A painter, a dentist, and a lot of ingenuity
How two Antipodean prisoners survived the constraints of a WWII camp through creativity and craft.
POW PapersAuckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
The Camp
In 1944, German prisoner of war camps like Stalag 383 held thousands of Allied prisoners. Amidst the wire and uncertainty, daily life became a testament to human resilience, creativity, and forced endurance.
Stalag 383 was a German prisoner of war camp for allied NCOs located in Hohenfels, Bavaria. It consisted of 400 huts holding up to 6000 prisoners by 1944. New Zealanders numbered 330. Among those, was 330 New Zealanders.
POW PapersAuckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
Daily Life
Prisoners engaged in all manner of activities ranging from beekeeping to gardening.
There were attempts to escape, such as two German speakers who simply walked out the gate disguised as Belgian workers. They had clothes made in camp and forged documents. They got as far as a railway platform to Stuttgart before being found.
POW PapersAuckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
The Painter
Ronald (Ron) Dalgleish Nethercote. Australian 2nd/3rd Infantry Battalion (AIF) service number NX4967. A painter, taken prisoner in Greece. He painted many of his fellow prisoners,
toothbrushAuckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
The Ingenuity
A brush made from old tooth brushes.
Oil from Red Cross sardines.
A bread-board for a palette.
A strip of palliasse for canvas.
One unprocurable shade of red was distilled from jam.
Plastic toothbrushes were used from the 1930s. First with hog hair bristles and then nylon.
“Nethercote’s ability is all the more pronounced when the difficulties under which he works are considered.” The Sun (Sydney), 10 Jan 1944, p.2
The Dentist
Captain John Gordon Wade Crawford was a member of the N.Z. Dental Corp. He arrived in Stalag 383 in December 1942 having been taken prisoner in Greece. Finding no dental services in camp, he proceeded to improvise a set of dental tools.
“The dental conditions of the camp were very bad.” “In all camps there were great shortages of medicines etc. The Red Cross sent tremendous quantities of medical & dental stores & but for these I don't know how any of the hospitals could have functioned.” - Crawford
Finding no dental services in camp, he proceeded to improvise a set of dental tools. During his time there he treated some 7000 patients and fashioned 400 new dentures. He received an MBE.
Capt J.G. Crawford. RNZDC. Stalag 383. 1944. Germany.Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
Authenticating the Art
Unframed, the painting would have been pinned to a board rather than on an easel as it was not a stretched canvas.
Iron oxide mixed with white makes up the pink. If jam was used in the red such as the lips, it may have disappeared over time. The blue eyes are ultramarine and white is zinc.
Capt J.G. Crawford. RNZDC. Stalag 383. 1944. Germany.Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
Look over Crawford’s shoulder into the background.
There is a bristle embedded in the canvas.
Capt J.G. Crawford. RNZDC. Stalag 383. 1944. Germany.Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
Take a closer look at the hand.
Capt J.G. Crawford. RNZDC. Stalag 383. 1944. Germany.Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
Signed and dated. NETHERCOTE / 44. Even the signature is applied thickly. The lower half of the canvas is heavy in carbon suggesting the use of charcoal.
Capt J.G. Crawford. RNZDC. Stalag 383. 1944. Germany.Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
On the back of the canvas oil marks can be seen having soaked through. They show an area around the head and mark the eyes. The weave of the fabric matches that of a 1944 British palliasse (straw filled mattress).
Forensic evidence confirms this story of ingenuity: the painting sits on a 1944 military palliasse, and embedded toothbrush bristles match the improvised tools. Together, a painter and a dentist turned the constraints of Stalag 383 into a testament to human resilience and creativity.
Text: Shaun Higgins, Curator Pictorial
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