German POW Camps in the US
When my paternal grandparents were alive, they both enjoyed telling stories about life during the Second World War. My grandfather had been called to active duty two years before Pearl Harbor when the Nation Guard Unit he joined during the Great Depression was activated and sent to Trinidad to guard the harbor there against any hostile invasion. When actual hostilities started, he rose from corporal to first sergeant in six months. Had it not been for the Japanese surrender in 1945, he was headed to the Pacific after fighting his way across Europe.
My grandmother worked on the huge US Army base, Ft. Bragg, NC where tens of thousands of soldiers trained in preparation for what Eisenhower called the "Great Crusade."One of the stories she told me was of trading with the captured German soldiers who had surrendered in North Africa and were kept in a POW camp in an area that is now used for officer housing. The Germans got packages from the Red Cross containing chocolate, a hard to obtain commodity on the rationed economy of the time outside of the camp. Civilians working at Ft. Bragg would trade cigarettes through the wire with the Germans while the guards looked the other way.
If you weren't aware of POW camps being located stateside during the war, you may be surprised to know that you may live near one. there were over 700 camps scattered around the country and there were more than 425,000 prisoners on US soil.
Former German POW says, 'Thank you, America'
Mine Enemy: The story of German POWs in America – Southern Documentary Fund
German prisoners of war in the United States - Wikipedia
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