POW Camp, Co.1, Tooele (original postage). Where are they going to escape to?. The installation housed around 900 Germans, who worked as gardeners and maintenance men around the base and surrounding community. POWs mounted theatrical productions and played concerts. <> Blacks in the military expressed outrage that, after risking their lives fighting Nazis, they were considered beneath their white enemies back home. endobj With a weekly newsletter looking back at local history. Another episode involved entertainer Lena Horne, who, while performing at an Arkansas camp, became enraged when she saw that Black servicemen had been seated behind the POWs. Here are some rare photos that show what living in the state of Missouri during this time looked like. Later known as an anti-Nazi camp where many intellectuals, artist, writers were among the POWs. No one was happy to be a prisoner of war, but many were glad to bide time to count the days until they got back home, Fiedler said. Many St. Louisans were outraged when the program made most . After completing his initial training, he was designated as infantry and became a clerk with the 201st Infantry Regiment. This included 371,683 Germans, 50,273 Italians, and 3,915 Japanese. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Also housed several hundred German POWs who worked in nearby agricultural farms. Housed diverse groups of POWs ranging from Afrika Corp troops, Italian, Yugoslavian, Chechen, Russian conscripts and others. Leisure activities included Ping-Pong, chess, and card games. "I will someday donate the cigarette case to a museum for preservation and display, and I believe my brother, Harold McDowell, would agree. Attached to these main camps were branch camps to which they sent prisoners. About 500 American soldiers were assigned to guard 3,600 Italians at the camp. 1"\B^*:lr])BuHmdk[52`l5rJiBv* y'q$ag`CFrZs@[e|jB Thats why I want to tell the story of its creation its history, so that its association to Camp Weingarten is never forgotten., Jeremy Amick is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE. "It was a beautiful day, all looked so peaceful. The post is also notable as the birthplace of landmark LabVIEW programmer Michael Porter. About 100 POWs lived there and worked on area farms, replacing Americans who had gone to war. The Army selected the Neosho site for the post due to its proximity to water, a cross roads to two major railroads (Kansas City Southern and the Frisco railroads), and two major U.S. highways (US 71 running north-south and US 60 and US 66, running east-west). Most of these POWs were transferred from Camp Roswell, which was a base or main POW camp for New Mexico. After the war it became a men's dormitory for. endstream Jeremy P. Amick writes on behalf of the Silver Star Families of America. 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. Groundwater and soil contamination has been identified in various areas of the base's original property boundaries. Genevieve. Returning to Germany would just be going from a Nazi dictatorship to a Russian dictatorship, Levin wrote in German. Weingarten was the location of a large prisoner of war camp during WWII. American commanders said it couldn't happen. Most Americans regarded them as curiosities, but there was conflict. They worked as lumberjacks, mechanics, sign painters, tailors, and in hundreds of other positions, according to History of Prisoner of War Utilization by the United States Army 1776 to 1945. They slipped past the guards at night and fled through the vegetable fields they tended. Sent to a camp in Colorado, he asked for and was granted a transfer to Crossville. 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. People got in trouble for it: prisoners expressing affection through love notes were intercepted. According toHumanities Texas, many in America, especially farmers, were loathed to see them go. <>/Metadata 855 0 R/ViewerPreferences 856 0 R>> 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. The camp was just east of the village of Weingarten, on Missouri Highway 32, west of Ste. Camp Weingarten, Missouri. As author David Fiedler explained 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 (POW). Some of the camps were designated "segregation camps", where Nazi "true believers" were separated from the rest of the prisoners, whom they terrorized and even killed for being friendly with their American captors. <> Consequently, the POWs had little concern about getting caught. The post also served as an infantry replacement center and had a German prisoner of war camp. The prisoners were given considerable freedom at these camps. Thirty-three German POWs and two Italian POWs are now buried in the post cemetery. Post-Dispatch file photo, Three Italian POWs paint and draw during free time at Camp Weingarten in June 1943. When returning to camp, one of the POWs with whom Taylor had established a friendship was given the pie pan and used it to demonstrate his abilities as an artist and craftsman by fashioning it into a cigarette case. POW Death Index in US. 9 0 obj The Italian and one German POW who committed suicide rather than be repatriated are buried just outside the post cemetery boundaries. stream The Chicago Tribune reported Oct. 23, 1943, that the prisoners at Camp Weingarten soon "put on weight" by eating a "daily menu superior to that of the average civilian.". During World War II, more than fifteen thousand German and Italian soldiers came to Missouri. 