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. During July and August 1943, Camp Weingarten, Mis-souri, sent approximately 300 Italian POWs to Shenandoah.11 Those POWs handled most of DeKalb's . These camps held anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 prisoners. Shortly after Taylor received assignment to Camp Weingarten, Italian prisoners of war began to arrive at the camp in May 1943. Fiedler recounted the tale of one Italian gentleman who, after he returned to his home country, wrote to a farmer he worked for in Sikeston remarking on how much he liked working with him. The Italian and one German POW who committed suicide rather than be repatriated are buried just outside the post cemetery boundaries. For one thing, they were needed to help rebuild European infrastructure. Seriously underwater., Neman: Missouri womans saga of trying to find common sense at Walmart, I can still hear the roaring of the engine, says father of teen maimed in downtown St. Louis. Some even "started to enjoy the novelty.". The camp buildings are preserved in. 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. stream Jeremy P. Amick 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. In Kansas, for example, some farmers invited their POW workers for meals and allowed them to go hunting or pony riding unattended. 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. 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.. Relic of Camp Weingarten - History of former Missouri prisoner of war J^q+q5(aP96\A8k=r2e+WokGrS7[FlDabO*P7K_3zpzvr~Q 0BjSvkVI-|u"FhBd/jaer+]Az5uj#rM9@m_G\wVifS9RFYX]mZaPxJi!8/qUFIfT? WMi{C/&pQToGp0|xT{;tXUWyaU=:7ju'r9!3? Camp was located in North Thibodaux along Coulon Road. However, POW Camp Road is not about the road itself. The majority of the camps were located in the Midwest, South, and Southwest, and the biggest contingency of POWs 372,000 were German. 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. The POWs were required to watch the film during an assembly in June 1945, one month after Germany surrendered. This was a local story. by Camps were built on military bases, like Fort Leonard Wood, and within the base there would be a prisoner-of-war compound. This document is not available online. 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. In late October of 1950, over 800 POWs left Manpo for village camps closer to the Chinese border near Chungung, known as the Apex Camps. 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. Located 14 miles (23km) SE of Roswell. 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. 5 0 obj Despite their careful planning, 10 were captured within days, far from the border. Originally it was to serve as an armor training center. 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. About 100 POWs lived there and worked on area farms, replacing Americans who had gone to war. Some were transferred to a special camp for Nazi incorrigibles in Oklahoma. let us know the episode date and topic and contact Alex Heuer Other citizens wrote angry letters to the editor and staged protests. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identifies sites such as Chesterfield Ex Satellite Pow Camp because they pose or had once posed a potential risk to human health and/or the environment due to contamination by one or more hazardous wastes. at aheuer@stlpr.org. Cartoonist Mort Walker was also stationed there and drew inspiration for Camp Swampy of his Beetle Bailey comic strip. However, I want to ensure it is recognized for the treasure that it is and it is not simply thrown away," McDowell said. However, not all towns and townspeople were happy hosts. Groundwater and soil contamination has been identified in various areas of the base's original property boundaries. 7 0 obj Two were caught by an El Paso railroad detective just before reaching the border. The camp was just east of the village of Weingarten, on Missouri Highway 32, west of Ste. 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. 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. Pages . While the core of the post was retained, many of the wood temporary barracks were declared surplus and sold. The majority of escapees were captured quickly and without incident. Missouri had four POW camps,. 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. Some classes were taught by the POWs themselves, others were conducted as correspondence courses. 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. Glidden (left), commander of Camp Weingarten, looks across part of the 960-acre prisoner-of-war compound in Ste. In 1893, inventor Nikola Tesla first publicly demonstrated radio during a meeting of the National Electric Light Association in St. Louis by t. 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) Housed diverse groups of POWs ranging from Afrika Corp troops, Italian, Yugoslavian, Chechen, Russian conscripts and others. Photo by Jack Gould of the Post-Dispatch, Two Italian POWs hang out their laundry at Camp Weingarten in June 1943. 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. A number of prisoners of war did later return as immigrants and about a dozen of those immigrants settled in St. Louis. With Glidden is Lt. Lawrence Ponetretti, an Army interpreter. People didnt get in the car and drive 75 miles: it was a locally-focused world. Genevieve, Missouri, A former CCC camp it was used for POWs who were with Rommel's Afrika Corps. 