10 0 obj Back at camp, fellow POWs hailed them as heroes. According to Society for Military History, to create rights and status equal to the U.S. military, German officers above the rank of captain were assigned their own POW orderlies and generals were housed in private huts. Often, descendants of those POWs come for a visit to see where their relatives spent the war. Weingarten was the location of a large prisoner of war camp during WWII. German POWs march into the mess hall at their small work camp on the Hellwig Brothers Farm on Gumbo Flats, the Missouri River bottomland now called Chesterfield Valley, in March 1945. Genevieve, Missouri, A former CCC camp it was used for POWs who were with Rommel's Afrika Corps. Even as conditions worsened for American POWs held in the European theater of World War II and word spread around the United States about Hitlers efforts to exterminate the Jews, the U.S. government remained firm that prisoners of war should be treated according to the Geneva Conventions. Not only did POWs dine well, they took college courses, set up libraries, and formed orchestras and soccer leagues. POW Death Index in US. However, POW Camp Road is not about the road itself. All buildings have since been demolished, the only structure left standing is the base of one stone pillar where the main gate of the camp stood. From 1942 to 1945, more than 400,000 Axis prisoners were shipped to the United States and detained in camps across the nation. The location of the former POW camp is a residential area now. MVSC 940.5472 F45e. It held soldiers and officers of the Italian army captured in the Allied Mediterranean campaigns during World War II. POWs in the US. Photo by Buel White of the Post-Dispatch, The main avenue at Camp Weingarten lined by small barracks buildings in June 1943. Despite the challenges of overseeing the internment of former enemy soldiers, the camp experienced few security incidents and conditions remained rather cordial, in part due to the sustenance given the prisoners. (POW) camp in 1943. Others were confined in small outposts such as Hellwig Brothers Farm, near U.S. Highway 40 on the Missouri River bottomland then known as Gumbo Flats. Straussberg fled into the woods, but he didnt get far. By 1943, Arkansas had received the first of 23,000 German and Italian prisoners of war, who would live and work at military installations and branch camps throughout the state. Although her uncle died in 1970, records accessed through the National Archives and Records Administration indicate he was drafted into the U.S. Army and entered service Nov. 10, 1942, at Jefferson Barracks. In one incident, Black servicemen were barred from entering a restaurant at a Texas train station while POWs were invited inside to dine with their white captors. Post-Dispatch file photo, Two German POWs watch the film of Nazi atrocities during a mandatory assembly at their camp at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. According toSociety for Military History, because of its scant experience dealing with POWs, the U.S. chose to follow the edicts of the untried 1929 Geneva Convention. Missouri figured into this equation, housing some 15,000 prisoners of war from Germany and Italy inside state lines. This report was prepared with help from our Public Insight Network. As noted in Humanities Texas, the first big batch of POWs arrived in the spring of 1943 following the surrender of Germany's Afrika Korps. Glidden (left), commander of Camp Weingarten, looks across part of the 960-acre prisoner-of-war compound in Ste. Some even "started to enjoy the novelty.". Many of the camps where they were held have faded into distant memory as little evidence remains of their existence; however, one local resident has a relic from a former POW camp that provides an enduring connection to the service of a departed relative. You have permission to edit this collection. Also the site of training for "The Ritchie Boys", European refugees trained there to go back into Germany and sabotage the war effort. ", As noted in Returning to America: German Prisoners of War and American Experience, of the more than half million Germans who immigrated to America between 1947 and 1960, several thousand were former POWs. The men ate well and were quartered under the same conditions as the Americans assigned to guard them, and the prisoners often enjoyed a great deal of freedom. Fort Crowder was a U.S. Army post located in Newton and McDonald counties in southwest Missouri, constructed and used during World War II. Waste material generated from the former Fort include aviation and vehicular fuels, oils, greases, metals, paints and solvents. The camp, located south of Neosho, Missouri, was established in 1941. Located between Olympia and Tacoma, Washington. Click here to learn more or join our conversation. Following World War II, the facilities became the. Photo by Buel White of the Post-Dispatch, The chow line on a boat camp at St. Louis in 1945. Likewise, hundreds of thousands of American GIs were returning to the states and would need the jobs the prisoners of war would be filling so they