The History of Ruhleben: A Record of British Organisation in a Prison Camp in Germany

The history of Ruhleben – is a book, which was published in 1919 and written by Joseph Powell and Francis Henry Gribble, a British author, who during World War I worked in the Ministry of Information. They were held in the Ruhleben internment camp during the First World War. This book has been written to give a detailed account of the facts on which it was based, and to show how a few Englishmen, recruited from German towns, thrown into the swamp, and lodged in stables, set to work to establish a British colony and build a British city in a few miles from the enemy capital, as well as record the hard work done by many people in a wide variety of fields. Mr. Gribble mostly took descriptive notes when his memory of the scenes and occurrences he was to describe was still fresh. Mr. Powell's material consisted mainly of official reports, minutes of the meetings of the captains of the barracks and various sub-committees.