pow camps in missouri
500 German POWs were housed in a warehouse and tent city next to the Rockfield Canning Co. plant, where many of them worked as pea packers. Two German POWs watch the film of Nazi atrocities during a mandatory assembly at their camp at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. Around Geneseo. The remainder of the land was given to various public and private entities which uses now include a municipal airport, industrial parks, industrial waste treatment facility operations, regional landfill, underground fuel storage, burn pits and lagoons. 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. 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. aka: POW Camps (World War II) During World War II, the United States established many prisoner of war (POW) camps on its soil for the first time since the Civil War. Unfortunately, while the U.S. generally honored the Convention, neither Japan, which never signed the agreement, nor Germany, which chose to ignore it, did. Readmore storiesfrom Tim O'Neil's Look Back series. As chronicled by AP, on a September night in 1945, POW Georg Gaertner escaped from New Mexico's Camp Deming by slipping under a fence and hopping a train bound for San Pedro. Photo by Buel White of the Post-Dispatch. About 500 American soldiers were assigned to guard 3,600 Italians at the camp. Too old to participate in the company sports . As all work done by POWs was forced labor, work regulations, including details like job locations and hours, hazards, and pay rates, were a major concern of the 1929 Geneva Convention. In a memorable encounter, a little girl would leave her bicycle in a certain place every night only to find it moved in the morning. 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: . Cartoonist Mort Walker was also stationed there and drew inspiration for Camp Swampy of his Beetle Bailey comic strip. 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. Life as a POW in the thirty camps scattered across Missouri was a surprisingly pleasant experience. 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. After the war was over, prisoners of war were not allowed to stay in the United States. 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. Sent to a camp in Colorado, he asked for and was granted a transfer to Crossville. While the core of the post was retained, many of the wood temporary barracks were declared surplus and sold. Also offered was circus and acrobatic instruction, including trampoline jumping, taught by professional circus performers. 330 German POWs lived in a tent city around the Louis Glunz dance hall and worked on farms and in area canneries during the 1945 harvest. Although her uncle passed away in 1970, records accessed through the National Archives and Records Administration indicate he was drafted into the U.S. Army and entered service at Jefferson Barracks on November 10, 1942. Over time, the POWs not only proved themselves capable workers troublemaking Nazis aside they also earned the trust and admiration of many of their private employers. The camps were located all over the US, but were mostly in the South, due to the higher expense of heating the barracks in colder areas. "My mother's brother, Dwight Hafford Taylor, was raised in the community of Alton in southern Missouri," McDowell said. If there was no one around to work the potato fields or the corn was rotting and the local growers association could secure the labor of 100 POWs to pick them and the sheriff felt fine about it, it was not seen as a great concern. The case was crafted by an Italian prisoner of war held at Camp Weingarten south of St. Louis. Photo by Jack Gould of the Post-Dispatch, The front gate of the POW camp at Hellwig Brothers Farm on Gumbo Flats, part of the Missouri River bottomland in St. Louis County. 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. In March 1945, national radio commentator Walter Winchell claimed that Germans on Hellwig farm could sneak across the Missouri River into the explosives plant at Weldon Spring and blow the place up. There were comparatively few Japanese prisoners of war brought to the United States during those years and none were held in Missouri. PublishedDecember 8, 2016 at 3:26 PM CST, Credit Kelly Moffitt | St. Louis Public Radio. Pfc. q2JShr6 Last edited on 25 December 2022, at 21:03, Learn how and when to remove this template message, University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=29115, http://worldandmilitarynotes.com/pow/camp-mcalester-ok-usa-pow-camp/, Fort Leavenworth Military Prison Cemetery, Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology, https://www.westbatonrougemuseum.com/573/Port-Allen-Prisoner-of-War-Sub-Camp-No-7, German prisoners of war in the United States, Italian Prisoners of War and Italian Service Units: From Enemies to Co-belligerents, Paul J. Jordan, University of Massachusetts Boston, PDF text of report: DAPAM Issue 20; Issue 213: Prisoner of war utilization by the United States Army 1776-1945, Raw Text of: Prisoner of war utilization by the United States Army 1776-1945, "Bellemead (New Jersey) Italian Service Unit", "German POWS Lived and Died in Florida Camps" by Jim Robinson, The Orlando Sentinel 4 May 2004, http://www.ourmidland.com/local_news/article_69cbc6a7-0b7a-59db-bf4a-f3d309b87808.html, "On American Soil: Camp Florence, Arizona. Jean remained unaware of his secret until impending retirement required she obtain his birth certificate. It is a beautifully crafted cigarette case, but the irony of it all is that my father never smoked, she jokingly added. For one thing, they were needed to help rebuild European infrastructure. It was noted many of the Italians were "semi-emaciated" when arriving in the United States because of a poor diet. The Italian and one German POW who committed suicide rather than be repatriated are buried just outside the post cemetery boundaries. 