were no longer needed for their labor efforts, Fiedler said. Although Nazi POWs denounced Der Ruf as Jewish propaganda, according to the New England Historical Society, most POWs loved reading it, and its effectiveness at changing hearts and minds was indisputable. d3K/,diWAgCZ,7Y>&WqU(lt1iJ5cuy#}iv^L),ybY[Y="Ni' i~l + Although some in Congress decried this apparent "coddling" of the POWs, the War Department, as noted by HistoryNet, remained confident that news of the benefits enjoyed by the POWs would reach Germans still fighting overseas and encourage their surrender. <> In the years after the war, McDowell said, her mother kept the cigarette case tucked away in a chest of drawers but since both of her parents have passed, she now believes the historical item should be on display in a museum. Sub camps:Camp Pine, Camp Thornton and Camp Skokie Valley, each with 200 POWs. In the years after the war, McDowell said, her mother kept the cigarette case tucked away in a chest of drawers but since both of her parents have passed, she now believes the historical item should be on display in a museum. The camp was just east of the village of Weingarten, on Missouri Highway 32, west of Ste. The Italian and one German POW who committed suicide rather than be repatriated are buried just outside the post cemetery boundaries. 6 & 7, Chesterfield, MO 63017. The author further explained, (T)he camp was enlarged to the point that some 5,800 POWs could be held there, and approximately 380 buildings of all types would be constructed on an expanded 950-acre site.. Germany's "Great Escape" was from a 200 feet (61m) tunnel by 25 prisoners on 24 December 1944. Many of the camps where they were held have faded into distant memory as little evidence remains of their existence; however, one local resident has a relic from a former POW camp that provides an enduring connection to the service of a departed relative. 9 0 obj 339-351. During World War II, more than fifteen thousand German and Italian soldiers came to Missouri. Not only was racism detrimental to Black servicemen's morale, it also became a Nazi propaganda talking point. St. Louis on the Air hostDon Marshand producersMary Edwards,Alex HeuerandKelly Moffittgive you the information you need to make informed decisions and stay in touch with our diverse and vibrant St. Louis region. As McDowell went on to explain, her uncle remained at Camp Weingarten until his discharge from the U.S. Army in December 1944. Sixteen of the men were killed or died as a result of an accident on 31 October 1945. Undoubtedly the biggest source of conflict in the POW camps were the ardent Nazis. Two escaped. "It is a beautifully crafted cigarette case, but the irony of it all is that my father never smoked," she jokingly added. In Southern POW camps, some facilities were segregated by race, and Black servicemen were given the worst jobs. June 16, 1945 The day German POWs escaped their camp near St. Louis. POW Camps in the USA POW Camps in Missouri. Fort Leonard Wood, in central Missouri Camp Weingarten, near Ste. Gaertner stayed under the radar for years, and eventually the authorities stopped looking for him. Coal mining was prominent in the late 1870s to the 1950s. To ensure its success in the camps, the project was kept top secret. Similar scenes played out across rural America, but over time, as noted in The Washington Post, many of these small communities adjusted to the POW presence. Many locals recognized the vital role the POWs played in their local businesses, and quite a few befriended their captive employees, continuing relationships even after the war, as noted in HistoryNet. The, This camp had a guard fire on and kill several German prisoners. Pfc. Little remains of the once sprawling POW camp located approximately 90 miles south of St. Louis, with the exception of a stone fireplace that was part of the Officers Club. As that took place, about 2,000 acres (8.1km2) of the post was turned over to the U.S. Air Force as a buffer zone around Air Force Plant 65, a government owned-contractor operated liquid propelled rocket engine manufacturing facility operated by the Rocketdyne division of North American Aviation. ", "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, https://web.archive.org/web/20220720230229/https://www.unionleader.com/nh/travel/historical_markers/roadside-history-camp-stark-nhs-wwii-german-pow-camp-housed-about-250-soldiers/article_9dd52830-ef9f-57d6-9ef3-ce2472704b70.html, "Waterloo Township officials say rundown prison camp is a hazard and should be razed", "Uboat.net - the Men - Prisoners of War - German POWs in North America", "Fomer [sic] Site of the Caven Point Army Depot - Jersey City, New Jersey", 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=1129515906, Originally an Army Airfield flight training facility. Post-Dispatch file photo. "My mother's brother, Dwight Hafford Taylor, was raised in the community of Alton in southern Missouri," McDowell said. "It was a beautiful day, all looked so peaceful. Shortly after Taylor received assignment to Camp Weingarten, Italian prisoners of war began to arrive at the camp