pow camps in missouri pow camps in missouri

"It was a beautiful day, all looked so peaceful. As author David Fiedler explains in his book "The Enemy Among Us: POWs in Missouri During World. People got in trouble for it: prisoners expressing affection through love notes were intercepted. The most famous of those buried on the installation is German submariner. Photo by Jack Gould of the Post-Dispatch, Two Italian POWs hang out their laundry at Camp Weingarten in June 1943. 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. However, not all towns and townspeople were happy hosts. WACs in mess hall at Camp Crowder. American women fell in love with prisoners and a couple of times it turned into aiding escapes, which was considered a traitorous act and a criminal offense.. When a group of female columnists informed Eleanor Roosevelt about the situation, she vowed to investigate and take action. 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. Send questions and comments about this story to feedback@stlpublicradio.org. Sent to a camp in Colorado, he asked for and was granted a transfer to Crossville. Genevieve Camp Crowder near Neosha Camp Clark near Nevada Attached to these main camps were branch camps to which they sent prisoners. The prisoners were given considerable freedom at these camps. This was probably a coal mining tunnel in that Engleville was a coal mining camp where this POW camp is purported to be located. Post-Dispatch file photo, Three Italian POWs paint and draw during free time at Camp Weingarten in June 1943. Post-Dispatch file photo. The Factory also created Der Ruf, a German-language newsletter, "written by German POWs for German POWs." 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. endobj 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. The case was crafted by an Italian prisoner of war held at Camp Weingarten south of St. Louis. Many simply took off on foot. They decorated their barracks with their work. 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. 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. {/[I:{ tBcn{ FG}{ Shortly after Taylor received assignment to Camp Weingarten, Italian prisoners of war began to arrive at the camp in May 1943. Post-Dispatch file photo, Three Italian POWs paint and draw during free time at Camp Weingarten in June 1943. The main camps supported a number of branch camps, which were used to put POWs where their labor could be best utilized. $.' Sub camps:Camp Pine, Camp Thornton and Camp Skokie Valley, each with 200 POWs. 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. 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. From 1942 through 1945, more than 400,000 Axis prisoners were shipped to the United States and detained in camps in rural areas across the country. About 15,000 of them were sent to 30 camps scattered across Missouri. The majority of the camps were located in the Midwest, South, and Southwest, and the biggest contingency of POWs 372,000 were German. Per articles of the Convention, American soldiers were compelled to salute higher ranking POWs, and the infamous Nazi salute was permitted. After the war it became a men's dormitory for. 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. 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. 3 POW compounds, 2 Enlisted, 1 Officer, Hospital Compound, American Compound. During one of my uncles visits back to Alton, he asked his mother for an aluminum pie pan, said McDowell. ",#(7),01444'9=82. 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. 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. The only difference, of course, was large barbed wire fences, search lights and guard dogs, Fiedler said. They were even compensated at the same rate of a private, at 10 cents per hour, which could be saved for their release or spent at camp stores. 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. 9 0 obj PublishedDecember 8, 2016 at 3:26 PM CST, Credit Kelly Moffitt | St. Louis Public Radio. The camp was just east of the village of Weingarten, on Missouri Highway 32, west of Ste. 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. Back at camp, fellow POWs hailed them as heroes. In 2010, local author and researcher David Fiedler wrote a book about this very history titled The Enemy Among Us: POWs in Missouri During World War II. After years of copious research, gathering first-hand accounts, government files and newspaper clippings, he detailed the life POWs led in the some 30 camps that were spread across the state. And it was the Germans, Nazi and non-Nazi, who defined camp life more than any other group of captives. 8 0 obj jmNR0|mD4wB6.B5 _7w!! The rules werent too lax in that regard, actually. 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. While still adhering to the Convention, the POW camps supplied local industries and businesses with laborers. They were: Fort Leonard Wood Camp Weingarten near Ste. %PDF-1.7 The most elaborate escape attempt occurred in 1944, at one of the more spartan camps in Texas. Weingarten is a small town in southern Missouri, outside of St. Genevieve. Fort Leonard Wood, in central Missouri Camp Weingarten, near Ste. UT POW CD. They were contracted to work on farms and in canneries, mills, and tanneries. 5 0 obj 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. 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. Of the 2,222 POWs who attempted escape, Gaertner was the only one to have eluded capture. All Rights Reserved. For one thing, they were needed to help rebuild European infrastructure. Large German pow camp 2 miles outside of Thomasville. President Harry Truman ordered them sent back to Europe "to whichever country wanted them. The camp was named for General Harvey C Clark, Missouris adjutant general and commander of Missouris National Guard. Shelf Location . Two German POWs watch the film of Nazi atrocities during a mandatory assembly at their camp at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. After the war was over, prisoners of war were not allowed to stay in the United States. Gaertner finally confessed, and Jean, determined he should turn himself in, began researching the POW camps. Genevieve and Farmington, Missouri, (Camp Weingarten) had no pre-war existence," Fiedler wrote. 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. American commanders said it couldn't happen. Cole Camp: June 19, 1861 Benton County: American Civil War Benton County Home Guard-600, Missouri State Guard-300 43 KIA, 85 WIA, 25 POW United States vs. Missouri (Confederate) Confederate victory Carthage: July 5, 1861 Near Carthage: American Civil War Union-1,100, Missouri State Guard-6,000 244 United States vs. Missouri (Confederate) 6 & 7, Chesterfield, MO 63017. Pfc. Not only was racism detrimental to Black servicemen's morale, it also became a Nazi propaganda talking point. Most of the POWs went to large camps, including one covering 960 acres near Weingarten in Ste. Consequently, the POWs had little concern about getting caught. Now a fraction of its WWII size, the camp currently has a full-time staff of 11 employees a sharp . About 15,000 German and Italian prisoners of war were confined in Missouri, and a few tried to escape. 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.. 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. Five weeks after Germanys surrender, American security had become a bit haphazard. endobj 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.". 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. The camp was enlarged to the point that some 5,800 POW's . endstream First attempted escape by two German POWs on 5 November 1942. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Click here to learn more or join our conversation. 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). Post-Dispatch photo, German POWs on a "boat camp" in the St. Louis area play chess and relax on the deck in 1945. Sixteen of the men were killed or died as a result of an accident on 31 October 1945. The post is also notable as the birthplace of landmark LabVIEW programmer Michael Porter. Readmore storiesfrom Tim O'Neil's Look Back series. A few concrete ammunition bunkers are the last remnants of the POW camp. Post-Dispatch file photo, The main avenue at Camp Weingarten lined by small barracks buildings in June 1943. 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.'" 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. American commanders said it couldn't happen. As Fiedler put it: Who wanted to rush back into the war? | After completing his initial training, he was designated as infantry and became a clerk with the 201st Infantry Regiment. 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. In fact, much of life that prisoners of war led in Missouri during that time was like that of U.S. Army privates serving in those camps: they received the same food and housing, ate meals in the mess halls, were given days off and performed duties ranging from laundry to cooking to working as orderlies in the Officers Club. [2][3][4][5][6], At its peak in May 1945, a total of 425,871 POWs were held in the US. mi. Some were transferred to a special camp for Nazi incorrigibles in Oklahoma. These camps housed more than 142,000 Germans, 15,000 Italians, and 500 Japanese. Now Tampa International Airport and Drew Park. The 3,600 prisoners planted tomatoes and took over cooking, attracting American guards with their spicy enhancements to GI fare. Genevieve County. 1 0 obj 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. Copyright 2017 Vernon County Historical Society - All Rights Reserved. Complementing that were screenings of carefully selected movies, including horrifying footage showing the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. 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..