pow camps in oklahoma

This camp was located at the Stringtown Correctional Facility, four miles north of Stringtown on the west side George G. Lewis and John Mewha, History of Prisoner of War Utilization by the United States Army, 17761945 (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1955). In 1943 the Forty-second Infantry "Rainbow" Division was reactivated at Gruber. Sources used: [written by Richard S. Warner - The Chronicles of Oklahoma, This camp was located one mile north of Braggs on the west side of highway 10 and across the road from Camp Gruber.The first PWs were reported on May 29, 1943. In June 1942, Operation Torch - the invasion of Africa - began and in November of that same year, troops landed Ft. Sill Alien Internment CampThis camp was located northwest of the intersection of Ft. Sill Boulevard and Ringgold Road on the Ft. Sill MilitaryReservation. The first PWs arrived on October On June 3, 1947, Camp Gruber was deactivated and soon became surplus property, with 63,920 acres placedunder the authority of the War Assets Administration (WAA). Hickory PW Camp Thiscamp was located four miles east of Hickory at the Horseshoe Ranch. They picked such things as cotton and spinach and cleared trees and brush from the bed of what was to become Lake Texhoma. It first appeared inthe PMG reports on August 16, 1944, and last appeared on November 16, 1945. Located in the Old First National Bank Building in Madill, this camp opened on April 29, 1943,and closed on April 1, 1944. On November 4, 1943, Kunze gave a note to a new American doctor,who did not understand the German writing or its purpose and returned the note to another German POW to give backto Kunze. Chickasha actually had two separate camps. Desiring to stay in the US after the war, he began passing notes of information on German activitiesto the American doctor when he attended sick call. Waynoka PW CampThiscamp was located one-half mile north of Waynoka in the Santa Fe Railroad yards at the ice plant. camps were at Ft. Sill, McAlester, and Stringtown, but they were not used for that purpose for long and with their The German officers still commanded their soldiers and ran the camps internally - they cooked their own meals, opened on December 1, 1943, closed on December 11, 1945, and was a branch of the Camp Gruber PW Camp. on August 17, 1944, and it last appeared in the PMG reports on November 16, 1945. At each camp, companies of U.S. Army military police patrolled perimeters, manned guard towers, escorted work detachments, and periodically searched barracks. no dates or numbers listed. Two Italian POWs hang out their laundry at Camp Weingarten in June 1943. 26, 2006, Local residents, as well as visitors from both Kansas and Texas, took a step back under the authority of the War Assets Administration (WAA). The first PWs arrived on October11, 1943, but the closing date is unknown. Alien Internment Camps Fort Sill March 1942 to late spring 1943; 700. He said that local Oklahoma chambers After the war was over, the POWs were sent back to Germany, in accordance with the Geneva Convention. Most of the pre-existing buildings that were used There were no PWs confined there. Julia Ervin Some of these farm families were of the Mennonite and Brethren church communities for generations, and many prisoners' lives . In December 1941, the United States entered World War II and President Franklin Roosevelt, along with British Prime the vast majority of POWs confined in Oklahoma. It was a hospital for American servicemen until August 1, 1944, when it became About 300 PWs were confinedthere. Three separate internment camps were built at Ft. Sill. A few concrete ammunition bunkers are the last remnants of the POW camp. The Oklahoma National Guard's Camp Gruber Maneuver Training Center is located 14 miles southeast of Muskogee, Oklahoma, on Oklahoma Route 10 in the Cookson Hills. It's a Small size geocache, with difficulty of 1.5, terrain of 2. . The Brits pushed the German troops out of Prisoners had friendly interaction with local civilians and sometimes were allowed outside the camps without guards on the honor system (Black American guards noted that German prisoners could visit restaurants that they could not because of Jim Crow laws. twentieth century Camp Gruber still served OKARNG as a training base for summer field exercises and for weekend It wasa base camp that housed only officer PWs with a few enlisted men and non-commissioned officers who served as theiraides and maintained the camp. The most important thing about the post-war period was that many of the POWs went back to Germany and became Eventually, there were 1,204 camps and hospitals for wounded enemy combatants on U.S. soil. One PW escaped. The camp had a capacity of 600, They wanted to catch the German Army in the middle, said Corbett. Most of the Japanese prisoners were housed in the state's main POW camp at Camp McCoy - now Fort McCoy - near Tomah. Ultimately, more than 44,868 troops either served at or trainedat the camp, which also employed four thousand civilian workers and incarcerated three thousand German prisonersof war. A Proud Member of the Genealogy The Greenleaf Lodge area is under National Guard authority and is not part of Greenleaf Lake State Park. 1,020, but on May 16, 1945, there were 1,523 PWs confined there. be treated with the same respect in Europe. 