The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

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November 12, 2009

Oklahoma prisoner of war camp subject of brown bag lecture

By Joe Malan, Staff Writer

In 1945, there were more than 370,000 German prisoners-of-war in the United States as a result of World War II.

Of those 370,000, approximately 20,000 were brought to 32 camps in Oklahoma.

Tim Zwink, deputy executive director of Oklahoma Historical Society, presented these facts and more in a war-themed brown bag lecture Thursday at the church in Humphrey Heritage Village.

Andi Holland, president of Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, said the theme of this month’s lecture was purposely tied in with Veterans Day. There is a lecture every month and each has a different theme.

One of the closest POW camps to Enid was one in Alva, which Zwink highlighted in his talk. Zwink was formerly a professor of history and vice president of academic affairs at Northwestern Oklahoma State University.

The camp in Alva held 4,850 POWs from July 1943 to November 1945.

The German POWs, who were brought in from areas of Europe and North Africa, were instructed to sow and harvest crops and work in the health care industry.

They may have contributed to 1940s society, but some Alva residents weren’t too appreciative of the help.

“Some of (the people) thought these German prisoners were treated too well,” Zwink said.

One of the reasons many people disliked the German POWs may have been because they received similar rations as U.S. soldiers. Non-officers got paid 80 cents per day, while lieutenants received a salary of $20 a month and generals got $40 a month.

Most of that salary went toward purchasing food and supplies, but Army police had to keep a close eye on what they were buying.

Sometimes, Zwink said, police would have to investigate barracks for hidden liquor stills.

The POW camps around Oklahoma also saw their share of escapees. Eighty German POWs escaped from camps during the two-year period, and all eventually were apprehended.

The Alva camp saw its share of those problems. Zwink told a story of how two Germans managed to escape the Alva camp sometime between 1943 and 1945. The escapees apparently made it out of Oklahoma and as far as Wichita, Kan., where they ran out of fuel.

They were recaptured after asking for “petrol” — rather than gasoline.

Repatriation of German POWs began in 1945, and all had left Oklahoma by May 1946. Barracks were auctioned off and moved or torn down, and the land was put up for private or public use.

The camp area, which lies between the current Woods County Fairgrounds and Alva Municipal Airport, is public property and Zwink says he’s heard of some people going out there with metal detectors and looking for war relics.

Ultimately, the camp in Alva had an impact on the community, Zwink said. The German POWs added to the working populace, and the size of the town basically doubled.

“(The camp) definitely had an economic impact,” he said.

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