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. Around Geneseo. [1] As it was constructed, it was re-designated as a U.S. Army Signal Corps replacement training center, an Army Service Forces training center and an officer candidate preparatory school, the first of its kind at any military installation. Photo by Jack Gould of the Post-Dispatch, Two Italian POWs hang out their laundry at Camp Weingarten in June 1943. endobj Now home to the CMP Headquarters and Gary Anderson competition center. 3 0 obj xwcy[9R^Z hF/!\Zf7!%% The 1929 Geneva Convention, recognizing that it is the duty of prisoners to attempt escape, contains numerous regulations limiting the severity of punishments for escapees. 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. Coal mining was prominent in the late 1870s to the 1950s. 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. Genevieve County. Arcadia Publishing. Post-Dispatch photo, German POWs on a "boat camp" in the St. Louis area play chess and relax on the deck in 1945. This was no invasionary force; rather these were prisoners of war, part of a flood of almost a half-million men captured and sent to the United States, held here until the end of the war. May 7, 2018 at 12:00 a.m. Post-Dispatch file photo, Three Italian POWs paint and draw during free time at Camp Weingarten in June 1943. There was no 24-hour news cycle. Often, descendants of those POWs come for a visit to see where their relatives spent the war. According to theSociety for Military History, because the Geneva Convention limited how differently one POW could be treated from another, camp authorities initially made "no distinction between ideologically hardened prisoners and those who are 're-educated.'" About 15,000 German and Italian prisoners of war were confined in Missouri, and a few tried to escape. The Enemy Among Us: POWs in Missouri During World War II. Housed German POWs from the Afrika Corps after defeat in North Africa. Aware that POWs were actually eating better than many civilians, the War Department, sensitive to public perception, cut back severely on the POWs' rations. My mothers brother, Dwight Hafford Taylor, was raised in the community of Alton in southern Missouri, said McDowell. Located between Olympia and Tacoma, Washington. Genevieve. He then took it back to camp with him and thats when he gave it to one of the Italian POWs.. 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. Fielder said that, by and large, the prisoners of war coexisted positively with their American neighbors. at aheuer@stlpr.org. However, POW Camp Road is not about the road itself. To ensure its success in the camps, the project was kept top secret. Working POWs earned 80 cents per day, and sometimes could buy beer at prison canteens. It is a beautifully crafted cigarette case, but the irony of it all is that my father never smoked, she jokingly added. Post-Dispatch file photo. With a weekly newsletter looking back at local history. 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. Last chance! endobj As author David Fiedler explains in his book "The Enemy Among Us: POWs in Missouri During World. endobj It was an enormous and complex task, but over the next three years, the War Department succeeded in housing more than 400,000 POWs in some 500 camps. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Missouri figured into this equation, housing some 15,000 prisoners of war from Germany and Italy inside state lines. "His hometown really wasn't all that far from Camp Weingarten.". They worked at 8 local canneries until moving to other parts of Wisconsin in August, 1945. German prisoners of war were held here during WWII. The camp was enlarged to the point that some 5,800 POW's . oW5( And so, to have that presence in the camps was a difficulty for many reasons including intimidation, threats and physical violence against fellow soldiers whom they considered too compliant in the U.S.. Waste material generated from the former Fort include aviation and vehicular fuels, oils, greases, metals, paints and solvents. Out of the ruins of fascist defeat, the U.S. and its allies hoped to plant the seeds of democracy. Used a railroad box car. Close to Fort Lincoln and held over 5,000 soldiers. Gaertner finally confessed, and Jean, determined he should turn himself in, began researching the POW camps. In Section B of Fort Custer National Cemetery, there are 26 German graves. