Yes.
My patron is really interested in the German 'civilians' in the US who were
rounded up and placed into camps. I think "Farewell to Manzanar" is an account
of a young Japanese/American who was interned in a camp in one of the
western states. However, the POW camps are also of interest. TN had some
of the latter, and the account about the Crossville facility is very
interesting. It was a mixed camp, with both Italian and Germans. Two things
I recall especially were engineering features of the camp to thwart escape,
as well as the efforts made by the camp commander to do such things as
serve foods that the prisoners would like. Obviously, the Italians
preferred pasta and that sort of the thing, and the Germans wanted meat and
potatoes. I suspect such an environment would have made for some great
psychological studies, but I don't think much of that was done. Crossville
geography is very similar to areas of Germany, and so many German prisoners sort
of felt at home. There was a very die-hard Nazi group, as well as a lot of other
less zealous men. How they handled the news about the demise of Germany was
another interesting factor. I think we can all imagine that if we were to put
ourselves in their shoes for a bit. There was even a camp here on Camp
Forrest, and German POWs come back on occasion. W
A
couple summers ago, while visiting the famous "Memphis Belle" on Mud Island, one
of the aviators who volunteered told me of a German fellow who so wanted to see
this famous aircraft, yet was so very reluctant to come into the pavilion where
the aircraft is sheltered. The former German soldier sent the
cabbie in to see if the German would be welcome to come in, expecting to be
shunned and disappointed. However, the volunteer said the German was welcomed,
given a personalized tour of the aircraft, and a very interesting emotional
dialog resulted.
The
responses have been great. I never cease to be amazed at the collective wisdom
of this august listserve. Thanks for all the great responses.
Sharon Lee Butcher
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