Wood Carvings,The collections of the Kansas Historical Society reflect the wide variety of national and ethnic backgrounds represented among the people of Kansas.
The wood carvings featured here, from the collections of the Kansas Museum of History, tell one story of Germans in Kansas. Some Germans came to Kansas involuntarily. During World War II, several camps were established around the state to house German prisoners of war. Ill or injured soldiers received care at Winter Veterans' Administration Hospital in Topeka. 
These wood carvings represent the friendly relationships that often developed between Kansans and German prisoners. After returning home at the end of the war, several POWs sent these carvings to Ernest Sibberson, a local Lutheran pastor, in thanks for his kindness to them during their forced stay in Topeka. Sibberson, who had immigrated to the United States as a teenager, was a native of Germany and spoke the language well. He regularly visited the POWs and held religious services for them at the hospital.
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