in May 1943. Pfc. As noted by Humanities Texas,methods of escape were as varied as reasons for trying and were occasionally quite inventive. Groundwater and soil contamination has been identified in various areas of the base's original property boundaries. POWs who were a part of the ISU received better housing, uniforms and pay. Established at Weingarten, a sleepy little town on State Highway 32 between Ste. As the NKPA retreated farther north, they were forced to evacuate their prisoners with them. In 1942, the camp was reopened as a prisoner-of-war camp to house Italian and German prisoners. Five weeks after Germanys surrender, American security had become a bit haphazard. With Glidden is Lt. Lawrence Ponetretti, an Army interpreter. Detention records maintained by Sesenna show he departed Canada on December 3, 1942, and was with the first group of Italian POWs to arrive at Camp Clark near Nevada, Missouri, nine days later. "He then took it back to camp with him and that's when he gave it to one of the Italian POWs.". There was no 24-hour news cycle. The prison camps were identical to housing areas that our own troops occupied.. A 150 feet (46m) electrically lighted escape tunnel was discovered by authorities. To request a transcript for St. Louis on the Air, Four years later, the government offered the buildings at auction to relieve the post-war shortage of housing. Camp Weingarten quickly grew into a sprawling facility to house Italian POWs brought to the United States and, Jefferson City resident Carolyn McDowell explained, was the site where one of her uncles spent his entire period of service with the U.S. Army in World War II. About 2,600 German POWs were held there during World War II.. Camp Weingarten. People got in trouble for it: prisoners expressing affection through love notes were intercepted. About 100 POWs lived there and worked on area farms, replacing Americans who had gone to war. The Factory's first step in the POW camps was the distribution of books banned by Hitler. Shortly after Taylor received assignment to Camp Weingarten, Italian prisoners of war began to arrive at the camp in May 1943. During the 1970sthe Rev. % While the core of the post was retained, many of the wood temporary barracks were declared surplus and sold. Southeast Missouri State University Cape Girardeau, MO 63701 Phone: (573) 651-2245; Fax: (573) 651-2666; Email: semoarchives@semo.edu Guide to the Weingarten P.O.W Camp Collection . There is even a replica of a WWII barracks, complete with bunk, uniforms, and picture of pinup girlHedy Lamarron the wall above. mi. 300 POWs from Camp McCoy arrived at the Calumet County Fairgrounds in June, 1945. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fort_Crowder&oldid=1094391312, Col John Bartlett Murphy, May 46 Mar 48, This page was last edited on 22 June 2022, at 09:53. Although the POW camps opened and closed with little fanfare, their unique design and deployment in painful contrast to the Japanese internment camps have earned them their own notable place in the war's history. In Section B of Fort Custer National Cemetery, there are 26 German graves. Troopers nabbed Levin in an empty clubhouse. The elder Hennes was captured by Americans in Europe in the fall of 1944. The complex, serviced by a spur of the Kansas City Southern Railroad, included a main manufacturing facility, an engine testing area (ETA) for the live fire testing of rocket engines, a component testing area (CTA), and a former Camp Crowder warehouse, Building 900, as a warehouse and later engine overhaul and manufacturing. Large German pow camp 2 miles outside of Thomasville. Prisoners wore rejected GI garb marked with PW.. Army Col. H.H. Jean Shepherd featured many stories of his time at Camp Crowder in various monologues. With that entry, few realize that the nation would open its borders to house prisoners of war from the Axis powers for the remainder of the war. U.S. Army to establish a temporary side camp, under the ad-ministration of a larger main camp in Missouri, to house POWs at the old Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp near Shen-andoah. The Factory also created Der Ruf, a German-language newsletter, "written by German POWs for German POWs." Camp Clark was established in 1908 and was used as an assembly point for troops serving in Central America, in the Mexican border war, and in World War I. The case not only had a specially crafted latching mechanism, but was also etched with an emblem of an eagle on the cover with barracks buildings and a guard tower from the camp inscribed upon the inside. Salvatore E. Polizzi had become a national figure for his work in The Hill neighborhood of St. Louis. The majority of the camps were located in the Midwest, South, and Southwest, and the biggest contingency of POWs 372,000 were German. "Life as a POW in the thirty camps scattered across Missouri was a surprisingly pleasant experience. Of the 2,222 POWs who attempted escape, Gaertner was the only one to have eluded capture. Branch camps in Missouri were: About 15,000 German and Italian prisoners of war were confined in Missouri, and a few