Fall 2009 » In Review » Not Without Honor

Not Without Honor

Edited by Kay Sloan
March, 2009

Those who remember the film Stalag 17b and the television show Hogan's Heroes won't want to miss the journals of Claudio "Steve" Carano, who spent 18 months imprisoned in the camp after his B-17 bomber was shot down over the Dutch coast in December of 1943.

Carano kept a secret journal during his imprisonment, and the entries and illustrations take the reader into the world of Stalag 17b, where men clung to their humanity through humor, faith, camaraderie, daily rituals and even art.

Not Without Honor weaves together the stories of three American prisoners of war - Carano, his friend Bill Blackmon, who also was at Stalag 17b and John C. Bitzer, who survived the brutal "Death March" from northern Germany to liberation in April 1945.

Sometimes the journal reads like a thriller as Carano records air battles and escape attempts. At other times, the POWs concentrate on psychological survival. In both cases, this book allows the reader to journey with these young men as they record their firsthand impressions of the best and worst of human nature. n