The German POWs Who Lived, Worked, and Loved in Texas.

[Mindful]

Some went to work as hospital orderlies. Others picked cotton, baled hay, or tilled soil, living in accommodations near farmland. They ate dinner with families and caught the eyes of single women, running off with them whenever and however they could.

The only thing separating the visitors from the locals of Hearne, Texas was the “PW” insignia stitched into their clothing—that, and the fact many couldn't speak English.

The men were Germans who had been captured by Allied forces, and from 1943 through 1945, more than 400,000 of them were sent to the United States for detention in barracks. Between 500 and 600 centers were set up across the country, but many of the prisoners wound up in Texas because of the available space and warm climate.

Almost overnight, the people of Huntsville, Hearne, Mexia, and other towns experienced a kind of cruel magic trick. Their loved ones had disappeared, sent overseas to contest World War II; captured Germans materialized in their place, taking on the role of laborer. Those that refused work peered from behind 10-foot tall fencing capped with barbed wire as teenagers drove by to stare at the faces of the enemy.

The German POWs Who Lived, Worked, and Loved in Texas

How German POWs populated small-town America during World War II.

www.mentalfloss.com

 

[DudleySmith]

Some went to work as hospital orderlies. Others picked cotton, baled hay, or tilled soil, living in accommodations near farmland. They ate dinner with families and caught the eyes of single women, running off with them whenever and however they could.

The only thing separating the visitors from the locals of Hearne, Texas was the “PW” insignia stitched into their clothing—that, and the fact many couldn't speak English.

The men were Germans who had been captured by Allied forces, and from 1943 through 1945, more than 400,000 of them were sent to the United States for detention in barracks. Between 500 and 600 centers were set up across the country, but many of the prisoners wound up in Texas because of the available space and warm climate.

Almost overnight, the people of Huntsville, Hearne, Mexia, and other towns experienced a kind of cruel magic trick. Their loved ones had disappeared, sent overseas to contest World War II; captured Germans materialized in their place, taking on the role of laborer. Those that refused work peered from behind 10-foot tall fencing capped with barbed wire as teenagers drove by to stare at the faces of the enemy.

The German POWs Who Lived, Worked, and Loved in Texas

How German POWs populated small-town America during World War II.

www.mentalfloss.com

There are a few towns in south central Texas where German is the main language among the families; they were settled by German colonists, and a bigger swathe of Texas, roughly along I-35 from around Waco down to east of Austin, where Czech was the main language; some of the local newspapers are still printed in Czech. One of my great uncles in Fredricksburg had German POWs working on his farm for a while. Texas had the largest Czech newspaper outside of Czechoslavakia at one time; don't know if it still does or not.

 

[Mindful]

There are a few towns in south central Texas where German is the main language among the families; they were settled by German colonists, and a bigger swathe of Texas, roughly along I-35 from around Waco down to east of Austin, where Czech was the main language; some of the local newspapers are still printed in Czech. One of my great uncles in Fredricksburg had German POWs working on his farm for a while. Texas had the largest Czech newspaper outside of Czechoslavakia at one time; don't know if it still does or not.

It’s interesting, the German presence down there.

Isn’t there a place called Gruene?

 

[Esdraelon]

The only one I'm aware of is "New Braunfels"

 

[DudleySmith]

Yes, both of those, and Fredricksburg as well, plus smaller towns, really just road intersections with a few buildings. It is more 'assimilated' now, of course but as late as the Korean War it was still very much German. Many places in Pennsylvania and Midwest were the same way, and still are as well. Sometimes entire villages immigrated to the U.S. at once and re-settled together over here. One of my Dad's cousins was rounded up and interned for a while, as a supporter of the Germans' European invasions and probably Hitler. He ended up serving in the Philippines, same as my Dad did. Don't know what ever happened to him, since most of his family were opposed to Hitler and didn't associate with him after 1940.

 

[Mindful]

The only one I'm aware of is "New Braunfels"

That too.

 

[Mushroom]

Almost overnight, the people of Huntsville, Hearne, Mexia, and other towns experienced a kind of cruel magic trick. Their loved ones had disappeared, sent overseas to contest World War II; captured Germans materialized in their place, taking on the role of laborer. Those that refused work peered from behind 10-foot tall fencing capped with barbed wire as teenagers drove by to stare at the faces of the enemy.

And the point of this is what, exactly?

I doubt many are not aware of the large numbers of both German and Italian POWs in the US during WWII.

 

[Mindful]

And the point of this is what, exactly?

Whatever you want it to be.

I see you’re from CA.

That explains it.

 

[Mushroom]

Whatever you want it to be.

I see you’re from CA.

That explains it.

Uhhh, and what does that have to do with anything? Other than you seem to just be throwing out random things that have nothing to do with anything.

 

[Mindful]

Uhhh, and what does that have to do with anything? Other than you seem to just be throwing out random things that have nothing to do with anything.

Ditto.

The personal attacks section is downstairs in the FZ.

