There was one that held German POWs located near Aliceville, Pickens County, Alabama. This is in west central Alabama bordering Mississippi. It was closed in 1946. I spoke once with a resident of the area that tried to buy some of the scrap wood, etc., from the camp after it was closed. He said the army officer in charge refused to either sell or give away the building materials. Said that he had orders to douse it with diesel and burn it all. What a waste.
My mother was a resident of Dale County, Alabama during the war, near Fort Rucker (then known as Camp Rucker) in southeast Alabama. She told me that there were some German and Italian POWs kept there as well as the army training base. She said that many would work for local farmers and made good hands. She said that if given a cold orange soda, they worked extra hard.
"...why, land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for,... because it is the only thing that lasts."
There was a camp at Algona, Iowa. The prisoners there constructed a huge (3/4 life-size) nativity scene that is still on display today. There were many satellite camps in Iowa and Minnesota that were associated with the Algona camp. Farmers and factories could hire the prisoners to work for them. They paid the government for the workers, with the money raised going to the upkeep up the camps. The prisoners received canteen coupons for their labor. Many of the prisoners kept up correspondence with the farmers after the war, and some came back to visit.
I had visited the Algona one year at Christmas time to see the nativity scene. I seem to recall there were many pieces to it.
There was a fairly large camp for naval POW's in Phoenix. A bunch made an escape and thought they'd float down the Salt river to Mexico. They didn't quite realize the Salt is often under the surface. All were recaptured in a few days. There was one young man who was a submariner who wanted to provide information to the US authorities and was found out. The Germans, under their officer leadership, held a trial and convicted and hanged the young man. Ultimately the Germans involved, or at least most of them, were tried in a military court and convicted of murder and that lead to the last mass hanging in the US. (After the war was over).
always felt we treated them far better than they deserved
I disagree Sam.
Most of these guys were just conscripts or young patriotic guys who were serving their nation, misguided (and criminal) as it was. I do agree that the ardent Nazi's did get better then they deserved.
Toward the end of the war when Germany was crumbling, they were drafting kids and shoving them to the front lines. The boys weren't soldiers and certainly weren't Nazis. They were ordinary kids caught by a tyrannical government and just trying to stay alive.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
The advent of World War II meant many things to different people.
To those young men eligible for the draft, it meant being drafted into the Armed Services and off to basic training and being shipped off to serve and fight in a foreign land.
To many woman and those not eligible for the draft, it meant badly needed employment for those who struggled during the Great Depression.
But to nearly 1,500 people from farm families in nearby Henderson, Webster and Union counties in Western Kentucky, it meant much more — it meant giving up their land, farm equipment, homes and way of life to the federal government in the name of patriotism and the war effort.
At the time, little did these humble farm families know that the creation of the Army's Camp Breckenridge in 1942 would eventually lead to a rancorous legal dispute and hard feelings on the part of family descendants which would span seven decades
It is a rather sordid tale, but one to be remembered.
Hence, on Sunday, among the many events occurring this weekend, the 70th year reunion event of Camp Breckenridge Commemoration event will be held at the James D. Veach Museum and Arts Center at 1 p.m. on the grounds of Camp Breckenridge outside Morganfield, Ky.
In January, 1942, Kentucky Rep. Beverly Vincent revealed to the public that the War Department had authorized the construction of an Army training base somewhere near Morganfield. The facility was to be designed to train some 30,000 troops annually.
A few short weeks later, farmers in the surrounding area were told two things:
1. If they accept the appraised value of their property, payment would be tendered immediately, and
2. As soon as the war is over and the property is declared "surplus," the owners would be offered a right of first refusal to repurchase the farm land with compensation for damages.
Finally, on March 3, 121 orders to vacate the property were sent by the U.S. Marshal's office for the 36,000 acres of farmland to build the training base.
In a book written in 1978 by Ruby Higginson, entitled "Land of Camp Breckenridge: Injustice to the Farmer," about the same time the Army began confiscating land, oil wells were starting to be drilled in the vicinity of the proposed camp.
Higginson, an Evansville resident who was in high school at the time the land was taken, painfully details in graphic descriptions what happened to the various people involved in the massive land grab through negotiated sales and condemnation proceedings.
Many long remained upset about how government officials eventually lied to all the land owners and broke every promise made to them.
In the post-World War II era, family members who lived on farms taken for the base have been engaged in a never-ending legal struggle while government officials seemed to be insulated from public opinion and ridicule.
In the ensuing years, the federal government sold the mineral rights on much of the land which has since produced coal, oil and natural gas.
From 1950 until 1965 the camp remained closed.
Finally, in 1965 the land was declared "surplus" and the government broke the acreage up into such large tracts that none of the area farmers could afford to buy any of their former land holdings.
A lawsuit was filed in federal court in the late 1960s but a judge dismissed the case. Congressional action in 1993 allowed the plaintiffs a hearing in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and in 2005 Judge Susan Braden issued a preliminary ruling awarding some $32.5 million — proceeds from the sale of mineral rights to the land — to the former land owners.
In the ruling, Judge Braden instructed the Justice Department (acting in behalf of the Army) and the former land owners to negotiate a settlement.
Subsequently, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conner spent several months attempting to mediate an equitable settlement.
Finally, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Claims in February 2009 dismissed the previous recommendation.
Justices Lawrence Margolis and Loren Smith wrote a 20-page opinion stating that "any award to the Claimants would constitute a gratuity," and recommended Congress be advised that they should receive nothing.
However, in a 42-page dissenting opinion, Judge Charles F. Lettow sided with the landowners and claimed they should be awarded some $22.9 million because about a third of the land had been condemned through court action rather than by a quasi-voluntary sale.
He went on to argue that the Tennessee Valley Authority purchased the coal rights on some 30,540 acres of the land for $7.4 million but later sold these rights to private interests for more than $400 million.
Judge Lettow stated the case is the epitome of an instance where the government has enriched itself by "the overreaching of its agents," and "the claimants deserve recompense."
Despite their legal setbacks, the Breckenridge Land Committee continues to meet regularly.
The group sends out a newsletter and receives monthly reports from their lawyers.
Currently, members are attempting to exert pressure on Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell's staff since the case has been reported back to the Senate by the Court of Federal Claims.
...Turning left onto Hwy 56 one will travel past the town of TILDON through what was once Camp Breckinridge. Everything on the right is still part of Camp Breckinridge. Lady Bird Johnson once held the mineral rights to much of this land. The Johnson Family still retains these rights.
Yep. STILL in litigation 70 years later. I doubt any of the original owners are still alive to get their land back, but it would be a good thing for their families.
You can roll a turd in peanuts, dip it in chocolate, and it still ain't no damn Baby Ruth.
There was a large POW camp in Terrell, TX ,in Kaufman County, next County east of Dallas, that housed German POW's,according to a long article that the Dallas Morning News had some years ago. The paper gave a lot of personal stories about the level that the German prisoner's had been integrated into the community and that even the POW's cemetary was still being kept up by the city. Ron
TIME FOR TERM LIMITS !!!! Politicians are just like diapers, they need to be changed often and regularly for the same reason...Robin Williams.
