Tuesday, March 28, 2006
12. Camp Albuquerque, 1943-1946
Right HERE in Albuquerque, New Mexico!
First Italian, and then German, POWs were housed in Camp Albuquerque, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. From this branch camp, they did mostly farm labor, from 1943 to 1946. Most of these POWs were transferred from Camp Roswell, which was a base or main POW camp for New Mexico. Camp Lordsburg, New Mexico, and Camp El Paso, Texas, were also base camps.
From all these base camps POW laborers were sent out to branch camps closer to their actual work sites. These main and branch camps were part of a huge POW camp system spread across much of the United States. At its World War II peak, almost 426,000 German (371,683), Italian (50,273), and Japanese (3,915) POWs were held in the United States. What began as a trickle with 1,881 POWs in the United States at the end of 1942, shot up to 172,879 by the end of 1943, and peaked at 425,871 on V-E Day.
From October 1943 Italian POWs were housed in Rio Grande Park in former in former Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) barracks that had been built in the 1930s. The site was located north of the present dayRio Grande Zoo, founded in 1927. The Italian POWs all left six months later and as suddenly and inexplicably as they had arrived.
Shifting prisoner populations and sudden transfers were the norm. This was done to weed out pro-Nazi troublemakers, and to help break up escape attempts and their all important tunnel digging teams. In general, it kept the prisoners off balance. Still, three Germans did escape from Camp Albuquerque, but two were soon recaptured.
From 25 July 1944 until March 1946 German POWs, most of them captured in the North Africa campaigns, were housed in these same barracks buildings. The barracks had been hastily moved to South 2nd Street and onto eight acres at the north end of the Schwartman property, and made ready for their arrival. Nervous Albuquerque citizens wanted them housed outside of the then city limits.
At peak occupancy, sometime in 1945, there were 171 German POWs in branch Camp Albuquerque. They worked on the various farms from Los Lunas to Corrales, helping in particular with the harvest in the Fall. Presumably they also helped with the planting in the Spring.
Bibliography, and Further Reading:
Billinger, Robert D. Hitler's Soldiers in the Sunshine State: German POWs in Florida. 2000.
Cowley, Betty. Stalag Wisconsin: Inside WWII Prisoner of War Camps. 2002.
Fiedler, David Winston. The Enemy Among Us: POWs in Missouri During World War II. 2003
Gaertner, Georg. Hitler's Last Soldier in America. 1985.
Kiefer, Louis E. Italian Prisoners of War in America, 1942-1946: Captives or Allies? 1992.
Koop, Allen V. Stark Decency: German Prisoners of War in a New England Village. 1988.
Krammer, Arnold. Nazi Prisoners of War in America. 1996.
Lewis, George C. and John Mewha. History of Prisoner of War Utilization by the United States Army, 1776-1945. 1955.
Moore, John Hammond. The Faustball Tunnel: German POWs in America and Their Great Escape. 1978.
Spidle, Jake W., Jr. "Axis Invasion of the American West: POWs in New Mexico, 1942-1946". New Mexico Historical Review (April 1974).
Waters, Michael R. Lone Star Stalag: German Prisoners of War at Camp Hearne. 2004.
