Here’s yet another fascinating second life for a school bus: a traveling World War II museum.

The 40-foot “BUS-eum,” as it’s called, has been roaming across the Midwest to inform folks about the experiences of prisoners of war (POWs) in Nazi Germany.

The exhibit focuses on the thousands of Midwestern soldiers who were captured by the Nazis and what they endured in captivity.

The bus, which has been repainted gray, is filled with photographs, documents, audio and DVD documentaries, artifacts, and other items. The International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva and the Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin supplied hundreds of photos for the exhibit that otherwise are unknown in the U.S.

According to the BUS-eum Website, the exhibit addresses five primary questions:

• Why did some Midwest POWs survive certain conditions or experiences, while others did not?

• What roles did art, free time, and religion play in helping those men who did survive imprisonment by the Nazi regime?

• Why did some Germans or Austrians assist U.S. POWs, while others did not?

• How did the liberated POWs later come to terms with their own experiences?

• How do nations and the individuals who constitute a nation come to reconciliation?

The site has an interesting video of a BUS-eum stop where a few surviving POWs shared their stories. Check it out here.

— Thomas McMahon, Executive Editor