 

[Oz and the Orchestra]

The Germans are said to be a highly intelligent and cultured people so I've always found it strange, the contrast in the way they treated prisoners during WWll and treatment by the allies. How they could throw away virtually overnight their Christian ethics/moral values and convert to the insane and evil cult of Naziism.
Why they insisted on ignoring the Geneva Convention when it came to certain types of prisoners.
Oskar Groening was an accountant in the SS and worked at Auschwitz. His job was to collect the various currencies of bank notes stolen from the hundreds of thousands of Jews sent there before they were murdered. After the war, he was sent to Britain as a forced laborer in 1946 where he had a “very comfortable life.” He ate good food and earned money, and traveled through the Midlands and Scotland giving concerts for four months, singing German hymns and traditional English folk songs to appreciative British audiences. He wasn't actually called to account for his crimes until 1994 and given just a 4-year sentence. He died in 1996. Another German POW was allowed to settle in England after the war. Bert Trautmann, a paratrooper during the war went on to play for Man City and played in the 1956 FA Cup Final breaking his neck in the process but carried on playing till the final whistle.

If only the Germans had treated all their prisoners in the same manner as the allies.

 

[AMart]

The Germans are said to be a highly intelligent and cultured people so I've always found it strange, the contrast in the way they treated prisoners during WWll and treatment by the allies. How they could throw away virtually overnight their Christian ethics/moral values and convert to the insane and evil cult of Naziism.
Why they insisted on ignoring the Geneva Convention when it came to certain types of prisoners.
Oskar Groening was an accountant in the SS and worked at Auschwitz. His job was to collect the various currencies of bank notes stolen from the hundreds of thousands of Jews sent there before they were murdered. After the war, he was sent to Britain as a forced laborer in 1946 where he had a “very comfortable life.” He ate good food and earned money, and traveled through the Midlands and Scotland giving concerts for four months, singing German hymns and traditional English folk songs to appreciative British audiences. He wasn't actually called to account for his crimes until 1994 and given just a 4-year sentence. He died in 1996. Another German POW was allowed to settle in England after the war. Bert Trautmann, a paratrooper during the war went on to play for Man City and played in the 1956 FA Cup Final breaking his neck in the process but carried on playing till the final whistle.

If only the Germans had treated all their prisoners in the same manner as the allies.

You probably are unaware of the terrible pow camps built by the the Allied forces in Germany at the end of the war. The USA even used a slick trick by not classifying them as POWs and instead called them DEF, Disarmed Enemy Forces, thus avoiding Geneva Convention mandates of treatment.

 

[tyroneweaver]

wasn't the character Rambo based on german pow and indian mother

 

[Lysistrata]

My father spoke some German. One of his assignments in WWII was to guard German POWs in Camp Claiborne, La. He said that he never really had many problems with them. They were happy that the front lines were across the Atlantic, nobody was shooting at them, nobody was hurting them, they got three squares a day, decent work, and soccer on Sundays. I think that these guys were conscripts who were happy to be out of the war.

 

[whitehall]

Ironic that German POW's apparently had more freedom than Japanese American citizens who were incarcerated behind barbed wire and armed watch towers under FDR's E.O. #9066

 

[Mushroom]

Ironic that German POW's apparently had more freedom than Japanese American citizens who were incarcerated behind barbed wire and armed watch towers under FDR's E.O. #9066

Which was not all, only those in three states and part of another. And most were simply relocated.

And they also detained and incarcerated Italians and Germans. Heck, they even allowed countries in South America to deport their German citizens north so they could be detained in the US.

 

[Domino]

"unfortunate" German prisoner of war, von Braun ..
was a member of the German SS
------
lived, ate well and worked in the USA

By the way, the Germans have historically disliked neither the British nor the Americans. If you ask in English in Germany, they will pretend that they do not understand.
On the other side..
The Germans like the fact that all security issues are decided by the American troops located on their territory. They are used to being slaves.

 

[Lysistrata]

Ironic that German POW's apparently had more freedom than Japanese 1939American citizens who were incarcerated behind barbed wire and armed watch towers under FDR's E.O. #9066

More than ironic. The entire Japanese American community was no more guilty of anything than the entire German American community was. The German nazis held a big rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939, but somehow the Japanese were considered more dangerous, even whole families. Moreover, the German government had agents active in the U.S. during WWI, before the nazis took over. They blew up a munitions depot in New York Harbor in 1916, killing a few people and causing damage to the Statue of Liberty and sites in New Jersey and Manhattan, an incident known as the Black Tom Explosion. My father was born in the area six months later. That's he came to know some German, as there was a sizable German community there.

 

[whitehall]

More than ironic. The entire Japanese American community was no more guilty of anything than the entire German American community was. The German nazis held a big rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939, but somehow the Japanese were considered more dangerous, even whole families. Moreover, the German government had agents active in the U.S. during WWI, before the nazis took over. They blew up a munitions depot in New York Harbor in 1916, killing a few people and causing damage to the Statue of Liberty and sites in New Jersey and Manhattan, an incident known as the Black Tom Explosion. My father was born in the area six months later. That's he came to know some German, as there was a sizable German community there.

More irony, Hawaii was a hotbed for Japanese espionage but EO 9066 wasn't used.

 

[Sunni Man]

Texas Germans - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org