Crafting for sanity and subversity in WWII
December 23, 2011 12:40 PM   Subscribe

Subversive Finds: Truly Subversive Cross Stitch "It's the story of Major Alexis Casdagli, a British soldier in WWII who began cross stitching secret subversive messages while in a Nazi prisoner of war camp. It's the story of his son, Tony Casdagli, also a cross stitcher, and how he put together a book of his father's work. And it's also about the amazing show currently at the Victoria and Albert Museum in which includes work from both father and son... The most outstanding piece is a seemingly innocent sampler with a border design - but the dots and dashes are actually Morse code that spell out 'God Save the King' and 'Fuck Hitler'..."

Alexis Casdagli was imprisoned in Nazi camps from 1941 to 1945. During his four years of captivity, he began cross stitching. He cross stitched detailed pieces with his thoughts and feelings, and ran a needlework school for 40 other imprisoned officers.

His son, Anthony (Tony) Casdagli was a child when his father was captured by the Nazis. When he was 11, he received a hand-stitched letter from his father, telling him to "Look after Mummy till I get home again".

Tony himself is a cross stitcher. He began cross stitching seriously after retirement, while on holiday with his elderly father.

Previous article in The Guardian.

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posted by Kpele (3 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Double. -- restless_nomad



 
Double
posted by charlie don't surf at 1:05 PM on December 23, 2011


That's a good yarn.
posted by twoleftfeet at 1:30 PM on December 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


A stitch in time saves nine
posted by Renoroc at 1:37 PM on December 23, 2011


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