List of World War II prisoner-of-war camps in the United States

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 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. Eventually, every state (with the exceptions of Nevada, North Dakota, and Vermont) had at least one POW camp. 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.[1] Approximately 90% of Italian POWs pledged to help the United States, by volunteering in Italian Service Units (ISU). Due to a labor shortage, Italian Service Units worked on Army depots, in arsenals and hospitals, and on farms. POWs who were a part of the ISU received better housing, uniforms and pay.[2] [3][4][5][6]

Italian prisoners of war working on the Arizona Canal (December 1943)
Photograph of headquarters, Bainbridge Army Airfield, Bainbridge, Georgia, June 1944

At its peak in May 1945, a total of 425,871 POWs were held in the US. This included 371,683 Germans, 50,273 Italians, and 3,915 Japanese.[7]: 272 

Camp State City or County Notes
Bainbridge Army Airfield Georgia Bainbridge Originally an Army Airfield flight training facility. Also housed several hundred German POWs who worked in nearby agricultural farms. Following World War II, the facilities became the residential mental health campus until its closure in the 1960s.
Boston Port of Embarkation Massachusetts Boston
Bradley Field Connecticut Windsor Locks Now Bradley International Airport
Camp Adair Oregon Benton County
Camp Albuquerque New Mexico Albuquerque
Idaho
Iowa Algona
Camp Aliceville Alabama Aliceville Opened in 1943, a segregation camp from 1944.[1]
Michigan Allegan County Originally CCC Camp Lakewood built in 1936
Camp Allen Virginia Norfolk
Oklahoma Alva One of the first segregation camps.[1]
Fort Andrews Massachusetts Boston Harbor
Camp Angel Island California San Francisco
Wisconsin Antigo
Wisconsin Appleton
Camp Ashby Virginia Princess Anne County
West Virginia White Sulphur Springs
Camp Atlanta Nebraska Atlanta
Camp Atterbury Indiana Edinburgh Housed 3,500 Italians and later 10,000 Germans
Michigan AuTrain
Camp Barkeley Texas Abilene Located near what is now Dyess Air Force Base.[7]: 130 
Wisconsin Barron County
Arkansas Bassett
Louisiana Bastrop Branch Camp of Camp Ruston. escaped in August 1945 and was recaptured in Hamburg, West Germany in 1954.
Camp Bayfield Wisconsin Bayfield Formerly the county courthouse, is now the headquarters of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
Camp Beale California Yuba County
Camp Beaver Dam Wisconsin Beaver Dam
Camp Belle Mead New Jersey Belle Mead Housed primarily Italian POWs. Once Italy surrendered, the Italian POWs were permitted to volunteer for the "Italian Service Unit." This unit provided the POWs with an opportunity to work and earn a wage, as well as preferential treatment.[8]
Camp Billy Mitchell Wisconsin Milwaukee Over 3000 German POWs were interned at Billy Mitchell Field airport (known today as Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (MKE)) from January 1945 to April 1946.
Camp Blanding Florida Clay County Upwards of 200 German Prisoner of War were moved to Venice Army Air Field in February 1945 from Camp Blanding. Seven German soldiers who had been buried at Camp Blanding, were reinterred on 25 April 1946, at the Fort Benning National Cemetery near Columbus, Ga when the federal government returned Camp Blanding to the Florida National Guard.[9]
Camp Bowie Texas Brown County See: "News from the Bowie Camp 1943," a written account from Joseph Lehman to a friend.
Texas
Camp Breckinridge Kentucky
North Carolina Butner
Camp Bullis Texas San Antonio
Camp Butner North Carolina Butner Kurt Rossmeisl escaped on 4 August 1945 and surrendered in 1959.
Wisconsin Cambria
Camp Campbell Kentucky One of the first three designated camps for anti-Nazis, along with Fort Devens, Massachusetts and .[7]
Camp Carson Colorado El Paso County
Camp Chaffee Arkansas Sebastian County
