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Historian to discuss carrying WWII prisoners by train
Also unremarked is the humane treatment given to German POW’s in the USA. While there may not have been enough sauerkraut, the food and healthcare we provided were the same as to our own soldiers. Think of how we have changed. Also, POW’s traveling on the UP, once seeing Big Boys, knew their war effort paled by comparison. Many of them stayed here as a result.
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another book to read… is “Guests Behind The Barbed Wire” by Ruth Beaumont Cook. A really interesting account of the German POW’s at Aliceville Alabama.
Canada and USA treated their POW responsibilities very well. Same can’t be said for ours in Asia.
An interesting topic. Wonder if he’s published an article on this topic. Would be super if his talk was video’ed and placed on youtube.
From what little I’ve read, the German POWs were amazed at the relative peace and tranquility of America (as compared to Europe) and the abundance of food (again, as compared to Europe). Plus, they were used to traveling as soldiers in box-cars (the infamous 40&8s), and here the US was transporting them in passenger coaches.
My late friend and TCA charter member John Marron of Harrison, NY told me that he was a guard on a prison train that carried German p.o.w.s on a train that was headed west though
Wyoming. John spoke and understood German since his mother’s family was from Germany and she spoke it with family members. John said that upon arriving in Cheyenne he heard the p.o.w.s saying as they saw the Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 and 4-6-6-4s, how can we win the war when the American’s have such big locomotives like those.
It is my understanding that there was one unanticipated problem that the German WWII prisoners suffered from (perhaps from having prisoners serve in kitchen duty), to wit: In Germany raw pork may be consumed and its production is strictly monitored to ensure that no trichina worms are present in the raw meat. In the US no such vetting occurs and some German prisoners unwittingly became infected with trichinosis via consuming raw pork. Not a pleasant outcome with worms burrowing thru your muscles.
I can remember in WWII German prisoners being transported thru my home town of Waller Tx Dad was agent there we would notice them when their train took siding as I remember they were not too closely guarded believe they were going to Ft Hood area
Railman
For all of us who are too far away to attend this event, it would certainly appear to be a great idea to record this presentation and to make it available to order either on DVD or as a streaming video. Could be a fund raiser for the NRHS.
A fellow teacher who worked with my father was a German POW during WWII. He once told me about being taken on a
train, probably similar to ones being described. He told me they went thru Pittsburgh late at night, and how he was amazed by what he saw of all the industries, especially the steel mills.
Hitler had led them to believe that all American industries were failing and that the US was losing the war.
A fellow teacher who worked with my father was a German POW during WWII. He once told me about being taken on a
train, probably similar to ones being described. He told me they went thru Pittsburgh late at night, and how he was amazed by what he saw of all the industries, especially the steel mills.
Hitler had led them to believe that all American industries were failing and that the US was losing the war.
An article, a YouTube video, a DVD, or just anything to document this keynote address would be appreciated.
An article, a YouTube video, a DVD, or just anything to document this keynote address would be appreciated.
Camp Perry, Ohio (40 miles east of Toledo) was in WW II a POW camp for German and Italian prisoners. A two mile spur ran north off the west bound track of the NYC at La Carne to Camp Perry and the adjacent Army Erie Ordnance Depot. The prisoners were unloaded in a large enclosed building which had a high platform and showers in the reception area. Today, the building is #2500 and used for storage and as a sales room by the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP). Prior to a recent remodeling, the rails were still visible in the building alongside the platform. The rails have since been paved over and the rails from the building to the spur have been removed. In 1962, I saw soldiers unloading box cars of potatoes at the camp warehouse. The warehouse is still there but the rails and ties are gone. Last August it appeared that the spur from the now NS line has not been used for some time because the rails show no use and there was debris on the rails and ties.
To confirm AUSTIN F LARSON from WISCONSIN, thirty years ago in NE Ohio I knew (since passed away) a former German Fallschirmjäger POW. He was captured by the British at Normandy in August 1944 and sent to the US. He said that after The War he went home to Hamburg where he no longer had any family, home or job. Better off as a POW at Camp Atterbury, Indiana than as a freeman in Germany, he joined the US Army, served five years and was granted US Citizenship. He immigrated to the US, married a US wife and had two sons and created his own house painting business.
You might wish to read the non-fiction book, “The One That Got
Away,” about a 1940 Nazi prisoner who jumped off a Canadian train, walked across the frozen St.Lawrence River and eventually got back to Germany. One of my favorite WW II books.
You might wish to read the non-fiction book, “The One That Got
Away,” about a 1940 Nazi prisoner who jumped off a Canadian train, walked across the frozen St.Lawrence River and eventually got back to Germany. One of my favorite WW II books.
And to state the obvious, it’s hardly surprising no book has been written about the transport of POW’s in the US because almost all the attention on prisoner transport during WW2 has been on the transport of Jews, gypsies and others to the death camps on NAZI controlled railways.