2. the United States after that. permanent camps were put under construction or remodeling at Alva, McAlester, Stringtown, They bunked in U.S. Army barracks and hastily constructed camps across the country, especially in the South and Southwest. They established one branch camp south of Powell and the other one off of SH 99 between Madill and Tishomingo, both in Marshall County. The base camps were located Plaque Text: POW marker committee Evelyn Scoles Coyle Rex D. Ackerson Helen Furber Cathey Roy C. Fath Will Rogers (a branch of the Fort Reno camp) May 1945 to March 1946; 225. Camp Perry - Site renovated; once used as a POW camp to house German and Italian prisoners of WWII. Around midnight, someone The first PWs arrived on July 31, 1943, and it was closed on November 15, 1945. The men were foundguilty and sentenced to death. Because many PWs with serious injuries or sicknesses were assigned there, twenty-eightdeaths were reported - twenty-two PWs died from natural cause and six died as the result of battle wounds. Stringtown Alien Internment CampThis camp was located at the Stringtown Correctional Facility, four miles north of Stringtown on the west sideof highway 69. There are still seventy-five PWs or enemy aliens buried in Oklahoma. It first appeared in the PMG reports on November 1,1944, and last appeared on November 16, 1945. of 2,965, but the greatest number of PWs confined there was 1,834 on July 16, 1945. The fences and buildings have been removed, but the For a while, American authorities attempted to exchange the condemned men with Germanyfor Allied soldiers, but ultimately all negotiations failed. The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, Oklahoma Heritage Preservation Grant Program. Corbett explained that around 1937, before the United States even entered the war, the government began to planfor these camps, therefore when the war broke out, these plans were already in place. captured in Europe. Local residents, as well as visitors from both Kansas and Texas, took a step backin time Saturday afternoon while hearing a presentation by Dr. Bill Corbett, professor of history at NortheasternState University in Tahlequah, about the Oklahoma prisoner of war (POW) camps that hosted thousands of German prisonersduring World War II. war -- that they killed Cpl. About 100 PWswere confined there. It opened on October 30, 1943, and closed in the fall of 1945. Some 73 POWs and two enemy aliens, who died in the U.S., are buried in the old Post Cemetery at Fort Reno. fences, a hospital, fire station, quarters for enlisted men and officers, administration buildings, warehouses, Seminole PW CampThiscamp, a work camp from the McAlester PW Camp, was located in the Municipal Building at the northeast corner ofMain and Evans streets in Seminole. The camps were essentially a littletown. , How many acres is Camp Gruber Oklahoma? Caddo to Tonkawa, and each would have its own unique history. In 1985, he said, a group visited the Tonkawa camp site and the local This This camp was located northwest of the intersection of Ft. Sill Boulevard and Ringgold Road on the Ft. Sill Military This It had acapacity of 300, but usually only about 275 PWs were confined there. at the military cemetery at Fort Reno. At first most of the captives came from North Africa following the surrender of the Afrika Korps. A branch of theCamp Gruber PW Camp, it held about 210 PWs. , What was life like for the POWs in the camps? The non-commissioned Germans did not have to work if they chose not to - which most of them didnt because theythought working for the Americans was somehow aiding the war effort. Initially most of the captives came from North Africa followingthe surrender of the Africa Korps. And, am I ever glad I did! other states. McAlester PW CampThis camp, the site of the McAlester Alien Internment Camp, was located in Section 32, north of McAlester and lyingnorth of Electric Street and west of 15th Street. This camp, a branch of the Ft. Reno PW Camp, was located at the Borden General Hospital on the west side of Chickasha.It first appeared in the PMG reports on April 16, 1945, and last appeared on May 1, 1945. Source: Daily Oklahoman Feb. 1, 1945 Page 1 Thiscamp was located at the old CCC Camp north of Wetumka along the south edge of Section 15. Few landmarks remain. (Italian). The first PWs arrived on July 31, 1943, and it was closed on November 15, 1945. the government chose less populated areas to put internment camps because this would help with the initial problem. Eight P.O.W.'s escaped from the camp but all were re-captured. New York. use. A compound consisted of barracks, mess halls, latrines and wash rooms, plus auxiliary buildings. The basic criteriaincluded that they wanted the camps to be in the south and away from any ports. In autumn 1944 In autumn 1944officials obtained use of vacant dormitories built for employees of the Oklahoma Ordnance Works at Pryor. hosed about 100 PWs. a base camp that housed only officer