Camp Chase Ohio
Oklahoma Grady County
Wisconsin Chilton
Camp Claiborne Louisiana Forest Hill Branch Camp of Camp Ruston.
Iowa
Missouri Nevada
Camp Cleburne Texas Johnson County Located where the present day Cleburne Conference center is located in the 1500 block of West Henderson(business HWY 67)
Camp Clinton Mississippi Clinton Housed German POWs from the Afrika Korps after their defeat in North Africa
Wisconsin Cobb
Wisconsin Columbus
Mississippi
Camp Concordia Kansas Concordia
Camp Cooke California Santa Barbara County
Camp Croft South Carolina
Tennessee
Camp Crowder Missouri
Camp Dawson West Virginia
New Mexico Georg Gärtner escaped on 21 September 1945, and finally surrendered in 1985. He was the last escapee, having remained at large for 40 years.
Arkansas Dermott, Arkansas
Wyoming Douglas
Michigan Two escaped. Used a railroad box car. Recaptured: Roanoke, Va.[10]
Wisconsin Altoona
Camp Edwards Massachusetts Falmouth
Camp Ellis Illinois Fulton County
Louisiana
Michigan Alger County
Minnesota
Camp Fannin Texas Tyler Located on the campus of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler.
Camp Flint California Placer County
Camp Florence Arizona Florence Largest all-new prisoner of war compound ever constructed on American soil.[11]
Wisconsin Fond du Lac 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.
Camp Forrest Tennessee Tullahoma First attempted escape by two German POWs on 5 November 1942.
Wisconsin Fox Lake
Camp Fredonia Wisconsin Fredonia 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.
Michigan Freeland The current site of the (MBS)
Wisconsin Galesville
Oklahoma
Wisconsin Genesee
Michigan Germfask
Camp Grant Illinois Rockford
Michigan Grant Formerly located on the south-east corner of East 120th St. and South Walnut Ave. 2.5 miles east of Grant. Prisoners worked on local farms.
Colorado Greeley
Camp Green Lake Wisconsin Green Lake
Camp Gruber Oklahoma Muskogee
Louisiana
Camp Haan California Riverside County
Camp Hale Colorado [12]
Wisconsin Hartford 600 German POWs were interned in the Schwartz Ballroom from October 1944 to January 1946. They were contracted to work on farms and in canneries, mills, and tanneries.
Camp Hearne Texas Hearne [13]
Texas Deaf Smith County Only for Italians[14]
Oklahoma
Camp Hoffman Maryland Close to Fort Lincoln and held over 5,000 soldiers
Camp Hood Texas
Oklahoma Hickory
Wisconsin Hortonville Held German POWs. 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.
Camp Houlton Maine
Camp Howze Texas [15]
Camp Hulen Texas Palacios
Pennsylvania
Texas One of the first segregation camps.[1]
Nebraska
Wisconsin Janesville
Wisconsin Jefferson
Camp Jerome Arkansas Jerome
Louisiana
Camp Kaufman[7]: 245, 262  Texas Kaufman
Wisconsin Merton
New Mexico Las Cruces escaped in November 1945 and was recaptured in Mexico City in 1954.
Camp Lee Virginia
Camp Livingston Louisiana
Camp Lockett California Campo Auxiliary of Camp Haan in Riverside County, home to last Civil War cavalry unit, Buffalo Soldiers. POW Camp for Italians and Germans
Wisconsin Lodi
New Mexico Lordsburg 1942-1945: held Japanese-American internees, and then German and Italian POWs.
Camp Mackall North Carolina Hoffman
Ohio Marion http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=29115
Wisconsin Markesan
Wisconsin Marshfield
Oklahoma McAlester and http://worldandmilitarynotes.com/pow/camp-mcalester-ok-usa-pow-camp/
Mississippi One of the first three designated camps for anti-Nazis, along with Camp Campbell and Fort Devens, Massachusetts.[7]
Camp McCoy Wisconsin Monroe Japanese and German POWs; Japanese, Italian, and German internees; now Fort McCoy
Massachusetts Constructed for prisoners, later reused for housing after the war
Texas
North Carolina
Camp Maxey Texas [16]
Texas
Wisconsin Milltown
Camp Myles Standish Massachusetts Taunton
Arkansas Monticello
Minnesota
New York West Point German camp
Pennsylvania
