Touching story of the beautiful wooden toys carved by German PoWs and given to English schoolgirl living nearby in Somerset.
Lance Corporal Franz Schmidt painstakingly carved the gifts for the five-year-old after striking up a friendship with her father, who was a coach driver at the camp. The enemy soldier, from Mülhausen, Germany, was captured in Cherbourg, France and was held at Goathurst camp from September 1944 until June 1947. Father-of-two Franz, who was known as POW A854348 during his time at the camp, spent hours poring over the intricate sculptures, creating around 20 in total. The collection includes a grocery shop, modelled on the one he owned in his hometown, a doll's house with furniture, a dog and moving piano. Franz would work on them in the evenings, chiselling fine details into scrap wood he found during his days labouring in the fields doing agricultural work.
