German POW Camp in Nebraska

[AmateisGal]

I had to share, and hope that it is appropriate to do so.

I wrote an article on the German POW camp at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, during WW2 and it was published back in 2005 in the Nebraska History magagazine. It is now available in its entirety online, so I'm a bit excited. This article was a chapter in my history thesis

This article focuses on what the POWs did for entertainment - they watched movies (all approved, of course), did theater, and even talent shows. Here is the link if you are so interested: (it's the first article on the page)

http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/index.htm

I really, really need to just write an entire book on the POW camp as the curator of the Fort Robinson museum has no plans to do so. However, he has done almost all of the research. Maybe I should get my tush in gear?

 

[Cigarband]

Please write your book. How the US handled the problem of POWs is a sadly neglected chapter of WWII.

 

[Atinkerer]

Hi AmateisGal,

I've heard some stories about the Italian POWs in England that I thought were very funny. Do you know anything about those Italian POWs?

Tony

 

[AmateisGal]

Tony, no, I don't know about the Italian POWs in England, but there were Italian POWs in my Nebraska hometown. My little brother (also a history major in college) at one time did a research paper on them.

My grandfather, the son of Italian immigrants, also used to tell me how they would drive up to town and pick up the Italian POWs and bring them back home to the farm to work.

 

[Italian-wiseguy]

Hi AmateisGal,

I've heard some stories about the Italian POWs in England that I thought were very funny. Do you know anything about those Italian POWs?

Tony

Well, my mother's uncle was captured somewhere in Eastern Africa and sent to England.
Don't know much about what happened to him before, but he ended up working in a farm for some landowning family.
He was treated veryy well; I mean, he was enthusiastic about the treatment.
Actually the daughter of the landowners fell in love with him (I swear) but after the war he chose to come back in Italy where his official fiancée was waiting for him. They got married, but the english family kept sending him letters.
My mother saw those letetrs, and I still have of a photo of those english gentlemen somewhere.

Ciao!!

 

[Treetopflyer]

Great Article!

I grew up in Southern Minnesota and had heard that a German POW camp was built in Hollandale, a small farming town during the war. It is about ten miles from where I grew up. It was something that was known about but not much was ever said about it by the local population, or written for that matter, except in the local school newspaper. The POWs’ were put to work in the onion and potato fields. I often found it strange that a camp was located 150 miles from the nearest military base.

Here is an article from the local paper.

http://www.albertleatribune.com/news/1999/sep/24/when-the-pows-harvested-the-hollandale-crops/

 

[Atinkerer]

I trust your meal was satisfactory, General

Hi,

The guards at English POW camps holding Italian WWII prisoners used to say "If you take an Italian (POW), strip him naked and put him in a totally empty cell, the next morning when you open the door you'll find him wearing a suit, and smoking a cigar". Very likely he'd also offer you some bread and cheese, and pour you a glass of wine to go with it.

From my understanding, these Italian war prisoners were largely poor farmers and artisans who were very resourceful at making the most of what little they had.

Sometimes they'd decide to make cheese for the camp. So they'd spread the word that no one should drink their milk that morning. They'd get all the milk together and then use the sap from stems of certain wild plants growing around the camp as rennin to make the cheese.

They could easily make wine out of just about any fruit they could get. So that's what they did, all the time.

If they had stale bread, or left over oat meal or corn or potato skins, they'd ferment it. Then they'd distill it into grain alcohol. And naturally they used the grain alcohol to make Limoncello or some other cordial.

Then they'd turn around and sell some of the extra stuff they made to the prison guards, or trade it for what they needed. The English guards were more then happy to have fresh cheese to eat or liquor to drink, so they knew when to look the other way at some small infraction (like running a distillery).

If they couldn't make something or trade for it, the Italians would find a substitute.

Barley, when they could get it, was roasted to make coffee. They found tobacco substitutes to fill their pipes and to make cigars from.

You had Italian shoe makers practicing their trade in the camps using old tires for soles. The Italian tailors did what they do best with whatever cloth they could find, from canvas to blankets to bed sheets. Farmers grew the fresh produce. And chefs cooked the meals they remembered from their homeland.

And because of the extreme shortages for everyone in England during the war, and the fact that these Italian prisoners were not interested in escaping back into combat, the guards encouraged them to be as resourceful and productive as they liked. It worked out well for everyone involved.

Tony

 

[Chas]

There were a number of POW camps in Canada - Bowmanville, Ontario being the largest.

If you want to get an idea of how conditions were, I got a pretty good account from a German-Canadian business man here in Vancouver who was an engineer in the U-Boat arm. He spent two years at Bowmanville, and finished his University Degree at the school that was founded at the camp for the prisoners, and begged to be allowed to stay in Canada and apply for citizenship. He wasn't allowed, and was repatriated, married his high school sweetheart, re-applied for Canadian citizenship and came over in '52. He wasn't the only one, either. He said about a dozen or so inmates made the same request.

The POW camps in the prairies allowed day parole for POW's and quite a few of them spent the war working on farms.

Somehow I don't think many allied POW's requested to stay in Germany...

 

[AmateisGal]

There were a number of POW camps in Canada - Bowmanville, Ontario being the largest.

If you want to get an idea of how conditions were, I got a pretty good account from a German-Canadian business man here in Vancouver who was an engineer in the U-Boat arm. He spent two years at Bowmanville, and finished his University Degree at the school that was founded at the camp for the prisoners, and begged to be allowed to stay in Canada and apply for citizenship. He wasn't allowed, and was repatriated, married his high school sweetheart, re-applied for Canadian citizenship and came over in '52. He wasn't the only one, either. He said about a dozen or so inmates made the same request.

The POW camps in the prairies allowed day parole for POW's and quite a few of them spent the war working on farms.

Somehow I don't think many allied POW's requested to stay in Germany...

There were a few German POWs in Nebraska who also were repatriated, then came back to the U.S. where they settled in the area of their former camps. Lived out the rest of their lives here. Definitely says something for how they were treated.

And Chas, you are right - doubt any of our POWs wanted to stay in Germany.

 

[kampkatz]

Good history lesson, AmateisGal.

 

[AmateisGal]

Good history lesson, AmateisGal.

Thanks!