Camp New Ulm Minnesota New Ulm Fortuitously located outside a city where many locals still spoke German. The camp buildings are preserved in Flandrau State Park and are available for rent as a group center.[17]
Wisconsin Oakfield
Utah
Oklahoma Oklahoma City On site of Will Rogers World Airport.
Camp Ono California San Bernardino Italian camp
Camp Opelika Alabama
Michigan Shlawassee County
Minnesota
Camp Patrick Henry Virginia Newport News
Camp Papago Park Arizona Germany's "Great Escape" was from a 200 feet (61 m) tunnel by 25 prisoners on 24 December 1944.
Oklahoma
Camp Peary Virginia
Camp Perry Ohio Now home to the CMP Headquarters and Gary Anderson competition center
Kansas
Camp Pickett Virginia [citation needed]
Arizona One of the first segregation camps.[1]
Camp Michaux Pennsylvania Cumberland County Located near Pine Grove Furnace State Park. Same commander as Gettysburg Battlefield camp. |[citation needed]
Wisconsin Plymouth
Camp Polk Louisiana
Camp Pomona California
Camp Popolopen New York [citation needed]
Michigan Upper Peninsula [citation needed]
Oklahoma [citation needed]
Michigan Sault Ste. Marie
Wisconsin Reedsburg
Camp Reynolds Pennsylvania
Wisconsin Oneida County
Camp Ritchie Maryland Cascade German and Italian POW Camp during 1942–1945 housing mostly Africa Corps Officers and Italians enlisted from the Torch Campaign. Camp Ritchie also served as a U.S. Army Training Camp from WWII until it was closed under BRAC during the 1990s to the early 2000s. Almost all of the WWII Camp structures have since been demolished. Also the site of training for "The Ritchie Boys", European refugees trained there to go back into Germany and sabotage the war effort.[citation needed]
Wisconsin Ripon
Arkansas Pulaski County
Camp Rockfield Wisconsin Germantown 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. Other POWs were transported to work on farms and canneries in neighboring communities.
Camp Roswell New Mexico Located 14 miles (23 km) SE of Roswell. 1942-1946: German POWs.
Camp Rucker Alabama
Camp Rupert Idaho Paul
Camp Ruston Louisiana Ruston, Louisiana Area Camp with 9 Branch Camps. Capacity for 4800 at main camp. 3 POW compounds, 2 Enlisted, 1 Officer, Hospital Compound, American Compound. Housed diverse groups of POWs ranging from Afrika Corp troops, Italian, Yugoslavian, Chechen, Russian conscripts and others. Later known as an anti-Nazi camp where many intellectuals, artist, writers were among the POWs. The U-505 crew was kept incommunicado in NE compound. Only 1 escapee that was never recaptured who returned to Germany via Mexico. Extensive archive collection of photographs, interviews, art, stone castle, and other memorabilia housed in LA Tech archives provided by Camp Ruston Foundation.
Camp San Luis Obispo California San Luis Obispo Held Italian POWs
Utah Salina, Utah This camp had a guard fire on and kill several German prisoners. See Utah prisoner of war massacre
New Mexico Santa Fe
Camp Thomas A. Scott Indiana Fort Wayne Camp Scott held more than 600 German POWs from the Afrika Korps from late 1944 until the camp closed in November 1945.[18][19]
Nebraska
Camp Shanks New York
camp in McMillan Woods Pennsylvania Gettysburg Battlefield Same commander as Camp Michaux camp.
Wisconsin Winooski 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.
Camp Shelby Mississippi
Camp Sibert Alabama
Michigan Sidnaw
Illinois Glenview
Maryland
New Hampshire
Camp Stewart Georgia
Camp Stockton California
Fort Strong Massachusetts Boston
Oklahoma Atoka
Wisconsin Door County 2,000 German POWs were houses at seven locations on the Door Peninsula, where they worked in the local cherry orchards.
Wisconsin Sturtevant
Camp Sutton North Carolina
Camp Swift Texas Bastrop
Camp Thomasville Georgia Thomasville Large German pow camp 2 miles outside of Thomasville. Following World War II, the facilities were taken over by the Veterans Administration with both a hospital and large domiciliary complement. Facilities now serve as an adjunct to the state's mental health program.
