Stalag Survivor: The P.O.W. Art of Carl H. Holmstrom will have a Veteran’s Day Reception and Film Screening featuring a new mini-documentary created by Mike Nagy and Grady Hearn exploring Carl’s legacy through his son, John Holmstrom from 11 am to 2 pm on Monday, November 11th in the Workshop Gallery. We will premiere the mini-documentary film and screen it at half hour intervals. Free parking is available in the lot off Willow Street. Light refreshments will be provided.
If you had to carry what mattered to you most on a forced march of unknown length across a wintry landscape, would you choose your works of art or food, water and warm clothing? That’s the real-life decision faced by Lt. Carl. H. Holmstrom (1917-1979) in January 1945 as a prisoner of war in Nazi Germany. This difficult journey forced an impossible choice.
Holmstrom chose to carry the visual record he’d made of his 28 months in captivity, and Ball & Socket Arts in Cheshire celebrates that decision, and honors Veterans Day, with the exhibition, “Stalag Survivor: The Art of Carl H. Holmstrom,” on view from Oct. 18 to Nov. 24, 2024. Included with the exhibition at Ball & Socket’s Workshop Gallery (493 W. Main St., Bldg. 3) will be the sketches, finished drawings and watercolors from Holmstrom’s time in captivity, mostly at Stalag Luft III, the site of the legendary Great Escape.
Carl Holmstrom’s The Infamous Death March Begins