Author Topic: War book  (Read 1890 times)

karly1824

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War book
« on: May 31, 2009, 06:05:22 am »
After posting about the chipper I thought of a book we have had and always been curious about the value of and also thought you may all find it quite interesting

The book was compiled by my husbands grandfather Frank Walton who was in the Durham Light Infantry from 1942-1945

He was p-o-w in Stalag 18B on the Austrian Border other p-o-w have made contributions to the book

It is made up of blue cross food labels, stamps, bank notes, sketches done by Frank Walton and poems written by p-o-ws

There is also a tiny book containing pictures of Hitler




























Skinny

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Re: War book
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2009, 12:17:53 pm »
I have no idea what it's worth, but what an incredible book! Any collector of  WWII memorobelia would probably give their right arm (or at least a finger or two) to have it. 

karly1824

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Re: War book
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2009, 01:09:13 pm »
A few more details of whats inside the book

there are quite a few postcards, food labels, foreign stamps and currency sketches of Mr Waltons family members, sketched jokes

Hope this helps

railman44

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Re: War book
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2009, 02:28:54 pm »
Not knowing what's in the volume history-wise, I would think it's a museum piece.  Certainly a one of a kind thing.  Assigning a value is about impossible.  It would also be impossibe to replace.  A fine gesture would be to try to track down the relatives of the men who signed the book and send a digital photo of what they wrote to their family members.  It would be a monumental task but one that would be greatly appreciated.  My .02 pesos.

D&b antiques

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Re: War book
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2009, 04:06:07 pm »
it has a lot going for it. the texas badger might be able to give you and Idea of value. he deal's in ww two item's

regularjoe2

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Re: War book
« Reply #5 on: May 31, 2009, 05:28:17 pm »
I'll make an appeal to the non-commercial side :

There's a new National World War 2 museum slated to open in New Orleans .

You might consider donating it to them , should they want it ... a tax deduction , anyways .

I really liked railman44's idea .
Perhaps , if you wanted to do something like this , you could get some help from POW/MIA folks here in the States .

Lots of vets I've talked with about WW2 really saw some horrible stuff , in regards to POWs .
A viewpoint from inside the camps , from a prisoners' point of view , truly is a piece of history .


Texasbadger

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Re: War book
« Reply #6 on: May 31, 2009, 05:29:10 pm »
Actually its the provenance and or family connection that is the value here,,,its greatest value would be as a donation a museum as Railman says,,,perhaps the D-Day Museum in New Orleans.  That way their efforts, sacrifices and contributions to the book can serve to teach others through their own written words.  Its the "whole totality" of the book that has value,,the tokens,,paper bills,,,and such are relatively common.  But research the museum in question, Ive got one close to me for the 90th "Tough Hombres" division and its well run and a documented governmentally registered facility.  There are others who claim to have "museums" but actually just use the pretense to scam relatives and vets out of their items and souvenirs.  Sorry for being long winded but thats my opinion.