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: No Japanese prisoners were interned in Missouri. These camps held anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 prisoners. Interestingly enough, no marriages were a direct result of the prisoners time in Missouri. However, I want to ensure it is recognized for the treasure that it is and it is not simply thrown away," McDowell said. The U.S. government initially did not separate what Fiedler referred to as dyed-in-the-wool Nazis, who were committed to the National Socialist movement under Adolf Hitler. Blacks in the military expressed outrage that, after risking their lives fighting Nazis, they were considered beneath their white enemies back home. Her research led her to Arnold Krammer, who ended up writing a tell-all book with Gaertner. endstream POW Camp, Co.1, Tooele (original postage). <> This book concentrates on the Missouri camps - main camps and satellite work camps - and their German and Italian captives. xZOHa Genevieve and Farmington, Missouri, (Camp Weingarten) had no pre-war existence," Fiedler wrote. ", "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. Arcadia Publishing. Romantic relationships remained off limits and strictly forbidden, Fiedler said. 6U z*&`873 hkg7*I|dx^EY?IF$zwUJH!/V>H>is&n /t; Also housed several hundred German POWs who worked in nearby agricultural farms. The camp was named for General Harvey C Clark, Missouris adjutant general and commander of Missouris National Guard. Each man had food and a change of clothing. 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. 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. Some fought floods with sandbags. Area Camp with 9 Branch Camps. 300 German POWs were interned at the Fond du Lac County Fairgrounds from June to August 1944 while they harvested peas on local farms and worked in canneries. Eastern Germany had fallen under Russian control, and as a former Nazi, Gaertner feared he would be sent to a gulag. Her family eventually found a prisoner of war using it in the middle of the night to go meet a beau in the moonlight. Originally it was to serve as an armor training center. WWII. Four years later, the government offered the buildings at auction to relieve the post-war shortage of housing. This movements became known as the "Tiger Death March," so called for the brutal treatment that the prisoners . With the end of the North American Rockwell contract, the remaining federal government holdings were transferred to the General Services Administration as surplus property for interim management and eventual disposal. Missouri figured into this equation, housing some 15,000 prisoners of war from Germany and Italy inside state lines. 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. Post-Dispatch file photo, A German POW on a boat camp in St. Louis relaxes and reads on his bunk. American commanders said it couldn't happen. 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. By the war's end, the average reached 60,000 POWs per month. Established at Weingarten, a sleepy little town on State Highway 32 between Ste. stream I will someday donate the cigarette case to a museum for preservation and display, and I believe my brother, Harold McDowell, would agree. <> Pages . From San Pedro, Gaertner, who spoke fluent English, traveled north undetected, taking a series of odd jobs on the West Coast, including fruit picker, logger, and ski instructor. Japanese and German POWs; Japanese, Italian, and German internees; now, Constructed for prisoners, later reused for housing after the war, Fortuitously located outside a city where many locals still spoke German. 1. endobj let us know the episode date and topic and contact Alex Heuer Used a railroad box car. Last chance! 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. The U.S. government learned quickly to separate those elements, Fiedler said, and relationships improved. 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. 6 & 7, Chesterfield, MO 63017. 'P?W"=m!er\!qw%p`YU|CYPJ*,naMSanr,{3zpY6U,Av/ Prisoners of War were not confined solely to the upkeep of their own numbers: many were put to work in the service of U.S. military operations at the camps themselves. Post-Dispatch photo, German POWs on a "boat camp" in the St. Louis area play chess and relax on the deck in 1945. 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. endobj This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of News Tribune Publishing. Some camps had printing presses that churned out newsletters penned by POWs. "It was a beautiful day, all looked so peaceful. 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. Subscribe with this special offer to keep reading, (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). Recaptured: Roanoke, Va. Largest all-new prisoner of war compound ever constructed on American soil. From July to December 1945, 450 German POWs were housed in the Sheboygan County Asylum, which was built in 1878 and abandoned in 1940 when a new facility was completed. Sub Camp of Camp Forrest - April 1944 to March 1946 - 331 German Prisoners. According toHumanities Texas, many in America, especially farmers, were loathed to see them go. 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. 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. People got in trouble for it: prisoners expressing affection through love notes were intercepted. Thousands of Axis POWs worked in the fields, replacing American farm boys gone to war. In Missouri alone there were 4 main base camps. % Photo by Buel White of the Post-Dispatch, One of two boats, known as "boat camps," moored in the St. Louis area to house prisoners of war who worked on levees and other river projects. Pfc. 12 0 obj 1"\B^*:lr])BuHmdk[52`l5rJiBv* y'q$ag`CFrZs@[e|jB Fort Crowder was a U.S. Army post located in Newton and McDonald counties in southwest Missouri, constructed and used during World War II. All Rights Reserved. They stared "open-mouthed" as the POWs "jumped down from railroad cars and marched in orderly rows to the camp four miles west of town." Five weeks after Germanys surrender, American security had become a bit haphazard. 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 by Time, until 1948, the U.S. military was, like much of America, a segregated institution. A few concrete ammunition bunkers are the last remnants of the POW camp. "During one of my uncle's visits back to Alton, he asked his mother for an aluminum pie pan," McDowell said. 