In 1943, thirty-two Irish POWs refused a Gestapo request to work for Germany. They were sent to a labour camp, where they were starved, beaten and forced to dig the foundations for a Nazi super-structure codenamed Bunker Valentin - an immense U-boat factory. Thousands of the camp's prisoners perished, including five of the Irishmen; bodies fell into the foundations and were never recovered. The surviving Irishmen were saved by the goodwill of decent Germans.Among them was Harry Callan, a Catholic boy from Derry who went to sea at sixteen as a British Merchant Navy seaman. His ship had been captured by a German raider two years before he ended up at the labour camp. Harry was unable to speak about the brutality he experienced for decades after he was liberated. When he finally began to tell his story, his family were shocked by what they heard.In his eighties, Harry agreed to revisit the site of his incarceration. He found local historians had no evidence of the Irish prisoners: they had disappeared from official records. Determined to give his comrades recognition, he began working to preserve their memory. This is the gripping story of Harry's capture, resistance and liberation.But above all, it is the final chapter in his quest to honour the forgotten heroes of Bunker Valentin.
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Subtopic
Military BiographiesIndex
HistoryTable of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- About the author
- Dedication
- Contents
- Author’s Note
- Foreword
- 1 Early Days in Derry
- 2 Training for My New Job
- 3 My Life at Sea
- 4 SS Afric Star
- 5 Taken Prisoner
- 6 Prisoner at Sea
- 7 Prisoner on Land
- 8 Prisoner-of-War Camp
- 9 Enticements to Work
- 10 Bremen-Farge Marine Camp
- 11 Bremen-Farge Labour Education Camp
- 12 Bunker Valentin and a Letter to the Irish Consulate
- 13 Second Letter to the Irish Consulate
- 14 Punishment and Typhus
- 15 Working Outside the Camp
- 16 ‘Irländer’ and a Typhus Epidemic
- 17 The Heidbreder Family
- 18 Hell Camp, Bremen-Farge
- 19 Return to Westertimke and Liberation
- 20 Going Home
- 21 Dealing with the Changes in Derry
- 22 Nightmares and the War at Home
- 23 Christmas 1945 and Going Back to Sea
- 24 Life Moves On
- 25 Compensation and Germany Revisited
- 26 New Friends and Old Friends
- 27 War Crimes Trial Findings
- 28 Keeping the Memories Alive
- 29 The Irishmen Remembered
- Acknowledgements
- Further Reading
- Photograph Credits
- Imprint Page
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Yes, you can access Forgotten Hero of Bunker Valentin by Michèle Callan in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Military Biographies. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.