After listening to Chad W. Timm, I thought he was a very interesting and educational speaker. He kept you interested and made you want to listen. A few of the highlights he mentioned were:
-humanity prevailing
Why Iowa?
-Midwestern location
-would make an escape difficult
-Iowa farmers needed laborers
Camp Algona and Clarinda
started up the camps: November 1943- January 1944
camp-186 building and housed 3,000 soldiers.
Algona and Clarinda's population doubled.
They picked Iowa because "where you gonna go?"
Life in the camps
-recreation
-canteen- enemy soldiers could work for you.
-escapes
-German soldiers got paid .10 a day while other soldiers got paid .80 a day.
POW Labor
-no local civilian labor could be available.
-farmers had to organize to apply for at least 10 prisoners.
-had to be seen by a guard every hour.
-had to pay .60 to the government every hour.
Branch camps
-1944-1945
-Camp Algona administered 34 branch camps in 4 states: Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Iowa.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Not every german soldier was happy. Most german soldiers fought because they were forced to. Most of the POWs were treated well, happy, and hard working.
Japanese
In late January, 1945, te German POWs were replaced by Japanese POWs. Japan did not comply with Geneva Convention. More than 10,000 American POWs had been killed in Japanese camps. If the Japanese did not work, they were stripped and stood in the snow until they finally gave in and said they would work.
Camp Closure
-German POW statement from Algona
-camps closed and soldiers repatriated by 1946.
-Nazi prisoners escaped.
-Once the camps closed, Algona did not preserve them and the camps eventually diminished.
Geneva Convention required all the German soldiers to go back home. Some families became very close with the Germans.....when they left, the families cried. The story of these camps in Iowa were stories of success!!
Comments