fellow prisoners of war in every camp. According to the 1932 report on the Wiesa camp, there was a French chaplain at the samp, but Russian soldiers had a challenge as they worshiped in the Eastern Orthodox faith which was nothing like Catholic or Protestant rites. So a Russian chaplain was brought in from one of the larger camps in the Saxony district.    

This card was not posted but it came with the others from the same dealer so I believe it must be part of Maurice Dardenne's estate. Like the first photo of the ice rink, this has the same official Wiesa camp form printed on the back, though here there is a fuzzy reverse overprint. Most likely Maurice sent some postcards inside letters which have sadly been separated from the postcards. Such is the destiny of all holiday picture postcards. All postcards and letters were subject to censors under the German commandant. On the cards that were posted there is a red F.A. stamp that shows the message was approved for posting. This may account for the delay getting camp mail into the German postal system.  

The 1932 German newspaper report include this description of how the officers were able to purchase extra items to have in camp.   

Like all other prison camps, the Wiesa Officers' Prison Camp also issued its own camp money in the form of vouchers. No prisoner was allowed to carry cash. He could only buy with the store money substituted for him. This prevented German money from accumulating on a prisoner, which could then have been used for
bribery, escape attempts, etc.

For months and years, the prisoners of Wiesa passed the time reading, smoking, playing cards and writing. They had at their disposal a rich library of French and Russian works supplied by universities, as well as a music room with violin, cello, piano and harmonium, and a small home cinema. Furthermore, the French had built a tennis court, built a bowling alley and acquired gymnastics equipment at their own expense. A large proportion of the prisoners also engaged in vegetable cultivation and the cultivation of flowers of all kinds on the associated 3-acre site; still others practiced the breeding of rabbits, chickens, and pigeons, even pigs and goats, in a large number of stables and then sold the animals to residents of Wiesa, etc.

 

My final postcard from Maurice is a wintertime scene of the hills above the Snow is heaped against the perimeter fence and in the lower corner is a note:
28 ft. The black and white photo has a kind of abstract quality as the contrast is too extreme to make out all the details, but I imagine that Maurice on looking out his barrack windows and seeing his little camp covered in snow must have felt it a magical sight that he wished he could share with his family.   

This was postcard no. 55 and it was now 6 March 1918. The card was sent to Mademoiselle M. Dardenne. Perhaps a recognition of her maturity? 

à quand de les lourelle? Baisers
No. 55,  6.3_1918
when will we see them? Kisses
No. 55,  6.3_1918

Lt. Maurice Dardenne of the Belgian artillery had been confined for 3 years, 4 months, and 24 days. His sustained holiday had doubtless lost all novelty and salutary qualities.  That winter of 1917-18 the future still seemed unpredictable. One could always hope but the fate of the world was as yet undecided. 

Soon the American Expeditionary Force would join the French and British on the great battlefield of the Western Front. But the outcome would only be determined by more vicious bloodshed. For someone so long separated from their family, their comrades, and their fellow citizens, Maurice must have felt unbearable longing to return home. "When will we see them?", he asks. He could not know then, but he had 250 more days to wait. 

The war continued up until 11 a.m. UT on 11 November 1918.

2,738 men died on the last day.

I have been unable to learn anything more about Maurice Dardenne. So I know nothing of his fate or of Marthe, Victor, and Madame Gustave Dardenne. What little I could discover only increased the number of questions I have, of course, but his name is fairly common and there are few Belgian resources open for long distance internet research. 

Maurice was an artillery man so he would have experienced a share of the noise, bedlam, and destruction of the war, but captivity spared him from the worst terror. No doubt he and his fellow imprisoned officers picked up some news of the war. But it would have been stale news by the time it reached Wiesa and very likely distorted or mistaken. 

While he was held in captivity, his homeland Belgium was occupied by the Imperial German army. From the beginning of its invasion the German forces committed numerous atrocities and systematic war crimes against Belgian civilians. It became known as The Rape of Belgium. Here is a description from the Wikipedia entry:

Throughout the war, the German army systematically engaged in numerous atrocities against the civilian population of Belgium, including the intentional destruction of civilian property; German soldiers murdered over 6,000 Belgian civilians, and 17,700 died during expulsions, deportations, imprisonment, or death sentences by court. The Wire of Death, a lethal electric fence maintained by the Imperial German Army to hinder civilians from fleeing the occupation to the Netherlands, resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 Belgian civilians. Some 120,000 were forced to work and deported to Germany. German forces destroyed 25,000 homes and other buildings in 837 communities in 1914 alone, and 1.5 million Belgians (20% of the entire population) fled from the invading German army.

While Maurice was on his forced vacation, his family and friends back home endured relentless brutality that must have greatly added to his stress. Unfortunately his postcards offer too few lines for us to read anything between them. Did he survive the war? The pandemic? The great depression? The next war? We can only imagine and guess.

This set of picture postcards have more than one story to tell. The photos are more like tiny scenes from episodes in a long running television drama. We see odd characters whose names we don't know. Events and places that make no sense. It looks vaguely interesting if we only knew the context. That is what I've tried to present here—a context. I don't know how Maurice's story began or ends. But I do know something of what he once experienced and what he missed out on. It was no holiday, despite the pretty pictures. 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where nothing ever interferes with delivery of the mail.