You now have an opportunity to visit those sites on a tour arranged by Laura A. Edge. This historical site visit will begin on May 5, 2024, in Frankfurt, Germany.

Laura Edge is the daughter of Lawrence Witt, who served in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. He was a flight engineer in the 96th Bomb Group.

On May 12, 1944, he was shot down over Nazi, Germany and held as a prisoner of war for the next eleven months, primarily at Stalag Luft IV prison camp located in what is now eastern Poland.

Intrigued by her father’s story, Laura conducted extensive research on her father’s and other’s war experiences through correspondence, oral history interviews, military documents, and other sources.

Ms. Edge holds a Masters of Social Studies Education degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. After ten years of researching her father’s World War II Prisoner of War story, Laura published On the Wings of Dawn: American Airmen as Germany’s Prisoners. She interviewed many Eighth Air Force bomber boys who flew from England during World War II. Her research papers are now archived at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan, and her oral history interviews are part of the Veterans History Project collection at the Library of Congress.

The research collection can be accessed through the university’s website (https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/106588).

Anyone interested in participating is encouraged to contact Laura at lawe@umich.edu.

Highlights Include:

• Visit a B-17 crash site and a former Luftwaffe Fighter Base
• Visit Dulag Luft (both Frankfurt and Wetzlar sites) with historian Susanne Meinl
• Travel to Stalag Luft IV where dignitaries and historians are waiting to receive us. View the
  train station, the ruins of the camp, the sculptures at the memorial, and recreate the walk/run
  from the train station to Luft IV
• Visit the site of Stalag Luft III, a POW camp for Allied Air Force Officers and site of The Great
  Escape
• Follow the path of the Black March through Świnoujście to Fallingbostle where we will meet
  with historians and see the remains of Stalag XIB and Stalag 357
• Continue the path to Gudow where many Stalag Luft IV POWs were liberated on May 2, 1945.
• Celebrate freedom with local VIPs and dignitaries
  Email Laura Edge (lawe@umich.edu) to arrange a phone call for more information.

(all travel expenses are to be paid by the participants)