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of News Tribune Publishing. During July and August 1943, Camp Weingarten, Mis-souri, sent approximately 300 Italian POWs to Shenandoah.11 Those POWs handled most of DeKalb's . In Kansas, for example, some farmers invited their POW workers for meals and allowed them to go hunting or pony riding unattended. Now a fraction of its WWII size, the camp currently has a full-time staff of 11 employees a sharp . <> Also the site of training for "The Ritchie Boys", European refugees trained there to go back into Germany and sabotage the war effort. The camp had no pre-war existence, and unlike the other major camps in the state, it never served any military function other than a pen for Italian POW's. The first POW's, all Italian, arrived on May 7, 1943. "Established at Weingarten, a sleepy little town on State Highway 32 between Ste. ", As a result of Truman's order, many POWs ended up in the "unfriendly hands" of France and England. Photo by Jack Gould of the Post-Dispatch, Two Italian POWs hang out their laundry at Camp Weingarten in June 1943. They made it 10 miles south to the Meramec River, but farmers saw them and called the Highway Patrol. All Rights Reserved. The main camps supported a number of branch camps, which were used to put POWs where their labor could be best utilized. Not only did POWs dine well, they took college courses, set up libraries, and formed orchestras and soccer leagues. Indirectly, though? In 1985, Gaertner surrendered to the INS and, as a publicity stunt, to Bryant Gumbel on "Today." The positive treatment they experienced here, another way we promoted that was a way to say these are people who will go back and reestablish society in Europe and have an opinion on the United States and we want that to be good, Fiedler said. Chesterfield Ex Satellite Pow Camp is a superfund site located at T 45 N, R 4 E, Sect. 1942-1946: German POWs. A few escapees eluded capture for many years. It held soldiers and officers of the Italian army captured in the Allied Mediterranean campaigns during World War II. "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. In Oakland, he landed a steady salesman job, and in 1964, he met his wife Jean. Formerly located on the south-east corner of East 120th St. and South Walnut Ave. 2.5 miles east of Grant. Originally, when the government agreed to bring them here, they were concerned about security, Fiedler said. In Texas, for example, POWs picked cotton, harvested fruit, and chopped sugar. Some classes were taught by the POWs themselves, others were conducted as correspondence courses. In the early 1950s, local congressman Dewey Jackson Short, (R-7th District of Missouri) senior member of the House Armed Services Committee secured authorization and initial funding to build two permanent barracks and a disciplinary barracks and reactivate the post as a permanent installation, Fort Crowder. Camp Scott held more than 600 German POWs from the Afrika Korps from late 1944 until the camp closed in November 1945. The Missouri National Guard retained 4,358 acres of Camp Crowder for use as a training site. POW and ISU Camps and Hospitals in US. First attempted escape by two German POWs on 5 November 1942. Sixteen of the men were killed or died as a result of an accident on 31 October 1945. Large German pow camp 2 miles outside of Thomasville. 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. Some escaped out of homesickness, some out of patriotism, some out of fear of being returned to their altered homeland. Pfc. These branch camps held 50 to 250 prisoners and were placed in communities in which the prisoners could be of use to community businesses such as bakeries, farms, maintenance jobs, dock workers for the railroad and riverboats, and factories. It was noted that many of the Italians were semi-emaciated when arriving in the United States because of a poor diet. Post-Dispatch file photo, 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. 2011 - Dave Fiedler. From 1942 to 1945, more than 400,000 Axis prisoners were shipped to the United States and detained in camps across the nation. JFIF C As the NKPA retreated farther north, they were forced to evacuate their prisoners with them. American commanders dismissed his report as hysterical. Fort Leonard Wood, in central Missouri Camp Weingarten, near Ste. McDowell notes the cigarette case is not only a beautiful piece that serves as a link to the past, but represents a story to be shared of the states rich military legacy. Jeremy P. Amick In Chesterfield Valley, Fiedler said, there are stories of farmers getting to know the prisoners of war and inviting them in for lunch. This was probably a coal mining tunnel in that Engleville was a coal mining camp where this POW camp is purported to be located. The result of the First Lady's initiative was the Prisoner of War Special Projects Division, led by Lt. Col. Edward Davison out of Camp Kearney in Rhode Island. WWII POW Camp In ConranThere was a prisoner of war camp located in Conran just off of Highway 61. 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. 