A World War Two prisoner of war camp is probably not the first place you think of for an inspiring story about the power of stitch. However, that’s just what I found when I came across Major Alexis Casdagli’s story.
For me, this story is packed with examples of the power of patience, persistence and creativity. I felt inspired by the ingenious way that Major Casdagli gave himself, and perhaps other prisoners, an all important morale boost. Surely a testament to the human spirit’s determination to stay alive!
So I had to share this with you…
Please note that this blog post contains a couple of swear words.
When the Second World War broke out, Alexis Casdagli went to serve in the army. He was then among those forced to surrender during the Battle of Crete in 1941. Following the surrender, Major Casdagli was taken to Germany and spent the next four years in prisoner of war camps.
Shortly after his capture he was recruited to MI9 (a military intelligence section of the British War Office) and started to keep a secret diary. The hope of the diary was to record information that could help prisoners to escape. There’s a transcript of Major Casdagli’s diary at the Imperial War Museum.
Stitching in captivity
During the war, the Red Cross sent boxes for prisoners whenever they could, which sometimes included thread and canvas for embroidery.
Major Casdagli made good use of these embroidery supplies.
It’s not difficult to imagine how stitching could have helped him get through the long and difficult days as a prisoner of war.
However, the spy in Major Casdagli also used his embroidery for additional purposes!
His stitching became a part of his documentation of his time as a prisoner of war. For example, he stitched a sampler that included his name, prisoner number, where he was being held captive and the date.
Subversive stitching
The German guards allowed Major Casdagli to hang up his sampler within the prison. Afterall, embroidery is pretty innocent and innocuous, right?
Well, here is the real genius of the story!
And what must surely have given Major Casdagli a morale boost every time he saw that sampler.
For unbeknownst to his captors, he’d included some defiant messages within the borders of the embroidery.
Among the large motifs of the border are a couple of small borders made up of decorative dots and dashes. However, these dots and dashes are not purely decorative. These innocuous looking stitches reveal secret messages if you know Morse code!
In the inner border, Major Casdagli had stitched the repeating patriotic phrase ‘God save the King’.
The outer border however, was used to give the Nazis the needle with a rather different repeating message:
Yes, that’s right, Major Casdagli had found a way to get ‘Fuck Hitler’ displayed on his prison walls. Right under the noses of his Nazi guards.
What a smart piece of subversive stitching!
More about Major Casdagli
Major Casdagli survived the war and continued to be a prolific stitcher for the rest of his life. In fact, his daughter believes ‘this hobby kept her father “modest, well-tempered, patient”’1.
If you’d like to read more about Major Casdagli and see photos of his embroideries, check out the following further reading:
- You can read a Red Cross article and interview with his daughter that includes photos of his embroidery and the bullet case he kept his needles in: https://www.redcross.org.uk/stories/our-movement/our-history/the-man-who-took-on-the-nazis-with-a-needle
- Here you’ll find a book publication of his war diary, that includes photos of his embroidery: https://www.cylixpress.co.uk/about-the-book/
- If you scroll down on this page you can see photos of Casdagli and some of his embroideries: https://www.cylixpress.co.uk/
I hope that like me, you found Major Casdagli’s subversive stitching story to be a great example of the power of stitch.
Perhaps it’s even inspired you to crack out the Morse code for a secret message or two in your next embroidery! I’d love to know what you’d write?
I love embroidery. But I am always intrigued by the stories around the types of embroidery around the world. I would love to hear more stories. Of course along with the way to work on new types of embroidery. We keep learning, right?
Hi Subha, I’m absolutely with you on we keep learning! Very glad to hear you’d love to hear more stories as I’ve been researching a few lately and so plan to share some more!
Thanks for sharing this wonderful story. A shining example of how creativity offers excellent coping skills.
Hi Kathie, I’m glad you liked it! Yes, I truly believe that creativity has many powers 🙂