German POW Camp in Arizona (from WWII)

[arizonawrecks]

This was a POW camp in Arizona from WWII, where officers from the Kriegsmarine picked cotton in the summer

http://arizonawrecks.com/wrecksfrommike ... wcamp.html

[maxum96]

Here in Greeley, CO. there is an old POW camp from WWII. It housed Germans. The only thing left on site are the old stone pillars for the entrance gates. There is a plaque on the markers. The camp is now a farmer's field. But several of the old buildings still survive in the city. They are used as cheap apartments.

[Steve Nelson]

I live in Battle Creek, MI, home of Fort Custer..one of the largest German POW camps. Some four thousand prisoners were housed there from 1943 to '46, and worked on farms around southern Michigan. I've read that many found life as a POW in the States was much better than civilian life in Nazi Germany. Some of the old base is still in use by the National Guard, some was turned into an industrial park, and a lot sold off to the public. The old headquarters building was a TV station until recently, but unfortunately faces probable demolition.

There's a small section of the Fort Custer National Cemetary here where 26 German POWs are buried..16 were killed when a truck bringing a work detail back from a farm on a foggy night was hit by a train, the others died of various natural causes. Every November, they have a ceremony attended by someone from the German consulate coinciding with Germany's "Volkstrauertag" (Day of National Mourning.)

Here's an interesting article from our local paper, posted on a POW/MIA website...

http://www.aiipowmia.com/inter23/in221103germanpw.html

Cheers!

Steve