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THE ENEMY AMONG US RECEIVE GOVERNOR’S AWARD FOR THE HUMANITIES

St. Louis, Missouri…The Missouri Humanities Council is pleased to announce that David Fiedler, author of The Enemy Among Us received the Governor’s Award for the Humanities October 13 at a ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion in Jefferson City. This award recognizes an individual whose book has increased our understanding and appreciation of Missouri’s history and culture.

During WWII, 15,000 Italian and German solders were sent to 30 POW camps in Missouri. David Fiedler’s book, The Enemy Among Us, preserves the story of these POWs before it vanishes forever. His book not only lays out the facts of the camps, their dates, numbers of prisoners and what the men did, but also more tellingly, recounts the stories from the human angle. These prisoners of war worked in the corn and cotton fields, swam in local pools and impacted the people in the towns where they lived. The book is well researched and well written with many first-personal interviews. It has given Missourians an opportunity to remember the men held in little Missouri towns while documenting an important part of Missouri history.

The Missouri Humanities Council is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and has conducted programs on history, literature and cultural heritage in Missouri for more than 30 years.