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Thumb of Michigan | I have had a few people tell me stories of German POW's working in my home county. They were housed at the County Fairgrounds, and there were also buildings scattered around the county that were said to be built to house POW's as well. Labor for Sugar Beets was very lacking, so many farm kids were overseas fighting. One farmer told me some stories about the POW's working on his Dads farm when he was young. There are quite a few people in the area with families that emigrated from Germany a generation or 2 before, and many still were able to speak German. His Dad was fluent in German. He and others characterized the POW's as very happy to be here, very happy with the living conditions, and some were pretty adamnant that they would rather not return to Germany. Kind of sounded like the only real issue they had wth prisoners escaping so they didn't get returned to Germany. Anyway, there were quite a few POW's that had grown up on farms, and they were valued laborers.
I spend time in the Upper Peninsula in Rapid River. There were many CCC camps in the area that housed German POW's. They needed loggers, same story as everywhere- the young American men were off to war. Local guy bought a couple of the old camps and moved them into Rapid River a few years ago. Joined a couple of the buildings together to create a store. He had some very interesting items he found hidden in the buildings from the days of them housing POW's. Carvings, letters, etc.
https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2019/03/03/michigan... | |
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Life Magazine Nov 29 1943 German Troops trying escape
