POW�s in East Texas. (original) (raw)

An intriguing slice of history long overlooked is finally getting the recognition it deserves.

In the late 1940s, during World War II, the U.S.. government established seven camps in East Texas to house German prisoners-of-war captured by Allied forces in Europe.

Through the efforts of the Texas Historical Commission and the Pineywoods Foundation of Lufkin, historical markers are being placed at the sites of each camp at Lufkin, Alto, Center, Chireno, Tyler and San Augustine.

| The marker inscriptions are based largely on Mark Choate�s excellent 1989 book, �Nazis in the Pineywoods.� Most of the German prisoners came to East Texas when the East Texas timber industry nearly ground to a halt when its employees were drafted for the war. Others were used for agricultural work. Ernest L. Kurth, who ran a sawmill and paper mill in the Lufkin area, and Arthur Temple, Sr., who owned a sawmill in Diboll, persuaded the government to locate German prisoners in East Texas to harvest timber. When brought to East Texas, the Germans did not mind the work because it alleviated the tedium of incarceration. | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | |

By the end of the war, some of the prisoners wanted to stay in Texas, but government policies sent them home. A few did return to the pineywoods. One, a German national who served as a camp translator, even assumed a role as an economic political figure in San Augustine. Stories about the POW�s abound in East Texas.

When a little girl wandered away from her home in Chireno, townspeople searching for her found her in the arms of a German. They were petting a cow.

It turned out that the prisoner, Hans Klepper, saw the little girl standing too close to a railroad track as a train rumbled by. He gently picked her up and, as they walked toward Chireno, they stopped to pet a cow. That�s where the searchers found them.

Using only shovels, German prisoners built at Center an Olympic-size swimming pool that was used for years by the town. Center Mayor John Windham, who helped dedicate Center�s historical marker in January, recalled that County Agent John Mooseburg was instrumental in bringing the POW�s to the town as labor for agricultural work.

With a peak capacity of 700 prisoners, Camp Center was the largest POW camp in the U.S.

Few prisoners tried to escape from the East Texas camps and, as time passed, most of the Germans established good relationships with East Texans.

One POW, Otto Rinkenhauer, fell in love with an girl living with her family near the camp. The two married after the war and made their home in Shreveport.

Another POW left his mark on East Texas in another manner.

Known only as Rothhammer, the German etched his name and the date 1944 on a stone gate leading into a POW camp at Lufkin.

The signature remains today as an enduring reminder of a unique time in East Texas.