| Nazi German Prisoners of War, still wearing their Afrika Korps uniforms, board a New York Central train in Boston’s North Station. Note armed guard atop the train. By the end of the war, the United States found itself holding more than 425,036 Axis captives who flooded America — 378,156 Germans, 41,456 Italians, and 5,424 Japanese. When considering places to construct Prisoner of War camps, Washington looked to the South. 1st, there was lots of available land in the southern United States, more than could be found in the crowded North. 2nd, Texas, in particular, was located far from the critical war industries on the East and West Coasts. Also, the mild climate assured minimal construction and operation costs. Eager Texas businessmen and farmers lobbied vigorously for camps in their labor-starved state, with the idea of using the incoming prisoners to fill the huge gap left by the military’s needs. Finally, there was the precedent of the Geneva Accords of 1929. Created after World War I, the Geneva Accords established the rules of war, and contained guidelines on matters ranging from the prohibition of explosive or dum-dum bullets to the care of prisoners of war. Of interest to the War Department were the passages that guaranteed prisoners’ treatment equal to the conditions of the army in charge, and the recommendation by the Geneva Accords that prisoners be taken to a climate similar to that in which they had been captured. Since the climate most similar to that of Tunisia, where the Afrika Korps surrendered in early 1943, was the American South and, in particular, the state of Texas (although dozens of camps sprang up in Louisiana, New Mexico, and surrounding states), construction began in the Lone Star State. Nearly all 6 permanent camps [Camp Huntsville, Camp McLean, Camp Mexia, Camp Brady, Camp Hereford, and Camp Hearne] were finished and ready for occupancy by January 1943. Each was expected to hold about 3,000 men, with the possibility of expanding the number up to 4,500. Admirable as this early planning and construction was, it quickly became evident that 6 permanent camps, holding between 3,000 and 4,000 POWs would not account for even a quarter of the incoming prisoners. The War Department decided to authorize a 2nd type of POW camp on sections of existing Army bases. The advantages were many: these POW sections could be easily guarded since sentry towers and fences were already in place; the prisoners could be used to help maintain the bases, thus freeing numerous American soldiers for shipment overseas; and nearby communities would be calmed to know that the thousands of possibly hostile enemy captives were surrounded by many more thousands of armed American soldiers. 4 military bases in Texas were enlarged to receive POWs in 1942—Camp Swift (Bastrop), Camp Bowie (Brownwood), Camp Fannin (Tyler), and Camp Maxey (Paris), with the largest having the whopping capacity of nearly 9,000 men. 3 more camps were authorized in 1943: Fort Sam Houston (San Antonio), which was little more than a tent-city with 170 6-man tents for both POWs and their American guards; Camp Howze (Gainesville); and Camp Hood North (Killeen). With the expected invasion of France in 1944 and the prospect of many thousands of new prisoners, 7 more POW camps were built on military bases in 1944, at Camp Wolters (Mineral Wells), Camp Wallace (Hitchcock), Camp D. A. Russell (Marfa), Fort Bliss (El Paso), Camp Crockett (Galveston), Camp Barkeley (Abilene), and tiny Camp Hulen (Palacios), which could hold only 250 POWs. In 1945, German POWs were farmed out to work in Harmon General Hospital in Longview, Ashburn General Hospital in McKinney, Camp Cushing in San Antonio, Biggs Air Field in El Paso, Ellington Air Field in Houston, and in work camps in Lubbock, Childress, Amarillo, Dumas, Big Spring, Pyote, Alto, and Dalhart. Even after the war was over, in August 1945, 1 last camp was created at the Flour Bluff Army Air Field in Corpus Christi. Together, the 15 camps could hold an impressive 34,000 enemy prisoners, but there was still not enough space for the arriving thousands. The problem of overcrowding was solved by creating satellite camps attached to the major camps, which served the additional purpose of bringing the POWs closer to the agricultural worksites where they were most needed. There were more than 30 satellite camps in Texas. Most were located in the coastal rice-producing area in an arc reaching from Orange County to Matagorda County, and in East Texas. Branch camps sprouted up in Kaufman, Princeton, Navasota, Alto, Chireno, Humble, Denison, Milam, Kirbyville, Liberty, Orange, Anahuac, Alvin, Rosenberg, Angleton, Forney, Wharton, El Campo, Ganado, Eagle Lake, Bannister, Patroon, Kenedy, Mont Belvieu, Center, China, Lufkin, Bay City, and Garwood. Even remote El Paso County hosted 4 agricultural branch camps at Ysleta, Fabens, Canutillo, and El Paso. Texans didn’t have to wait long. The Afrika Korps surrendered in April 1943, and the 1st Prisoners of War from North Africa arrived aboard Liberty ships the following month. The prisoners were unloaded at Camp Shanks, New York, and transported on heavily guarded trains southwest across the country to their new homes. When they arrived at their camps, entire towns turned out to watch. For example, on June 4, 1943, the anxious residents of Mexia, Texas, lined Railroad Street to stare open-mouthed at the 1,850 Afrika Korps veterans as they jumped down from railroad cars and marched in orderly rows to the camp 4 miles west of town. Young men had become a rare sight since the war began, and suddenly here were several 1,000 tanned, healthy enemy soldiers marching in defiant cadence down the main street of town. Moreover, they weren’t even all Germans. The incoming prisoners contained Frenchmen, who had been pressed into the German Army, and a platoon of Arabs from the North African campaign. Among the rest were 300 naval officers, almost 1,000 German Army officers, an admiral, and 4 generals. Of the 2,222 Nazi German Prisoners of War who attempted escape, Georg Gärtner (December 18, 1920 – January 30, 2013) was the only 1 to have eluded capture. At the end of the war, Gärtner was terrified at the thought of being repatriated to his hometown, which at the time became a part of communist Poland, and decided to escape. Several weeks after the war’s end, he escaped from his prison camp in Deming, New Mexico, on September 22, 1945. After crawling under 2 gates, he jumped aboard a passing freight train whose schedule he had calculated. The train took him to California. He was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List for 40 years. He finally exposed himself when his wife Jean retired, and needed his birth certificate. Unable to charge him with a crime, he was granted United States citizenship in 2009. Date estimated. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0500.jpg |
| Image Size | 664.41 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2937 x 2279 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 1, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Boston |
| State or Province | Massachusetts |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NLR-PHOCO-A-6654(5) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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