Illinois Thornton
Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Site of murder of Johannes Kunze by five fellow German POWs, who were subsequently tried, found guilty, hanged, and buried in the Fort Leavenworth Military Prison Cemetery.
Utah POW Camp, Co.1, Tooele (original postage)
Colorado Las Animas County A 150 feet (46 m) electrically lighted escape tunnel was discovered by authorities. This was probably a coal mining tunnel in that Engleville was a coal mining camp where this POW camp is purported to be located. Coal mining was prominent in the late 1870s to the 1950s. A few continued into the early 1970s in Las Animas County where Trinidad is located.
Tennessee Paris
Camp Upton New York Suffolk County Approximately 1,000 Japanese Americans were kept there, under tight security, behind multiple layers of barbed wire fence. 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.
Camp Van Dorn Mississippi
Camp Wallace Texas Galveston County
Camp Warner Oregon
Illinois Washington escaped on 9 September 1945 and was recaptured in Chicago in March 1953
Michigan , a 27-year-old German POW, escaped and gave himself up 3 miles north of camp. Capt. Bruce Beiber, commandant at Waterloo, said the prisoner surrendered to Ernest Riemenschneider, who turned him over to state police. The camp housed German Prisoners of War in 1944 and 1945.[20]
Wisconsin Waterloo
Wisconsin Waupun
Oklahoma
Nebraska
Minnesota
Missouri Located between Farmington and Ste. Genevieve, Missouri
Texas Wharton
Camp Wheeler Georgia
Camp White Oregon
Texas Dallas A former CCC camp it was used for POWs who were with Rommel's Afrika Corps. After the war it became a men's dormitory for Southern Methodist University for the influx of students after the war and now is a Dallas park called Winfrey Point by White Rock Lake.
Minnesota St. Charles, Minnesota
Camp Wisconsin Rapids Wisconsin Wisconsin Rapids 200 German POWs were interned at the Tri-City Airport (now known as South Wood County Airport) from July to November 1945.
Camp Wolters Texas
Corpus Christi Naval Air Station Texas Corpus Christi
Massachusetts
Drew Field Florida Now Tampa International Airport and Drew Park.
Edgewood Arsenal Maryland
Eglin Army Air Field Florida
Farragut Naval Training Station Idaho Located on Lake Pend Oreille in Bayview for the duration of World War II The installation housed around 900 Germans, who worked as gardeners and maintenance men around the base and surrounding community.[21] Additionally, Bayview is an unincorporated community; therefore, Farragut Naval Training Station was officially located in Kootenai County.
Fort Andrews Massachusetts For Italian prisoners
Fort Benjamin Harrison Indiana
Fort Benning Georgia
Fort Bliss Texas
Fort Bragg North Carolina
Fort Campbell Kentucky
Fort Crockett Texas Galveston
Fort Curtis Virginia
Fort Custer Michigan In Section B of Fort Custer National Cemetery, there are 26 German graves. Sixteen of the men were killed or died as a result of an accident on 31 October 1945.
Fort Devens Massachusetts Devens One of the first three designated camps for anti-Nazis, along with Camp Campbell and .[7]
Fort Dix New Jersey escaped in June 1946 and surrendered to authorities in New York City in 1953.
Fort DuPont Delaware
Fort Eustis Virginia
Fort Getty Rhode Island
Fort Gordon Georgia
Fort Greble Rhode Island
Fort Jackson South Carolina Columbia 34°02'53"N 80°57'10"W All buildings but one have been demolished. The location of the former POW camp is a residential area now.
Fort Kearny Rhode Island Had program to instill democratic values in Germans based on newspaper Der Ruf (The Call)
Fort Knox Kentucky
Fort Lawton Washington A riot by Negro soldiers took place over preferential treatment given to Italian and German POWs. One Italian POW was lynched, and Leon Jaworski was the military prosecutor.