11 0 obj Camps in the St. Louis area included Gumbo Flats in the Chesterfield Valley, Jefferson Barracks, riverboats, and an Ordinance Depot in Baden. His hometown really wasnt all that far from Camp Weingarten, she added. 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. One of the first three designated camps for anti-Nazis, along with. 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. Undoubtedly the biggest source of conflict in the POW camps were the ardent Nazis. 'P?W"=m!er\!qw%p`YU|CYPJ*,naMSanr,{3zpY6U,Av/ During one of my uncles visits back to Alton, he asked his mother for an aluminum pie pan, said McDowell. The camp was enlarged to the point that some 5,800 POW's . During one kangaroo court in Georgia, two pro-Nazi POWs charged an anti-Nazi POW with being an informant and liking American jazz. 3 POW compounds, 2 Enlisted, 1 Officer, Hospital Compound, American Compound. Today, it functions as a National Guard Training Center. 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. Black soldiers experienced institutionalized discrimination both at home and overseas, and their prejudicial treatment occurred at the hands of not only white Americans but white POWs as well. endobj Approximately 1,000 Japanese Americans were kept there, under tight security, behind multiple layers of barbed wire fence. "My mother's brother, Dwight Hafford Taylor, was raised in the community of Alton in southern Missouri," McDowell said. In Missouri alone there were 4 main base camps. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Military History and POW Camp - Bushwhacker Museum Consequently, the POWs had little concern about getting caught. Aware that POWs were actually eating better than many civilians, the War Department, sensitive to public perception, cut back severely on the POWs' rations. Although the Georgia camp killers were convicted in 1945, Nazi perpetrators, protected by the Convention, usually received minimal or no punishment. [2][3][4][5][6], At its peak in May 1945, a total of 425,871 POWs were held in the US. According to Smithsonian Magazine, in 1942, as Great Britain was running out of places to hold Axis prisoners, the U.S. began work on creating its own network of POW camps. Many simply took off on foot. 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). Genevieve County. During World War II, more than fifteen thousand German and Italian soldiers came to Missouri. Italians went to Camp Weingarten, at the German-heritage village of 99 residents. |-T'T5Z In 1946, the post was deactivated and placed in a caretaker status. Subscribe with this special offer to keep reading, (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). endobj A 150 feet (46m) electrically lighted escape tunnel was discovered by authorities. Established at Weingarten, a sleepy little town on State Highway 32 between Ste. "During one of my uncle's visits back to Alton, he asked his mother for an aluminum pie pan," McDowell said. The post is also notable as the birthplace of landmark LabVIEW programmer Michael Porter. 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. About 500 American soldiers were assigned to guard 3,600 Italians at the camp. German prisoners of war were held here during WWII. 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. 1 0 obj 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. They ruled with an iron fist, ordering work stoppages and holding kangaroo courts. St. Louis on the Airbrings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The farmer did not want to respond by letter but his daughter did, which would eventually result in a marriage. The case was crafted by an Italian prisoner of war held at Camp Weingarten south of St. Louis. 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. 6 & 7, Chesterfield, MO 63017. 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. Taylor and his fellow soldiers, most of whom were assigned to military police companies, maintained a busy schedule of guarding the prisoners held in the camp, but also received opportunities to take leave from their duties and visit their loved ones back home. Most Americans regarded them as curiosities, but there was conflict. 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. 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 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. Located where the present day Cleburne Conference center is located in the 1500 block of West Henderson(business HWY 67), Housed German POWs from the Afrika Korps after their defeat in North Africa. The only difference, of course, was large barbed wire fences, search lights and guard dogs, Fiedler said. Area Camp with 9 Branch Camps. Camp Scott held more than 600 German POWs from the Afrika Korps from late 1944 until the camp closed in November 1945. 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. You have permission to edit this article. The POW camps adhered to the Geneva Conventions Missouri Digital Heritage Jean remained unaware of his secret until impending retirement required she obtain his birth certificate. endobj The prison camps were identical to housing areas that our own troops occupied.. 