re: Did you know German & Italian WW2 POWs were imprisoned in the US?

My grandfather was a doctor at the time and treated some Germans in Louisiana.

It tracks.

Japanese immigrants were put into camps during the war.

Our hands weren't clean, either

Yes, some Germans were held at an area near where I live now and built some walls and other small structures at a nearby park.

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Japanese immigrants were put into camps during the war.

Our hands weren't clean, either

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Are you trying to say that the internment camps we put people of Japanese heritage in were comparable to the POW camps the Japanese ran for US soldiers and captured civilians?

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You can go out in the woods between Tioga and Pollock and find evidence they left behind, to this day.

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Camp Livingston

My biggest miss of an Item... It was an Arika Korps m43 cap... On the inside, the guy had written all the places he had worn it in. It said, Tripoli, Benghazi, NY, Roswell NM.. The seller wanted too much for it and now I regret not getting it.

Yes.. POW's all over the USA. One of the reason was housing and food shortages at the time in England. Especially when the Afrika Korps started surrendering in May of 1943.. The Air war was getting started and Allied forces were just starting to be built up in England. But food was really scare for the British people, so the decision to ship them to the USA made perfect sense.

Of course one of the first thing they were hired to do was farm labor... They were operated by the Provost Marshall's office and the pay to them was $0.80 per day.

Also housing POW"s in the South reduced the need for cold weather clothing, and housing for them. Regular troops were separated from more Political Nazi's troops and they were housed in different locations.

In El Reno Oklahoma was Fort Reno. It was first used as an outpost against indian's in the early days of pioneer settlements. In WWII it was used as a POW camp, and also a remount station for Breeding Army Mules. The Prisoners helped train animals if they weren't helping the farmers.

Here is the camp.




The German's and Italians also built this Chapel at Fort Reno.




Something of interests is that if a POW died, they had to be buried. But they didn't want to bury the enemy with US soldiers under the US Flag, so they built a wall and buried them separate and not under the US flag. As this photo shows..




Here are just a couple of the graves..




This is all that I own of WWII Fort Reno




Now... In southern Oklahoma along the Red River was a small camp in Powell Oklahoma, that housed about 500 prisoners. Lake Texoma was being built at the time and it started filling in 1944. Pows were assigned to cut lumber. The biggest complaint that the Germans had about Oklahoma were the miserable summers.

In Powell Oklahoma after the camp was disbanded, the army removed everything but left the water well and the building foundations because they were made of concrete. Years later the old farmer pushed the foundations to the road and left them in a ditch so he could farm his land again.

Not knowing that 8o years later some old guy with a fascination about WWII would come along and be thankful for an old piece of concrete. But it was a gift from God to me.




Now very quickly I want to show a piece that I own... a copy of Yank Magazine April 1944.





Why is this important to the POW story... Well. here is the story.

It contains the letter of Rupert Trimmingham

In April 1944 Trimmingham and eight fellow black soldiers were traveling by train from Camp Claiborne in central Louisiana to the military hospital at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, when the train made a one-day layover in a small Louisiana town. Trimmingham wrote a letter recounting what happened that was published in the 28 April 1944 edition of Yank Magazine:[2]

Trimmingham's first letter to Yank
April 28, 1944

Dear Yank,

Here is a question that each Negro soldier is asking. What is the Negro soldier fighting for? On whose team are we playing? Myself and eight other soldiers were on our way from Camp Claiborne, La., to the hospital here at Fort Huachuca. We had to lay over until the next day for our train. On the next day we could not purchase a cup of coffee at any of the lunchrooms around there. As you know, Old Man Jim Crow rules. The only place where we could be served was at the lunchroom at the railroad station but, of course we had to go into the kitchen. But that's not all; 11:30 a.m. about a two dozen German prisoners of war, with two American guards, came into the station. They entered the lunchroom, sat at the tables, had their meals served, talked, smoked, in fact had quite a swell time. I stood on the outside looking on, and I could not help but ask myself these questions: Are these men sworn enemies of this country? Are they not taught to hate and destroy all democratic governments? Are we not American soldiers, sworn to fight for and die if need be for this country? Then why are they treated better than we are? Why are we pushed around like cattle? If we are fighting for the same thing, if we are to die for our country, then why does the Government allow such things to go on? Some of the boys are saying that you will not print this letter. I'm saying that you will.

Cpl. Rupert Trimmingham

Fort Huachuca, Ariz.


That's all I got for tonight baws.

WWIIC

Yup. The Imaharas were interned.

Yes. I went to school in some portable classrooms that were once their barracks. Farmers could even rent them to work the fields.

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Wow. And I thought Des Allemands were all cajuns.

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Cajun has very little to do with being and more to do with being a descendent of the Acadians that came here from Nova Scotia

French folks that came to La from France are not Cajun


Germans Italians and other nationalities came to with Acadians/cajuns

I wasn't aware of this history, either, until I visited Camp Shelby outside of Hattiesburg, MS.