PWs with a few enlisted men and non-commissioned officers who served as their Civilian employees in time Saturday afternoon while hearing a presentation by Dr. Bill Corbett, professor of history at Northeastern Located in the Old First National Bank Building in Madill, this camp opened on April 29, 1943, This includes individual articles (copyright to OHS by author assignment) and corporately (as a complete body of work), including web design, graphics, searching functions, and listing/browsing methods. It opened prior Provost Marshal General, the U.S. Army agency responsible for the POW program. Prisoners were routinely beaten, starved and abused and forced to work in mines and war-related factories in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions. The only word of its existence comes from one interview. He said that the guards heard the commotion, but thought the Germans were just drunk. The men were foundguilty and sentenced to death. According to Jerry Ellis, a selectman in Bourne and a co-director of the Cape Cod Military Museum who has given talks about Cape Cod during the war, many people he comes across have never heard of the POW camp. It opened priorto August 30, 1944, and last appeared in the PMG reports on September 1, 1945. Between twenty and forty PWs were confined there, workingas ranch hands. leaders anticipated World War II, they developed plans for control of more than 100,000 enemy aliens living in camp was located at the old CCC Camp north of Wetumka along the south edge of Section 15. Scattered throughout the two clearings are bits of metal, cable, buckets and old glass bottles. There were two escapes, probably the reason for the closing of the camp. camp was located on old highway 99 north of the Washita River and south of Tishomingo where the airport now stands. A base camp, it had a capacity it held convalescing patients from the Glennan General Hospital PW Camp. It held primarily Reservation. The other died from natural causes. A newspaper account indicates It opened on about November 1, 1943, and last appeared in the PMG reports onJune 1, 1945. the Untied States, all of whom would have to be interned in case of war. It was a branch camp of the Ft. Sill PW Camp and held 276 PWs. Guidelines mandated placing the In a sense, this theory worked because although our troops were not It had a capacity of 4, 800, and no reports of escapes or deaths have been located. , How were the Japanese treated in the internment camps? A newspaper account indicatesthat sixty German PWs were confined there. But Russian camps were among the most brutal, and some of their German POWs didn't return home until 1953. The great credit to this program is how it was implemented and what it did, he said. camp, a branch of the Camp Gruber PW Camp, was located in the National Guard Armory on the northwest corner of Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Most POWs who died in Oklahoma were buried at the military cemetery at Fort Reno. acres. Data needed. The dates of its existence are Service History Note: The veteran is a Bataan Death March survivor and was a prisoner of war (POW) at Camp O'Donnell and camps in Cabanatuan, Philippines. The first PWs arrived on October11, 1943, but the closing date is unknown. However, camp school houses were crowded, with a student-teacher ratio of up to 48:1 in elementary schools and 35:1 for secondary schools. In November 1943, a disturbance among the prisoners resulted in the death of a German soldier. One was located on the south side of Highway 62 at the fairgrounds. The program, of course, did not function without hitches, said Corbett. in Alva, Fort Reno, Fort Sill, the Madill Provisional Internment Camp headquarters, McAlester and Camp Gruber. History Alive! that moved across Oklahoma and appeared at several locations. By May 1943 prisoners of war began arriving. This camp was located one mile north of Braggs on the west side of highway 10 and across the road from Camp Gruber. This camp, the site of the McAlester Alien Internment Camp, was located in Section 32, north of McAlester and lyingnorth of Electric Street and west of 15th Street. After the war was over, the POWs were sent back to Germany, in accordance with the Geneva Convention. Konawa (a work camp from the McAlester camp) October 1943 to the fall of 1945; 80. The Geneva Convention of 1929, the international agreement prescribing treatmentof prisoners of war, permitted use of POWs as laborers. One PW escaped. The five non-commissioned officers, the magazine says, "proudly camp, located northwest of the intersection of North Oak and East Redwood streets on the north side of Sallisaw, side of Tonkawa. for the treatment of Only PWs, it specialized in amputations, neurosurgery, chest surgery, plastic surgery, and Seven posts housed enlisted men, and officers lived in quarters at Pryor. There were two escapes, probably the reason for the closing of the camp. Tipton PW CampThiscamp was located north of the railroad tracks between 2nd and 3rd streets on the southeast side of Tipton on afour acre tract that had been a Gulf Oil Company camp. Corps of Engineers. The items included a curriculum for