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Good article. Thanks. Seems like a lot of people posted without reading it, though.
I knew a man years ago who spent his enlistment guarding a camp in Indiana. It was an easy enlistment, and he told me that he got to know a few of the English speakers, but never made any real friends with any of them; they were still the enemy.
And back around 1979 I had a chance to walk around what was left of the POW camp in Moultrie, GA. It was all still there - the barracks, and so forth. I found myself wondering what happened to all those guys after they returned to their ruined country. Some of them would have returned to East Germany.
Makes you realize there is a lot to be said to losing a war to America as opposed to losing it to The Soviet Union. That's the breakdown of North & South Korea, too. The North lost to The Soviet Union; The South lost to America. The entire Korean peninsula had been a colony of Japan (1910 - 1945).
I have not heard or read of any such camps for US-born citizens of German heritage, and I doubt that there were any such camps. Japanese were targeted in large part because they "looked different." Germans don't.
A lot of them were contracted out as farm laborers in the Midwest and South. I read there was something like a 1% escape attempts. Most seemed to actually like it. They grew up in depression Germany and certainly combat and Army life was harsh.
There was a large German POW camp in my childhood home in Columbus Ohio on an Army depot. As late as the 1960's there were still buildings they had constructed and were still in use.
Well, to be fair, it was a long swim to the German Lines, across the atlantic ocean and all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SFBayBoomer
I have not heard or read of any such camps for US-born citizens of German heritage, and I doubt that there were any such camps. Japanese were targeted in large part because they "looked different." Germans don't.
PS. Yes and yes to your "rep" questions.
There were such camps. Just not in the same numbers, and they couldn't go too nuts with it since a majority of white Americans are at least partly German. I think it was mostly the staunch German Nationalist types. Remember in Band of Brothers when they took a POW from Eugene OR, that was sent back to fight for the Germans?
There was a secret camp down south for the Germans they pulled off the Sub that they got the Enigma machine off of.
They wanted the germans to think the sub had sunk so they kept those sailors self contained and isolated until the end of the war so as not to tip the possibility that we'd grabbed one of their machines.
Imagine the family thinking their son had died at sea 2 years or so ago was actually alive after all at the end of the war.
I think that there is one thing to remember. There was a SIGNIFICANT immigration of German immigrants in the period of 1870-1900. At the time of WWII, there were a lot of 2nd generation German immigrants throughout the Midwest, SOME of whom still spoke German. POWs were often held in areas with a lot of German immigrants so they were a close cultural mix with the locals.
We had a POW camp at what is now Bradley Field in Windsor Locks CT.
I remember them being transported thru Windsor center to what is now Bradley Field.
Has anyone heard of a WWII POW camp in Maine that housed Mongolian POWs? My late father told me about escorting a busload of about 50 Mongolian POWs being sent to a camp in Maine during WWII. He and the bus driver were the only two Americans; and he was the one with a gun; and he was a bit nervous about what might happen if the POW's decided to start a fight/try to escape. (he didn't want to have to shoot them, or be overrun by them) Luckily, the Mongolians stayed quiet and peaceful. My father always wondered what happened to them after the war.
Has anyone heard of a WWII POW camp in Maine that housed Mongolian POWs? My late father told me about escorting a busload of about 50 Mongolian POWs being sent to a camp in Maine during WWII. He and the bus driver were the only two Americans; and he was the one with a gun; and he was a bit nervous about what might happen if the POW's decided to start a fight/try to escape. (he didn't want to have to shoot them, or be overrun by them) Luckily, the Mongolians stayed quiet and peaceful. My father always wondered what happened to them after the war.
No, but I do remember reading a book, one of several by James Herriot (All Creatures Great and Small was the notable one but he had several,) and he talked about a Mongolian POW in the UK that had been captured by the Germans, and conscripted into the German forces (basically, fight for us or be shot). So, there were Mongolians fighting the allies under German command.
No, but I do remember reading a book, one of several by James Herriot (All Creatures Great and Small was the notable one but he had several,) and he talked about a Mongolian POW in the UK that had been captured by the Germans, and conscripted into the German forces (basically, fight for us or be shot). So, there were Mongolians fighting the allies under German command.
Oh really I didnt know that.
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