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. Photo by Buel White of the Post-Dispatch, The main avenue at Camp Weingarten lined by small barracks buildings in June 1943. q2JShr6 The United States had officially entered World War II. In Chesterfield Valley, Fiedler said, there are stories of farmers getting to know the prisoners of war and inviting them in for lunch. Thirty-three German POWs and two Italian POWs are now buried in the post cemetery. The POW was then moved to a camp in the United Kingdom before being placed on a troopship bound for Canada in October the same year. Originally CCC Camp Lakewood built in 1936, Housed 3,500 Italians and later 10,000 Germans, Formerly the county courthouse, is now the headquarters of the. Some escaped out of homesickness, some out of patriotism, some out of fear of being returned to their altered homeland. In Texas, for example, POWs picked cotton, harvested fruit, and chopped sugar. endobj 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. 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. UT POW CD. Two German POWs watch the film of Nazi atrocities during a mandatory assembly at their camp at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. Wxi7Enw{)}$yIOJ }E>kZkz6v;_c-dPc=lJeVP 2d}$uDOZeWEB{WHV>'HXDkX9F$j#h"6&U&Y{@G;hdGtDIWbRTo(BaA`cEln!PjYYN0S UJW)G)E*}!2HfK?8`P 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. This movements became known as the "Tiger Death March," so called for the brutal treatment that the prisoners . 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. Consequently, fanatical Nazis were thrown in with anti-Nazis. Salvatore E. Polizzi had become a national figure for his work in The Hill neighborhood of St. Louis. Many St. Louisans were outraged when the program made most . ", As a result of Truman's order, many POWs ended up in the "unfriendly hands" of France and England. The main camps supported a number of branch camps, which were used to put POWs where their labor could be best utilized. 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. Trichloroethylene contamination in soils and groundwater has been documented at the site and may include off-site contamination in a number of private wells. Unfortunately, while the U.S. generally honored the Convention, neither Japan, which never signed the agreement, nor Germany, which chose to ignore it, did. Army Col. H.H. Now called Dennis Whiles, Gaertner told Jean he had been raised in an orphanage, thus eliminating any questions about his family. Camp Weingarten. The case was crafted by an Italian prisoner of war held at Camp Weingarten south of St. Louis. 2,000 German POWs were houses at seven locations on the. Of the 2,222 POWs who attempted escape, Gaertner was the only one to have eluded capture. I will someday donate the cigarette case to a museum for preservation and display, and I believe my brother, Harold McDowell, would agree. Formerly located on the south-east corner of East 120th St. and South Walnut Ave. 2.5 miles east of Grant. 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. Out of the ruins of fascist defeat, the U.S. and its allies hoped to plant the seeds of democracy. 6U z*&`873 hkg7*I|dx^EY?IF$zwUJH!/V>H>is&n /t; Thousands of Axis POWs worked in the fields, replacing American farm boys gone to war. Helmuth Levin and Private Rudolf Straussberg left notes of explanation on their bunks. The photo was taken in March 1945, shortly after radio . All buildings but one have been demolished. POWs in the US. Taylor and his fellow soldiers, most of whom were assigned to military police companies, maintained a busy schedule of guarding the prisoners held in the camp, but also received opportunities to take leave from their duties and visit their loved ones back home. 1942-1946: German POWs. The Factory also created Der Ruf, a German-language newsletter, "written by German POWs for German POWs." 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. Her family eventually found a prisoner of war using it in the middle of the night to go meet a beau in the moonlight. 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.. Sub Camp of Camp Forrest - April 1944 to March 1946 - 331 German Prisoners. Genevieve County 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. Most of the POWs went to large camps, including one covering 960 acres near Weingarten in Ste. | 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. 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. Union leaders protested the use of POWs at a quarry near Pevely. The last German POWs didnt head home until 1946. POW Camp Road - Mississippi Offroad Trail Photo by Buel White of the Post-Dispatch. 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). The most famous of those buried on the installation is German submariner. They werent cooperative, they were defiant and intended to cause trouble any way they could, Fiedler said. June 16, 1945 The day German POWs escaped their camp - STLtoday From 1942 to 1945, more than 400,000 Axis prisoners were shipped to the United States and detained in camps across the nation. POWs built secret tunnels, slipped away from inattentive guards, constructed dummies of themselves, and impersonated U.S. officers, among other tricks. Complementing that were screenings of carefully selected movies, including horrifying footage showing the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. 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. The rules werent too lax in that regard, actually. I dont want to imply that people just accepted what the government did, but the ordinary citizen did realize this was a unique time, Fiedler said. As a result, their supervision relaxed, sometimes to the point of being unguarded and unwatched. 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. About 500 American soldiers were assigned to guard 3,600 Italians at the camp. Photo by Jack Gould of the Post-Dispatch, Two Italian POWs hang out their laundry at Camp Weingarten in June 1943.