“They worked across the road from us, about 10 or 11 in 1943,” recalled Kelly Holthus, 76, of York, Nebraska. [14]:42–45,148,163 The prisoners were usually shipped in Liberty Ships returning home that would otherwise be empty,[12]:5 with as many as 30,000 arriving per month. [20]:110 The cinema served as an important reeducation and propaganda tool as well as entertainment, with Hollywood anti-Nazi films, cartoons such as "Herr Meets Hare", and the Why We Fight series used;[29][30] American World War II films shown mostly dealt with the Pacific War. In the United States, at the end of World War II there were 175 Branch Camps serving 511 Area Camps containing over 425,000 prisoners of war. Later known as an anti-Nazi camp where many intellectuals, artist, writers were among the POWs. One solution was to use POW labor in the agriculture and forestry fields. The American professors were almost entirely ignorant of German language or culture, as well as military and prison life. ", "August 1943 description of the Camp Maxey", "World War II Camp Had Impact on CIty" by Michael Hawfield, The News-Sentinel 15 December 1990, Camp Thomas A. Scott - Fort Wayne, Indiana - WWII Prisoner of War Camps on Waymarking.com, http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2011/10/waterloo_township_officials_sa.html, http://wikimapia.org/12374348/Fomer-Site-of-the-Caven-Point-Army-Depot, The German POW camps of Michigan during WWII, Map of WWII POW Camps in the US with links, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_World_War_II_prisoner-of-war_camps_in_the_United_States&oldid=997645500, World War II prisoner of war camps in the United States, Lists of World War II prisoner of war camps, United States Department of Defense lists, Detention centers for extrajudicial prisoners of the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2018, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Originally an Army Airfield flight training facility. Following World War II, the facilities were taken over by the Veterans Administration with both a hospital and large domiciliary complement. [17] Labor unions were the largest opposition to the use of the prisoner workers, citing the War Manpower Commission's rules that required union participation in worker recruitment whenever possible. They secretly celebrated Hitler's birthday and other Nazi holidays after the Americans banned them, and many became upset when Jewish American officers supervised them. Almost all of the WWII Camp structures have since been demolished. Many in the OPMG opposed the program, in part because they believed that changing most adults' basic philosophies and values was impossible and, if successful, might cause them to choose Communism as an alternative. [21] They were paid in scrip. [14]:ix,xxii,26–27 (see also German prisoners of war in the United Kingdom). The, This camp had a guard fire on and kill several German prisoners. [17] Other than barbed wire and watchtowers, the camps resembled standard United States or German military training sites;[13][18][12]:33 the Geneva Convention of 1929 required the United States to provide living quarters comparable to those of its own military,[16] which meant 40 square feet (3.71 m²) for enlisted men and 120 square feet (11.15 m²) for officers. Eventually, a working relationship between citizens and prisoners was forged. [21][13] The likelihood of an escapee returning to their forces overseas was very remote;[26] the wish to avoid boredom was the reason most often given by those who attempted to escape,[14]:132,152 often hoping to reach Argentina. [13][25][12]:33–34[16] The Germans woke their own men, marched them to and from meals, and prepared them for work;[26] their routine successfully recreated the feel of military discipline for prisoners. Fear of secret punishment by such men caused one prisoner to later state that "there was more political freedom in the German army than in an American prison camp." The camp was massive, comprising over 43,000 acres of land. About 12,000 POWs were held in camps in Nebraska. During World War II the United States housed nearly a half-million German prisoners of war. Surveys of camp prisoners found no change in the views of the vast majority of prisoners from the program. [31], Camps built libraries to organize their reading material and prisoners often purchased their own, but they never had enough reading material, with an average of one half book per prisoner. Close to Fort Lincoln and held over 5,000 soldiers. The fact is that during 1943-1945 nearly half a million of German (and some Italian) WW2 POWs were imprisoned right here at home in the United States. This is a military history listing of repatriated prisoners … "German prisoners of war in the United States" wiki "There were insufficient American guards, especially German speakers. "[27] Prisoners held frequent theatrical and musical performances attended by hundreds or thousands, including American guards and Red Cross inspectors. The exact population of German POWs in World War I is difficult to ascertain because they were housed in the same facilities used to detain civilians of German heritage residing in the United States, but there were known to be 406 German POWs at Fort Douglas and 1,373 at Fort McPherson. At its height in May and June of 1945 the German POW population alone in the United States was over 371,000 with a total Axis prisoner count of over 425,000. Its military had only brief experience with a limited POW population in the last world war, and was unprepared for basic logistical considerations such as food, clothing and housing requirements of the prisoners.Almost all German-speaking Americans were … Due to a labor shortage, Italian Service Units worked on Army depots, in arsenals and hospitals, and on farms. Waters, Michael R., Mark Long, and William Dickens. [16] Funke reported that the visitors did so "as convinced democrats" due to their treatment. When the United States entered WWII in 1941, the United Kingdom was running short on prison space and asked the US for help in housing German POWs.The US agreed and when Liberty Ships transported US soldiers overseas, the relatively empty ships brought back as many as 30,000 Axis POWs per month to America. [14]:59,208 Despite complaints to International Red Cross inspectors about the alleged inferiority of American white bread and coffee, prisoners recognized that they were treated better in the United States than anywhere else. The installation housed around 900 Germans, who worked as gardeners and maintenance men around the base and surrounding community. Area Camp with 9 Branch Camps. Between 1940 and 1945, 425,000 POWs landed on American soil. The National Archives has an online searchable database. [12]:8 After repatriation about 5,000 Germans emigrated to the United States, and thousands of others returned later to visit[21][14]:248 such as Rüdiger von Wechmar, who lived in New York City for 14 years as the German Permanent Representative to the United Nations. [20]:110–111 Even as Germany's defeat neared in early 1945, eight of 20 camp newspapers advocated Nazi ideology. This was consistent with the unchanging level of confidence found in German soldiers immediately after their capture in Europe despite steady German defeats. Housed diverse groups of POWs ranging from Afrika Corp troops, Italian, Yugoslavian, Chechen, Russian conscripts and others. [16] Often members of the Afrika Korps who had been captured early in the war during Germany's greatest military successes[14]:150–151 led work stoppages, intimidated other prisoners, and held secret kangaroo court for those accused of disloyalty. [34], The OPMG began a formal reeducation program for German prisoners in fall 1943. Near the end of the war approved German films from a list exchanged through the Red Cross became available. While language differences and risk of escape or unreliable work were disadvantages, prisoner workers were available immediately on demand and in the exact numbers needed. A few continued into the early 1970s in Las Animas County where Trinidad is located. 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