courses taught at the camps in Kansas, oral histories of prisoners and community members, and a book providing a comprehensive overview of the POW camps in Kansas at the end of World War II. Reports seem Infantry "Blue Devil" Division trained at Camp Gruber. Oklahoma had 8 Prisoner of War camps during World War II, but it was at Camp Tonkawa in the north-central tip of the Sooner state that one of the more notorious POW incidents took place. Sallisaw (probably a mobile camp from Camp Chaffee, Ark.) It hada capacity of about 6,000, but never held more than 4,850. Then in 1940, the Italian troops in Libya invaded Egypt,wanting to take control of the Suez Canal the British Army in Egypt repulsed the Italian attack and soon after,Hitler sent German troops to help out the Italians.. OKH.5.9 Summarize and analyze the impact of mobilization for World War II including the establishment of military bases, prisoner of war installations, and the contributions of Oklahomans to the war effort including the American Indian code talkers and the 45th Infantry Division. Eufaula date and number of prisoners unknown. Originally a work camp from the McAlester PW Camp, and closed on April 1, 1944. The POW camps were all constructed with the same lay-out and design. Photo by Buel White of the Post-Dispatch. Originally a work camp from the McAlester PW Camp,it later became a branch of the Camp Gruber PW Camp. , Did American soldiers shoot German prisoners? camps all across the nation. received an extra $1.80 per day for their work. Reports NAME: Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. GARVIN PAULS VALLEY -- This was a mobile work camp from Camp Chaffee, AR POW camp, and was located at N. Chickasha St. north of the Community Building. There may have been PWs in "They were using a temporary building style." The POW camp had a capacity of about. Haskell, Stilwell, Sallisaw, and Eufaula. Hospital PW Camp. The U.S. Army built six major base camps and two dozen branch camps in Oklahoma. Reports of three escapes andone death have been located. (Photo taken by NW Okie, October, 1999. Prisoner of War Camps Alva July 1943 to November 1945; 4,850. It had a capacity of 600 and was usually kept full. Authorities announced that the remains of a Durant native who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II have been identified.Get the latest news stories of interest by clicking here.A news release says U.S. Army Air Forces Cpl. Clothed in surplus military fatigues conspicuouslystenciled with "PW," German soldiers picked row crops and cotton, harvested wheat and broom corn, mannedthe Santa Fe Railroad's ice plant at Waynoka, cut underbrush and timber in the basin of Lake Texoma, served ashospital orderlies, and worked on ranches. At Tonkawa the sixty-foot-high concrete supports for the camp's water tank still stand,and at Camp Gruber concrete and stone sculptures made by POWs are displayed. Thiscamp, located northwest of the intersection of North Oak and East Redwood streets on the north side of Sallisaw,did not appear in the PMG reports. the camps and work for internments. , What did the Japanese do to American prisoners of war? September 1, 1944. Eight base camps emerged at various locations and were used for the duration of the war. This camp was located at the old fairgrounds east of Okmulgee Avenue and north of Belmont Street on the north sideof Okmulgee. for these camps, therefore when the war broke out, these plans were already in place. Copy in Lewis, Prisoner of War Utilization, pp. These Reviews: 89% of readers found this page helpful, Address: 850 Benjamin Bridge, Dickinsonchester, CO 68572-0542, Hobby: Table tennis, Soapmaking, Flower arranging, amateur radio, Rock climbing, scrapbook, Horseback riding. State University in Tahlequah, about the Oklahoma prisoner of war (POW) camps that hosted thousands of German prisoners Oklahoma Genealogy Trails A Proud Member of the GenealogyTrails History Group, Prisioner of War Camps in OklahomaArticle from the "Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture". In the later months of its operation,it held convalescing patients from the Glennan General Hospital PW Camp. In addition, leaders in communitiesacross the state actively recruited federal war facilities to bolster their towns' economies. The five men were hung at Fort Leavenworth Military Borden General Hospital PW CampThis camp, a branch of the Ft. Reno PW Camp, was located at the Borden General Hospital on the west side of Chickasha.It first appeared in the PMG reports on April 16, 1945, and last appeared on May 1, 1945. And so began four years of captivity for Charlie, through a series of POW camps in Africa; then to Camp Chaffee, Arkansas; on to Alva, Oklahoma, with a short side trip to Okmulgee; on to Fort Polk . During the 1950s and 1960s most of CampGruber's original buildings and facilities were removed or destroyed. American personnel guarding the compounds lived in similar quarters, but outside the fences. The POW camps at Fort Sill, McAlester and Stringtown had been set up. military. in the Community Building in the center of Porter, this camp first appeared in the PMG reports on September 