Comments for Prisoners of War: A Story of Four American Soldiers

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Produced by Produced by Erica Heilman and Gregory Sharrow for the Vermont Folklife Center.Engineered by Scott Halvorsen Gillette.

Other pieces by Vermont Folklife Center Media

Summary: Four Vermont soldiers talk about life in German prison camps after their capture at the Battle of the Bulge, and the life-changing effects of this experience.
 

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Beautifully Told

Very nice piece, especially from these soldiers. We are losing more and more of the WWII vets and these personal stories are being lost. Thanks for keeping these alive forever.

I just finished a doc (now on PRX) about the Vietnam War era POW/MIA bracelets, so this piece was a great interest.

David Berner

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Great radio

Extremely moving and profound piece. Well done.

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Review of Prisoners of War: A Story of Four American Soldiers

These 4 men have amazing stories and they detail the hell they endured with emotion, clarity and a uniquely human voice. It is one thing to hear someone talk about starvation in a detached manner, quite another to hear someone describe his efforts to stay alive by picking peels off a manure pile.

"Prisoners of War" is well edited and the production values are top shelf. The stories are compelling and important to hear and they don't lose steam as we conclude with them discussing their self-doubt even after living this horror.

As a PD I would have liked to have a 5-minute news hole at the beginning and there is plenty of audio for the creation of a powerful billboard.

I wonder if this would be just as profound with the insertion of narration. The narrator could take us outside the wall of the prison to the scenes happening around the world and within the war zones thus providing context and more perspective. Narration and sound might benefit an already excellent production.