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Re: Two Questions



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
Reference Librarian
AEDC Technical Library
100 Kindel Drive, Ste C212
Arnold AFB, TN  37389-3212
931-454-4430
Fax:  931-454-5421
sharon.butcher@arnold.af.mil

-----Original Message-----
From: Gunnar Berg [mailto:Gunnberg@AOL.COM]
Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2002 8:59 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: Two Questions

In response to Sharon's question, a lot of people are talking about POW's. If Sharon is making comparison to the Japanese internment camps, these were civilians living in the U.S., not combattants.  Right Sharon?

Gunnar M. Berg (at home)