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 Officer's Club. POW Photos in US. There is even a replica of a WWII barracks, complete with bunk, uniforms, and picture of pinup girlHedy Lamarron the wall above. To request a transcript for St. Louis on the Air, During the 1970sthe Rev. Trichloroethylene contamination in soils and groundwater has been documented at the site and may include off-site contamination in a number of private wells. endobj :_Z";co?0N1mx@a_ ES[0 endobj About 15,000 of them were sent to 30 camps scattered across Missouri. Troopers nabbed Levin in an empty clubhouse. 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: Camp Albuquerque was an American World War II POW camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico that housed Italian and German prisoners of war. Cartoonist Mort Walker was also stationed there and drew inspiration for Camp Swampy of his Beetle Bailey comic strip. Opened in 1943, a segregation camp from 1944. Shortly after Taylor received assignment to Camp Weingarten, Italian prisoners of war began to arrive at the camp in May 1943. Sub camps:Camp Pine, Camp Thornton and Camp Skokie Valley, each with 200 POWs. 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. Fort Crowder was a U.S. Army post located in Newton and McDonald counties in southwest Missouri, constructed and used during World War II. Straussberg fled into the woods, but he didnt get far. About 2,600 German POWs were held there during World War II.. These camps housed more than 142,000 Germans, 15,000 Italians, and 500 Japanese. The photo was taken in March 1945, shortly after radio commentator Walter Winchell told his national audience that POWs from Gumbo could sneak across the river and blow up the munitions plant at Weldon Spring. ", 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. In the mid-1980s, the remaining parcels of the former post were transferred to the Missouri Department of Conservation for wildlife management and outdoor recreation, the Neosho R-5 public school district for agriculture instructional farm, and the Missouri National Guard to operate a military training facility under license from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on 4,358.09 acres (18km2). Consequently, fanatical Nazis were thrown in with anti-Nazis. The Convention allowed the display of swastikas, and some POWs were buried in local military cemeteries with Nazi flags and with swastikas engraved on their headstones. Only one escaped entirely. They decorated their barracks with their work. Photo by Buel White of the Post-Dispatch, The chow line on a boat camp at St. Louis in 1945. The U.S. government learned quickly to separate those elements, Fiedler said, and relationships improved. 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: . To disguise its purpose, The Factory POW staff interspersed pro-democracy tracts with fiction and other entertaining fare. As noted in Humanities Texas, POWs were put to work right from the start, although their assignments were limited due to fears of escape, sabotage, and overseas exploitation. However, I want to ensure it is recognized for the treasure that it is and it is not simply thrown away," McDowell said. Justifiably, much has been written about America's World War II Japanese internment camps and the systemic racism that spawned them. The base's movie theatre was disassembled and reassembled on the campus of what is today the University of Missouri Kansas City where it was the University of Kansas City Playhouse until being torn down for a new theatre. Camps were built on military bases, like Fort Leonard Wood, and within the base there would be a prisoner-of-war compound. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Click here for a state map showing branch camp locations. The rules werent too lax in that regard, actually. Per articles of the Convention, American soldiers were compelled to salute higher ranking POWs, and the infamous Nazi salute was permitted. As noted in American Reeducation of German POWs, 1943-1946, in discussions with their guards, prisoners would sometimes use America's discriminatory practices as a "what about" counter argument. They were much less formal, much less heavily guarded, and there were much more opportunities for social interaction.. There were comparatively few Japanese prisoners of war brought to the United States during those years and none were held in Missouri. June 16, 1945 The day German POWs escaped their camp near St. Louis. 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. The following October, the former POW camp was closed and many of the buildings were dismantled, shipped and reassembled as housing for student veterans at colleges and universities throughout the United States. The main camps supported a number of branch camps, which were used to put POWs where their labor could be best utilized. Italian POW Rosters in US. Genevieve Camp Crowder near Neosha Camp Clark near Nevada Attached to these main camps were branch camps to which they sent prisoners. Originally it was to serve as an armor training center. The last German POWs didnt head home until 1946. 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 . 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.
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