The ANNOTICO Report
15,000 captured German and Italian soldier POWs were held
in Missouri
during the war, scattered across the state in about 30
makeshift camps, the
source of labor and cultural crossovers.
When the flooding Mississippi River threatened the southeastern
Missouri
city of Ste. Genevieve, a sandbagging brigade of enemy
Italian soldiers
helped save the city, which still stands as the oldest
existing town west
of the Mississippi.
After the Italian Prisoners proved to be invaluable to
the war effort, and
no threat, smaller POW camps of closer to 100 prisoners
branched across the
state, with camps of tents springing up informally in
parks and baseball
fields.
Marshall Democrat News
By Matt Heger/Staff Writer
Monday, August 8, 2005
Author David Fiedler speaks about prisoners of war held
in Missouri during
World War II at the luncheon kickoff of the Santa Fe
Trail Days celebration
Friday. About 15,000 captured German and Italian soldiers
were held in
Missouri during the war, where Fiedler said they were
treated well and even
made friends among the U.S. citizens they met.
Missouri seems an unlikely place to find German and Italian
soldiers during
World War II. But, writer David Fiedler said, during
the war over 15,000 of
them were held prisoner within the state, captured overseas
and brought
here for detention.
Scattered across the state in about 30 makeshift camps,
the POWs were a
source of labor, cultural crossovers and controversies.
They were originally housed in a few large camps, with
a few thousand
simply imprisoned. Suggestions to utilize them for labor
were deemed too
risky, with the potential for escaped Axis soldiers running
rampant across
the U.S. countryside.
But when the flooding Mississippi River threatened the
southeastern
Missouri city of Ste. Genevieve, a lack of manpower convinced
Missourians
that the risk was no worse than losing the town entirely.
Fiedler said a
sandbagging brigade of enemy Italian soldiers helped
save the city, which
still stands as the oldest existing town west of the
Mississippi.
Following this, smaller POW camps of closer to 100 prisoners
branched
across the state, with camps of tents springing up informally
in parks and
baseball fields. As they spread, Missourians became more
widely aware of
the level of freedom enjoyed by prisoners, who were being
held in
accordance with Geneva Convention terms, treated by the
same standards as
U.S. soldiers.
Giving the enemy access to tobacco, meat and chocolate,
for example,
angered many civilians. However, it built relations with
the prisoners --
who generally expected harshness, malnutrition and cruelty
from their
captors.
Instead, the POWs were allowed to form camp theater troupes,
bands and used
library resources for prisoner education. In small towns
without much
entertainment, Fiedler said their performances were often
quite welcome.
This atmosphere, along with close working relationships,
fostered close
ties between Americans and POWs. "By and large, people
realized there was a
common humanity that extended both ways," Fiedler said.
After the war, the POWs were returned overseas, but correspondence
between
several of the prisoners and their captors continued.
When immigration was
reopened in their homelands, many returned to the U.S.
seeking a new home
and citizenship.
David Fiedler is the author of "The Enemy Among Us," which
recounts the
story of POWs held in Missouri during the second world
war. His speaking
engagement at the Santa Fe Trail Days kickoff was his
second in Marshall,
previously visiting Missouri Valley College in October
2004.
Contact Matt Heger at
marshallbusiness@socket.net