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225660Norman Key
British Army Border Regiment
from:Lancashire
Norman Key was held at Stalag 383, Hofenfels, his prisoner number was 12695.He was married to my mother on 23rd December 1939, and was in the first wave of the BEF to land in France. He was captured in Tournai on 22nd May 1940. He was shot, but recovered and was held prisoner in Thorn, before being transferred to Stalag 383. I have a beautiful drawing of my mother drawn and signed by (M. Bogaert, Thorne 1e. 11.3.42.) I have tried to find M. Bogaert on the prisoner records with no luck. My dad must have traded something for this portrait to be done from a picture of my mom.
The one and only story he ever told, one day I came home (when I was about age 10, in 1956 ) to my dad frying me potato skins. I was horrified, and screamed I wasn't going to eat them. He then told me it was all he had to eat in the camp for years. Then he said, "they went well with the cat I skinned and ate!" So it was funny when I read somewhere on a site about Stalag 383, that someone in the camp lost their pet cat, and suddenly I thought "I wonder???". It must have been true. Apart from that day he never spoke of the war, ever, so it was really interesting to read other stories and I have been able to read and fill in the gaps of what happened to him. So thank you to those who recorded their memoirs, and photos. I only have one faded photo taken in the camp with a message on the back to my mom.
I visited Hofenfels last year. The camp is now a military base, and no one is allowed anywhere near it, but it was nice to be in the actual area and visit the little village of Hofenfels and the church, where I know he visited, how I don't know.
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