Pottery Mug Made by a German Prisoner of War in Alabama

A decorated pottery mug, about 4 1/2 inches tall and 3 inches in diameter at the top. The mug has an animal decoration and the German phrase “Nimm das leben wie das leben eben ist”, or “Take life as life is”. The mug shows some signs of age and has a tight crack visible on the inside only. The bottom of the mug carries the incised maker’s initials and the notation “German P.O.W. Camp Opelika”, a prisoner of war camp in Alabama that was opened in 1942 to receive prisoners from the German Afrika Korps.