The Italian and one German POW who committed suicide rather than be repatriated are buried just outside the post cemetery boundaries.

Fort Leavenworth Kansas
Fort Leonard Wood Missouri
Fort Lewis Washington Located between Olympia and Tacoma, Washington.

www.fortlewispowcamp.com

Fort McClellan Alabama
Fort Meade Maryland Fort Meade housed about 4,000 German and Italian POWs during World War II. Thirty-three German POWs and two Italian POWs are now buried in the post cemetery. The most famous of those buried on the installation is German submariner Werner Henke, who was shot while trying to escape from a secret interrogation center at Fort Hunt, Virginia.
Fort Missoula Montana Missoula 1941-1944: Italian POWs.
Fort Niagara New York Niagara County Fort Niagara and Pine Camp (now Fort Drum) maintained several sub or branch camps, including one Geneseo.[22]
Fort Oglethorpe Georgia Fort Oglethorpe
Fort Omaha Nebraska Omaha
Fort Ord California A 120 feet (37 m) nearly completed escape tunnel was discovered by authorities.[23]
Fort Patrick Henry Virginia
Fort Reno Oklahoma
Fort Riley Kansas
Fort Robinson Nebraska
Fort Rucker Alabama
Fort D.A. Russell Texas Marfa Building 98
Fort Sam Houston Texas San Antonio
Fort Saulsbury Delaware
Fort Sheridan Illinois Lake County Sub camps:Camp Pine, Camp Thornton and Camp Skokie Valley, each with 200 POWs.
Fort Sill Oklahoma Lawton
Fort Sumner New Mexico
Fort F.E. Warren Wyoming
Oklahoma Okmulgee Now the site of Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology
Grider Field Arkansas Pine Bluff
Halloran General Hospital New York
Hammond Northshore Regional Airport Louisiana
Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation Virginia
Honouliuli Internment Camp Hawaii also housed POWs from the Pacific
Indiantown Gap Military Reservation Pennsylvania
Holabird Signal Depot Maryland
Jefferson Barracks Missouri St. Louis
Jersey City Quartermaster Supply Depot New Jersey Caven Point, Jersey City [24]
Lovell General Hospital Massachusetts
Texas Temple
Tennessee
Naval Air Station Whiting Field Florida Milton
New Orleans Port of Embarkation Louisiana
West Virginia Martinsburg
Pennsylvania
Patterson Field Ohio
Pine Camp New York Jefferson County Present Day Fort Drum
Port Johnson New Jersey [25]
Pine Bluff Arsenal Arkansas Pine Bluff
Virginia
Colorado
Thibodaux, Louisiana Louisiana Thibodaux Housed German POWs from the Afrika Corps after defeat in North Africa. Camp was located in North Thibodaux along Coulon Road.
Tobyhanna Military Reservation Pennsylvania Tobyhanna
Valley Forge General Hospital Pennsylvania Valley Forge
Massachusetts Waltham
Westover Field Massachusetts Westover
Windfall Indiana World War II POW Camp Indiana Windfall
Rome New York Rome
Utica New York Utica
Boonville New York Boonville

See also[]

Footnotes[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Chip Walker (1985). "German Creative Activities in Camp Aliceville, 1943-1946". The Alabama Review. 38: 19–37.
  2. ^ Italian Prisoners of War and Italian Service Units: From Enemies to Co-belligerents, Paul J. Jordan, University of Massachusetts Boston
  3. ^ militarymuseum.org, POW camps
  4. ^ POW Camps in California
  5. ^ PDF text of report: DAPAM Issue 20; Issue 213: Prisoner of war utilization by the United States Army 1776-1945 Archived 1 November 2019 at the Wayback Machine, By Lewis, George G. and Mewha, John,]
  6. ^ Raw Text of: Prisoner of war utilization by the United States Army 1776-1945, By, Lewis, George G., Lieutenant Colonel, MPC, United States Army, and Mewha, John Captain, Armor, United States Army, pages 189–191
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Krammer, Arnold (1 January 1996). Nazi Prisoners of War in America. Scarborough House. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-8128-8561-3.
  8. ^ Frank, David. "Bellemead (New Jersey) Italian Service Unit". POW Camps section. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  9. ^ "German POWS Lived and Died in Florida Camps" by Jim Robinson, The Orlando Sentinel 4 May 2004
  10. ^ [1] Father's memories of POWs spur teacher's research of central Michigan camps
  11. ^ Jack Hamann, "On American Soil: Camp Florence, Arizona." Archived 25 December 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Camp Hale Prisoners of War Archived 21 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ [2]
  14. ^ "Account from the Hereford Camp" for more see reference therein.
  15. ^ Camp Howze 1944 1945 " from a long term resident at the camp written to his girlfriend"
  16. ^ "August 1943 description of the Camp Maxey" Archived 9 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine Letters from Camp Maxey
  17. ^ Buck, Anita Albrecht (1998). Behind Barbed Wire: German Prisoners of War in Minnesota During World War II. St. Cloud, Minn.: North Star Press of St. Cloud, Inc. ISBN 0-87839-113-4.
  18. ^ "World War II Camp Had Impact on CIty" by Michael Hawfield, The News-Sentinel 15 December 1990 Archived 11 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ Camp Thomas A. Scott - Fort Wayne, Indiana - WWII Prisoner of War Camps on Waymarking.com
  20. ^ "Waterloo Township officials say rundown prison camp is a hazard and should be razed". 10 October 2011.
  21. ^ Love, Marianne (Summer 1996). "Sailors Ahoy!". Sandpoint Magazine. Keokee Co. Publishing, Inc.
  22. ^ Cook, Williamsburg R.; Daniel J. Schultz (2004). Around Geneseo. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-3496-X.
  23. ^ "Uboat.net - the Men - Prisoners of War - German POWs in North America".
  24. ^ "Fomer Site of the Caven Point Army Depot - Jersey City, New Jersey".
  25. ^ Colorado History.org

External links[]

Retrieved from ""