tried to escape. The town was chosen for its relative isolation In Missouri alone there were 4 main base camps. The caption information from 1945 does not identify the boat as the one on the Missouri River, near today's Chesterfield, or the one at the foot of Arsenal Street. Many simply took off on foot. However, from 1863 this broke down following the Confederacy's refusal to treat black and white Union prisoners equally . Jeremy P. Amick In Texas, according to Humanities Texas, some residents feared having Nazis nearby and, worried about escapes, locked their doors and cautioned their daughters. POW Fritz Ensslin noted in a letter (via The Fallen Foe) that at his Missouri camp a "cabaret theater and even a dance group consisting of 12 'girls' trained by a ballet master" gave performances that were regularly attended by American officers. A few Italian prisoners even worked in the St. Louis Ordnance Depot on North Broadway, handling nonexplosive freight after their country switched sides in the war. Between 1861 and 1865, American Civil War prison camps were operated by the Union and the Confederacy to detain over 400,000 captured soldiers. 1"\B^*:lr])BuHmdk[52`l5rJiBv* y'q$ag`CFrZs@[e|jB About 2,600 German POWs were held there during World War II. Levin, 31, and Straussberg, 23, resolved to skedaddle. Pages . The post also served as an infantry replacement center and had a German prisoner of war camp. <> Too old to participate in the company sports . In New England, they harvested peas, cabbage, and apples. As author David Fiedler explains in his book "The Enemy Among Us: POWs in Missouri During World War II," the state was once home to more than 15,000 German and Italian prisoners of war. When labor shortages due to enlistment hit the American economy, however, the War Department rethought its strategy and greatly expanded POW labor. Gaertner finally confessed, and Jean, determined he should turn himself in, began researching the POW camps. Earlier that evening, a English-speaking fellow prisoner heard an American radio broadcast suggesting that German POWs be dispatched to the uncertain care of the Soviet army. Educational programs were varied. The POW camps adhered to the Geneva Conventions Missouri Digital Heritage After completing his initial training, he was designated as infantry and became a clerk with the 201st Infantry Regiment. Trichloroethylene contamination in soils and groundwater has been documented at the site and may include off-site contamination in a number of private wells. Click here for a state map showing branch camp locations. As noted by the Library of Congress, among the many protections and guarantees provided to POWs were adequate food, housing, and medical care, "protection from violence, intimidation, insults, and public curiosity," prohibition against medical experimentation, and reciprocal military rights and status. Post-Dispatch file photo, The front gate of the POW camp at Hellwig Brothers Farm on Gumbo Flats, part of the Missouri River bottomland in St. Louis County. Two were caught by an El Paso railroad detective just before reaching the border. Genevieve. POW Camp Road is a typical graded gravel road in the Gulf Coastal Plains of southern Mississippi. The post is also notable as the birthplace of landmark LabVIEW programmer Michael Porter. PublishedDecember 8, 2016 at 3:26 PM CST, Credit Kelly Moffitt | St. Louis Public Radio. Post-Dispatch photo, German POWs on a "boat camp" in the St. Louis area play chess and relax on the deck in 1945. With a weekly newsletter looking back at local history. Out of the ruins of fascist defeat, the U.S. and its allies hoped to plant the seeds of democracy. In addition, Article 43 of the Convention required the appointment of POW administrators, and often, Nazi officers would assume this role, becoming in effect, camp commandants. In 1893, inventor Nikola Tesla first publicly demonstrated radio during a meeting of the National Electric Light Association in St. Louis by t. Post-Dispatch file photo, Some of the German POWs who were housed in a prison compound at Fort Leonard Wood in central Missouri watch an Army Signal Corps film of scenes from a Nazi concentration camp in Europe. A number of prisoners of war did later return as immigrants and about a dozen of those immigrants settled in St. Louis. Although the Georgia camp killers were convicted in 1945, Nazi perpetrators, protected by the Convention, usually received minimal or no punishment. Camp Crowder, outside of Neosho, Missouri, Click here for a state map showing camp locations, Columbia fraternity houses on the MU campus, Hannibal housed in tents in Clemens Field, Riverside housed in the former Jockey Club racetrack facility. This movements became known as the "Tiger Death March," so called for the brutal treatment that the prisoners . Around Geneseo. Sited on the abandoned Civilian Conservation Corps camp about 1.6 miles east of the Stark Covered Bridge in Stark, Coos County. Using a secret 60-foot tunnel equipped with lighting and air bellows, 12 German officers slipped away from their barracks and, armed with tissue-paper maps, went