Combat operations during World War II occurred far away from the United States, mostly on distant Pacific isles or in European villages. However, a piece of World War II history did happen right here in East Texas. The United States held nearly half a million Axis prisoners of war (POWs) in 650 camps throughout the country. Texas housed roughly 50,000 of these POWs in 70 camps throughout the state.
Camp Huntsville served as one the first and largest POW camps in Texas. Completed in 1942, the camp opened the following April, when German prisoners captured in North Africa arrived In East Texas. By the end of 1943, Camp Huntsville housed roughly 4,800 prisoners, most from Germany's famed Afrika Korps. American military personnel at Camp Huntsville offered fair and humane treatment of prisoners who received ample food, fair working conditions, and a wide array of recreational activities.
Although German prisoners were captured while fighting for the Third Reich, not all the prisoners supported the Nazi government or its war aims. In fact, there were harsh disagreements between the Nazi and anti-Nazi elements at Camp Huntsville. In November 1943, these tensions exploded in a riot at the camp that sparked national news coverage and contributed to a call for reform at POW sites around the country.
As a result of tensions between Nazis and anti-Nazis, American officials created a program designed to re-educate POWs in American democratic traditions and history. Many Germans at Camp Huntsville listened to lectures, watched movies, and read materials that celebrated the virtues of the U.S. Constitution and American Bill of Rights. The Geneva Conventions banned political indoctrination, however, so the United States packaged the re-education program as voluntary “intellectual diversion.”
In 1944, as part of re-education, camp officials started showing newsreels that demonstrated the horrors of Buchenwald and Auschwitz. Many German POWs thought that Americans had faked these films as propaganda. Nevertheless, after the introduction of the re-education programs, Nazi solidarity, control, and violence decreased at Camp Huntsville.
During the early days of the war, federal officials had largely ignored educational programming for the small number of Japanese POWs. The Japanese prisoners had not caused problems as the German Nazis had. However, on July 18, 1945, the Secretary of War secretly authorized a re-education program for some pre-screened “cooperative” Japanese POWs. Camp Huntsville was selected as the lone site to carry out the program due to its location and experience re-educating POWs.
In September of 1945, Camp Huntsville sent its remaining German POWs to Camp Hearne to make room for the incoming Japanese prisoners. The United States hoped to create some pro-American, pro-democracy sentiment before repatriation; 200 Japanese moved to Huntsville for a crash course on October 5, 1945. These POWs translated U.S. documents and lectures into Japanese. Professors from nearby Sam Houston State Teachers College gave lectures with titles like, “The Need for Opportunity in Japan for Building a Liberal Democratic Nation,” and “Contrasts: Pseudo-Freedom in Japan and Real Freedom in U.S.” The Japanese re-education program ended on December 15, 1945 and the POWs returned home.
Today an official Texas Historical Marker marks the spot of the entrance to the former Camp Huntsville, a small reminder that this spot was witness to a piece of World War II. It was here that thousands of soldiers spent their war.
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]]>During World II, Nazis not only threatened Europe, but held some influence in East Texas where thousands of prisoners of war (POWs) were held. During the war, the United States held nearly half a million Axis POWs and Texas housed roughly ten percent of these prisoners, more than any other state. One of the biggest POW camps in Texas, Camp Hearne, held approximately 4,800 prisoners. The biggest security breach in the United States POW program, and one of the best-documented instances of Nazi control, occurred at Camp Hearne.
When 275,000 members Germany's Afrika Korps surrendered in Tunisia on May 13, 1943, the Allies needed a place to hold them. Camp Hearne received some of these first prisoners on June 3, 1943. Life was relatively good at Camp Hearne where food was usually plentiful and prisoners enjoyed leisure activities, employment, and education. The United States tried to make life as good as possible for the POWs for two reasons: to ensure good treatment for American POWs and to win the hearts of the German prisoners who would return to rebuild a post-war Europe. Many POWs enjoyed Camp Hearne. However, some prisoners made life difficult for the guards and many of their fellow POWs.
Though most POWs at Camp Hearne fought for Hitler's Third Reich, not all remained loyal Nazis. But those who did stay faithful to Hitler controlled and intimidated the other prisoners through propaganda, an underground newsletter called Die Mahnung (The Admonition), and secret disciplinary hearings. The Nazi prisoners even infiltrated the POW postal service in order to censor anti-Nazi POW mail, send illegal messages and track disloyal German POWs throughout the United States.
In December 1943, the Nazi POWs punished one such disloyal German POW, Hugo Krauss. Krauss had immigrated to New York as a child but returned to Germany in 1939. He joined the German army, surrendered in 1943 and returned to the United States as a Camp Hearne POW. Camp officials made Krauss an interpreter because of his proficiency in English. Krauss reported clandestine activity to the American guards and openly criticized the Third Reich. The Nazi POWs decided to punish him and shortly after lights out, seven men beat Krauss with pipes, sticks and boards laden with nails. The attackers cracked Krauss's skull, broke both arms and caused multiple lacerations. No one in his barracks dared come to his aid and Krauss died six days later. Before Camp Hearne closed in 1946, one of the attackers, Günther Meisel, confessed to the crime. Meisel and four others went to prison for the attack, but President Harry Truman paroled them in 1949 and they returned to Germany.
Sadly, many POWs camps throughout the United States experienced similar incidents of Nazi abuse and intimidation. The United States POW program never found a way to stop the violence and power of the Nazi POWs. Ironically, the greatest threat to POW safety came from other POWs. Thousands of miles from World War II battlefields and concentration camps, a Nazi presence existed, even in East Texas.
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]]>Located west of Highway 271 just eight miles north of Paris, Texas, Camp Maxey began as a World War II training camp. Today, Camp Maxey is a Texas Army National Guard training facility. The camp sits on the banks of the Pat Mayse Lake. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the lake for flood control in 1967 and now operates the lake as a recreation area. It includes 200 camping sites, complete with water, electricity and restrooms. Facilities include swimming beaches, boating, and fishing. The 15,000-acre area also includes public hunting areas for upland game and whitetail deer.
The U.S. Army used the camp, named in honor of Confederate General and later U.S. Senator Samuel Bell Maxey, from 1942 to 1945 to train infantry soldiers heading to fight in Europe during World War II. The 36,682-acre camp included a mock German village with buildings named Gestapo or Himmler, among others, and decorated with Nazi Swastikas. In an era before electronic targets, camp designers used an ingenious arrangement of ropes and pulleys to pop silhouette targets up in windows and doorways to add authenticity and realism to the village training area. The camp’s obstacle course used challenging barbed wire barriers and small dynamite charges to simulate artillery explosions. The camp had varied terrain perfect for infantry maneuvers. In total, the camp had a capacity to train about 45,000 soldiers. Additionally, the camp served as one of the thirty-three internment camps for German prisoners of war captured in North Africa.
The camp provided some 10,000 civilian jobs to area residents. Women's groups in Paris created the “Maxey Command” committee to host dances for the soldiers and the citizens of Paris graciously organized many recreational activities to support the troops and the war effort. The Texas Army National Guard has operated the site since the mid-1940s. In 2008, the citizens of Paris again rose to support their troops when the Guard announced it would train soldiers heading for the war in Iraq at the camp.
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