Barber Shop of YMCA POW Center in Riga | University of Illinois Archives

Caption accompanying image reads: "One of the attractions we offer to men, here is a barber-shop with everything free. To most of us, it is a matter of principle not to consider the nationality of any given prisoner or group of prisoners, we treat them all alike. But our barbers notice a difference: the further south on the map of Europe that a man comes from, the tougher his beard. Our head barber complained that he had to spend a whole day honing his razors after we had handled a transport consisting largely of Hungarians and Jugo-Slavs. This is not a very successful picture, but it was the best the photographer could do in the small space. I had a whole row of waiting beards just a couple of feet more to the right, but they failed to get into the ensemble."

Found in RS: 15/35/53, Box 2, Folder Riga-Stettin YMCA work for Central Empires, POW May-June 1921, Image IV