BonnerSprings.com

Bonner Springs — Local residents will have a chance to learn about a little-known chapter of World War II next month. Coming to the Bonner Springs Library on Nov. 7 is the "BUS-eum," a museum housed on a 40-foot, former school bus with the exhibit Behind Barbed Wire: Midwest POWs in Nazi Germany. The Buseum is a program of TRACES, a non-profit educational organization based in St. Paul, Minn.

The exhibit explores the experiences of prisoners of war from the Midwest who were imprisoned in Hitler's Third Reich, and the human context in which their experiences took place.

The exhibit consists of narrative display panels illustrated with photographs and documents, audio and DVD documentaries and artifacts.Remembering the experiences of the POWs in their communities of origin is a unique adventure in U.S. history.

The BUS-eum is the only known mobile museum in the nation focused on the experiences and related historical contexts of U.S.

Kathleen Schramm, assitant director for the library, said the library had been contacted by the Kansas City, Kan., Public Library because the BUS-eum would have some extra time after exhibiting there.

"I said ‘We would love to have it here,'" Schramm said.

The exhibit is meant to answer questions about the POW experience, including why some Midwestern POWs survived and others didn't, what roles art and religion played in helping those POWs who did survive, and how the liberated POWs later came to terms with their own experiences

The BUS-eum will be in Bonner Springs from 8:30am to 11:00 am on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 at the Bonner Springs City Library at 200 E. Third St. The BUS-eum visit made available through the cooperation of the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Library. Admission is free!