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, stated McDowell. Camp Weingarten. JFIF C In 1893, inventor Nikola Tesla first publicly demonstrated radio during a meeting of the National Electric Light Association in St. Louis by t. Although the total number of escape attempts from U.S. camps was proportionately low, according to Humanities Texas, some POWs did try. 8 0 obj Send questions and comments about this story to feedback@stlpublicradio.org. Waste material generated from the former Fort include aviation and vehicular fuels, oils, greases, metals, paints and solvents. However, not all towns and townspeople were happy hosts. These camps housed more than 142,000 Germans, 15,000 Italians, and 500 Japanese. The Army selected the Neosho site for the post . McDowell noted 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 state's rich military legacy. 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. 600 German POWs were interned in the Schwartz Ballroom from October 1944 to January 1946. As author David Fiedler explains in his book "The Enemy Among Us: POWs in Missouri During World. POW and ISU Camps and Hospitals in US. "That's why I want to tell the story of its creation its history, so that its association to Camp Weingarten is never forgotten.". The Chicago Tribune reported on October 23, 1943, that the prisoners at Camp Weingarten soon put on weight by eating a daily menu superior to that of the average civilian.. 339-351. The far-reaching 1929 Convention covered such things as camp location, punishments for escapes, and restrictions regarding POW labor. In 1942, the camp was reopened as a prisoner-of-war camp to house Italian and German prisoners. <>/ExtGState<>/XObject<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/Annots[ 9 0 R] /MediaBox[ 0 0 612 792] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> 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.". 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. 7 0 obj "He then took it back to camp with him and that's when he gave it to one of the Italian POWs.". Trichloroethylene contamination in soils and groundwater has been documented at the site and may include off-site contamination in a number of private wells. Although the Georgia camp killers were convicted in 1945, Nazi perpetrators, protected by the Convention, usually received minimal or no punishment. In the United States at the end of World War II, there were prisoner-of-war camps, including 175 Branch Camps serving 511 Area Camps containing over 425,000 prisoners of war (mostly German). mi. By 1943 the army had acquired 42,786.41 acres (173.2km2), 66.9 sq. Genevieve Camp Crowder near Neosha Camp Clark near Nevada Attached to these main camps were branch camps to which they sent prisoners. 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). A 150 feet (46m) electrically lighted escape tunnel was discovered by authorities. Weingarten was the location of a large prisoner of war camp during WWII. Back at camp, fellow POWs hailed them as heroes. From the start of the Civil War through to 1863 a parole exchange system saw most prisoners of war swapped relatively quickly. 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. The Factory also created Der Ruf, a German-language newsletter, "written by German POWs for German POWs." The 3,600 prisoners planted tomatoes and took over cooking, attracting American guards with their spicy enhancements to GI fare. e-mail <> Consequently, the POWs had little concern about getting caught. The majority of escapees were captured quickly and without incident. <>/Metadata 855 0 R/ViewerPreferences 856 0 R>> endobj POW Camp Road is a typical graded gravel road in the Gulf Coastal Plains of southern Mississippi. Copyright 2017 Vernon County Historical Society - All Rights Reserved. Most of these POWs were transferred from Camp Roswell, which was a base or main POW camp for New Mexico. Missouri figured into this equation, housing some 15,000 prisoners of war from Germany and Italy inside state lines. Fort Meade housed about 4,000 German and Italian POWs during World War II. Camp Weingarten quickly grew into a sprawling facility to house Italian POWs brought to the United States and, explained Jefferson City resident Carolyn McDowell, 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.. They ruled with an iron fist, ordering work stoppages and holding kangaroo courts. Kelly Moffitt joined St. Louis Public Radio in 2015 as an online producer for St. Louis Public Radio's talk shows St. Louis on the Air. The case was crafted by an Italian prisoner of war held at Camp Weingarten south of St. Louis. A 120 feet (37m) nearly completed escape tunnel was discovered by authorities. Genevieve and Farmington, Missouri, (Camp Weingarten) had no pre-war existence, wrote Fiedler. | Updated May 7, 2018 at 11:23 a.m. Former Jefferson City resident Lyman Lester McDowell was given this cigarette case by his brother-in-law, Dwight Taylor, during World War II. Coal mining was prominent in the late 1870s to the 1950s. His hometown really wasnt all that far from Camp Weingarten, she added. During World War II, more than fifteen thousand German and Italian soldiers came to Missouri. 4 0 obj Facilities now serve as an adjunct to the state's mental health program. The camp was just east of the village of Weingarten, on Missouri Highway 32, west of Ste. Photo by Buel White of the Post-Dispatch, The main avenue at Camp Weingarten lined by small barracks buildings in June 1943. 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. Capacity for 4800 at main camp. Due to a labor shortage, Italian Service Units worked on Army depots, in arsenals and hospitals, and on farms. A few continued into the early 1970s in Las Animas County where Trinidad is located. There was such a labor shortage that pretty shortly the government moved these prisoners from the four main military bases to dozens of camps throughout the state. Photo by Jack Gould of the Post-Dispatch, Two Italian POWs hang out their laundry at Camp Weingarten in June 1943. With a weekly newsletter looking back at local history. ", 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 Texas, for example, POWs picked cotton, harvested fruit, and chopped sugar. Often, descendants of those POWs come for a visit to see where their relatives spent the war.