separately toward Mexico. Bucknor for rejecting handshake: Zero class, Man shot and killed after fight in downtown St. Louis, Liberty High student killed in St. Charles shooting could heal you with a smile, Fate of St. Louis Fox Theatre still undecided, Brothers who did everything together, fashionista among victims in fatal St. Louis crash, Centene expects to lose millions of Medicaid customers beginning in April, Arch Madness: 2023 MVC Basketball Tournament bracket, schedule, game times, TV info, St. Louis man charged in quadruple fatal crash; police say he ran off with his license plate, St. Louis prosecutors staff down by nearly half as caseloads jump. About 2,600 German POWs were held there during World War II. Helmuth Levin and Private Rudolf Straussberg left notes of explanation on their bunks. Post-Dispatch file photo, Three Italian POWs paint and draw during free time at Camp Weingarten in June 1943. It is a beautifully crafted cigarette case, but the irony of it all is that my father never smoked, she jokingly added. Eventually, every state (with the exceptions of Nevada, North Dakota, and Vermont) had at least one POW camp. This was not seen as a standing thing., The government realized early on that these men were not a threat of escape or destruction or other nefarious deeds, Fiedler said. 6U z*&`873 hkg7*I|dx^EY?IF$zwUJH!/V>H>is&n /t; The camp was made up of 450 prisoners from Germany and Aus. Camp Weingarten, Missouri 2: Camp Weingarten Italian POW Rosters in US: POWs in the US: POW Death Index in US: WWII: UT POW CD: POW Photos in US: POW and ISU Camps and Hospitals in US: Genealogical Research: ISU Units and Installations in US: . Cook, Williamsburg R.; Daniel J. Schultz (2004). Incidents like Black soldiers being forced to dispose of the POWs' human waste and POWs refusing to follow instructions from Black work supervisors infuriated Black servicemen. Camps in the St. Louis area included Gumbo Flats in the Chesterfield Valley, Jefferson Barracks, riverboats, and an Ordinance Depot in Baden. The prisoners were given considerable freedom at these camps. Less well known are the prisoner of war camps that sprang up in rural communities across the country to house combatants from Europe and Japan. Some escaped out of homesickness, some out of patriotism, some out of fear of being returned to their altered homeland. Italys surrender in 1943 changed the status of the Italian POWs, who remained here but were granted more freedom, including occasional trips to the Hill neighborhood. The camp was enlarged to the point that some 5,800 POW's . Attached to these main camps were branch camps to which they sent prisoners. You can also listen to this Radiolab piece called Nazi Summer Camp, about prisoners of war in Idaho, or read this Smithsonian article about the nationwide POW movement. As noted in New Georgia Encyclopedia, the hard-liners doled out harsh discipline and attacked fellow prisoners for their lack of patriotism, among other offenses. Area Camp with 9 Branch Camps. As described in The Washington Post, the War Department, believing that a happy POW was a pliant POW, went above and beyond when it came to POW food, education, and entertainment. Some classes were taught by the POWs themselves, others were conducted as correspondence courses. Hollywood movies and cartoons were screened. They were much less formal, much less heavily guarded, and there were much more opportunities for social interaction.. The U.S. government learned quickly to separate those elements, Fiedler said, and relationships improved. May 7, 2018 at 12:00 a.m. Camps typically held between 50 and 250 POWs and the men were housed in any sort of structure that was available. To keep them from accumulating enough cash to bankroll an escape, prisoners were paid in canteen coupons. "My uncle then gave the cigarette case as a gift to my father, who was living in Jefferson City at the time and working as superintendent of the tobacco factory inside the Missouri State Penitentiary," McDowell stated. Camp Upton was also used to hold Japanese citizens who were in New York City at the time war broke out, including businessman with whom the governments of Japan and the United States negotiated an exchange. While still adhering to the Convention, the POW camps supplied local industries and businesses with laborers. The POW Camps in Missouri during World War II included: Clark (Camp), Nevada, Vernon County, MO (base camp) Crowder (Camp Enoch), Neosho, Newton County, MO (base camp) Weingarten (Camp), Sainte Genevieve County, MO (base camp) Wood (Fort Leonard), Pulaski County, Missouri (base camp) Enemy alien internment camp: Following World War II, the facilities were taken over by the Veterans Administration with both a hospital and large domiciliary complement. Genevieve and Farmington, Missouri, (Camp Weingarten) had no pre-war existence, wrote Fiedler. Justifiably, much has been written about America's World War II Japanese internment camps and the systemic racism that spawned them. It held soldiers and officers of the Italian army captured in the Allied Mediterranean campaigns during World War II.