16, and sometimes an officers' club as well as a theater completed the camp. bed of Lake Texoma which was just being completed. The Greenleaf Lodge area is under National Guard authority and is not part of Greenleaf Lake State Park. The train that pulled into the railway station at Madill, Oklahoma, on April 29, 1943, It had a capacity of 3,000, but at one timethere were 3,280 PWs confined there. Sallisaw PW CampThiscamp, located northwest of the intersection of North Oak and East Redwood streets on the north side of Sallisaw,did not appear in the PMG reports. Throughout the war German soldiers comprised the vast majority of POWs confined in Oklahoma. The non-commissioned Germans did not have to work if they chose not to - which most of them didnt because they The five were apprehended, tried by an American court-martial at Camp Gruber, and found quilty of murdering Corp. Johann Kunze at Camp Tonkawa on Nov. 4, 1943. Seven posts housed enlisted men, and officers lived in quarters at Pryor. They were caught at The Pines cabins outside of Seney Michigan and gave themselves up without a struggle. The 160-acre site contained more than 180 wooden structures for 3,000 German P.O.W.s, as well as 500 U.S. Army guard troops, service personnel and civilian employees. The War Relocation Authority provided education through high school for all school-age residents. Gefreiter (Lance Corporal), German Army. America's first POW in World War Two wasn't German, but Japanese. "The Army at that time was building lots of military bases and POW camps across the nation," Kolise said. The other POWs were able to go outside ofthe camps and work for internments. It had acapacity of 300, but usually only about 275 PWs were confined there. Tishomingo PW CampThiscamp was located on old highway 99 north of the Washita River and south of Tishomingo where the airport now stands.it opened on April 29, 1943, and closed on June 13, 1944. At the peak of operation as many as twenty thousand German POWs occupied camps in Oklahoma. Most lived in small camps of about 300 men and cut pulpwood or worked on farms. POWs received the same rations as U.S. troops, and the enlisted men's quarters inside and outside the compounds varied little in quality. 9066. It opened on October 20, 1944, and last appeared in the The present camp coverseighty-seven square miles. Charles W. Eeds was a member of the 48th Materiel Squadron in the Philippines when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December 1941. Camp. It last appeared in the PMG reports on May 1, 1946, the last PW camp Located that it was used to house trouble-makers from the camp at Ft. Sill. aides and maintained the camp. The POW camps were all constructed with the same lay-out and design. None of the alien internment camps and PW camps in Oklahoma still exist, and the sitesof most of them would not give any hints of their wartime use. Thiscamp, a branch of the Camp Gruber PW Camp, was located in the National Guard Armory on the northwest corner of6th and West Columbia streets on the north side of Okemah. Between twenty and forty PWs were confined there, working Camp Huntsville was the first to be set up in Texas. murder. Five Nazis Sentenced to Death For Killing Companion in State The guards arrested the five men that had the most blood on them, according to Corbett, and the prisoners At one point in World War II approximately 22,000 German and Italian troops, the equivalent of one and a half infantry divisions, were held as prisoners of war in Oklahoma. Jan 31-(AP)-Newsweek magazine says in its Feb. 5 issue that five German prisoners of war have been sentencedto death by court-martial for killing a fellow prisoner at Camp Tonkawa, Okla., Nov. 5, 1943, and are awaiting"their doom in a federal penitentiary." The prisoners were paid both by the government at the end of their imprisonment and also Eight PWs escaped from this camp, and four men died and are now buriedin the National Cemetery at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas. No Japanese prisoners were brought here, despite the fact that some buildings in the POW camps were called Japanese barracks. Thirteen PWs were confined there, and one man escaped. Outside the compoundfences, a hospital, fire station, quarters for enlisted men and officers, administration buildings, warehouses,and sometimes an officers' club as well as a theater completed the camp. The cantonment area covers 620 acres, and ranges occupy 460 acres. state had been one of the hardest hit states during the depression. Units of the Eighty-eighthInfantry "Blue Devil" Division trained at Camp Gruber. This camp was located at the fairgrounds on the south side of highway 62 east of Chickasha. Bixby PW Camp Thiscamp was located west of South Mingo Road at 136th Street and north of the Arkansas River from Bixby. The first two rules state '1. In the later months of its operation,it held convalescing patients from the Glennan General Hospital PW Camp. camp was locatd in the National Guard Armory on the southwest corner of Creek and Spruce streets in Haskell. 1944, and last appeared on November 16, 1945. Thirteen PWs were confined there, and one man escaped.