News-Info-Alerts

Re: Axis POWs in Wisconsin

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: April 28, 2002

"When 20,000 German and Japanese WWII prisoners made their mark on Wisconsin

Few reminders left of Camp Lodi

When 20,000 German and Japanese WWII prisoners made their mark on Wisconsin

By Craig Spychalla - CWN News Service

Editor's note: This is part one of a two-part series on WII POW camps in Wisconsin. Next Saturday: The story of a German soldier who watched WWII end from a POW camp in Wisconsin.

When Ann Munz was a child she would often sneak out behind her parents' house into a field where she peered over a makeshift snow fence. She was intrigued by the German soldiers imprisoned on the other side.

Munz's brother would sometimes join her in the field as a curious onlooker, and who could blame him? It wasn't often that soldiers in Adolf Hitler's Third Reich were in town, especially if that town was Lodi.

It was the summer of 1944 and 250 captured German soldiers were marching down the streets of Lodi to the fairgrounds. They were encamped there as prisoners of war. But they were also there to serve a purpose while American troops were overseas.

Munz, who lived on Elizabeth Street in Lodi, was 13 when the German soldiers were brought to the fairgrounds.

"The town was apprehensive at first, but the kids were very excited about it," she said from her Baraboo home. "It was something new for us."

Life at Camp Lodi is chronicled in Betty Cowley's new book "Stalag Wisconsin: Inside WWII prisoner-of-war camps." Cowley, a Portage native who now resides in Eau Claire, spent five years researching a hidden past that doesn't appear in history books.

Cowley found out about the camps through an "old-timer" who told her about a POW camp in Altoona, where she taught a history class. When she retired from teaching in 1999, Cowley went headlong into the book, digging up every lead she could.

"It took me a long time to discover the camps and where they were. The military (at that time) really tried to play this down," she said. "The government was afraid that if we knew there were 20,000 (enemy) soldiers here we would panic."

German POWs were moved to the United States because it was believed Hitler had a plan to air-drop weapons to prisoners held in England. After 1942, the U.S. took custody of all prisoners (nearly a half million). In 1944 and 1945, more than 20,000 German and Japanese prisoners were held in Wisconsin. Most were held at Fort McCoy near Tomah, but others were scattered to one of 38 "branch camps."

Prisoners didn't just pass the time in camp. They were moved around the state to bring in crops because of a labor shortage. And whether towns that housed the 39 POW camps across Wisconsin liked it or not, German soldiers played an integral part in Wisconsin's agricultural economy.

Because there is no military record of these camps left -- a fire in St. Louis where the files were kept is to blame -- Cowley spent 40 hours a week searching newspaper archives from across the state, finding little most of the time.

She did, however, learn that the Red Cross still had records of camp inspections. Through this starting point Cowley was able to interview eight former prisoners and guards of the camps and numerous townspeople who worked with the POWs.

"Even German officers came through and inspected the camps. Those records are still there," she said.

Cowley didn't know what to expect when her quest began, and she was often surprised by what turned up. "When I found out they were goose-stepping down Main Street in Markesan, that blew my mind," she said.

What also shocked Cowley was the lack of revenge attempts made on the prisoners from people who lost family members in the war. "About a third of our state was German and there was a lot of fraternization (between townspeople and prisoners)," she said.

Most makeshift camps sprang up at small-town fairgrounds, or level ground near canning factories like Camp Cambria. The tent cities were surrounded by snow fences for a perimeter, and guards were on duty, but escape was not out of the question. And it did happen on occasion.

"Germans usually escaped for adventure -- girls and beer," Cowley said, noting that Japanese prisoners saw it as their duty to escape to Mexico or commit suicide.

There are no reports of any POWs injuring or threatening civilians outside these camps, and Cowley said prisoners were actually quite content.

"Everybody was happy," said former German POW Kurt Pechmann, who was imprisoned at Camp Lodi. "We were happy to be out of the war, a roof over our head and all the beer we could drink. There were no problems."

In fact, Pechmann liked Wisconsin so much he moved here a few years after the war ended.

"They were eating better here than in the German Army. Nobody is shooting at them, they had medical attention -- what more could they want?" Cowley asked.

While many people envision Nazis when they think of German soldiers, Cowley said only 15 percent of the German Army consisted of hard-core Nazis. The rest were drafted soldiers. "Hitler drafted a lot of anti-Nazis and put them on the front line," she said.

Before being placed in a camp, the U.S. military would single out Hitler's infamous S.S. men and separate them from the rest of the soldiers. Cowley said S.S. men would try to manipulate other German prisoners into escaping and rebelling.

There was a report of hard-core Nazis at Camp Markesan, and Cowley quoted a source who said one German soldier had killed another. "There were some killings in camps (across the United States). We hung 14 Germans (for events like this)," Cowley said.

Cowley dedicated a few pages in the book to each of the 39 camps. Quotes from people in those communities who remember the soldiers appear at the end of each segment. She also found many photographs from the branch camps, with the exception of Camp Reedsburg.

While Cowley interviewed many German POWs who migrated back to Wisconsin to live, she didn't mention all of them by name.

"Some are in the closet, and I'm not in the business of exposing them," she said.

From the book's debut in February, "Stalag Wisconsin" has sold out of its first printing in just four weeks.

Wisconsin POW Camps

Camp McCoy

"Branch Camps"

Camp Antigo

Camp Appleton

Camp Barron

Camp Bayfield

Camp Beaver Dam

Camp Billy Mitchell Field

Camp Cambria

Camp Chilton

Camp Cobb

Camp Columbus

Camp Eau Claire at Altoona

Camp Fond Du Lac

Camp Fox Lake

Camp Fredonia at

Little Kohler

Camp Galesville

Camp Genesee

Camp Green Lake

Camp Hartford

Camp Hortonville

Camp Janesville

Camp Jefferson

Lake Keesus

Camp Lodi

Camp Markesan

Camp Marshfield

Camp Milltown

Camp Oakfield

Camp Plymouth

Camp Reedsburg

Camp Rhinelander

Camp Ripon

Camp Rockfield

Camp Sheboygan

Camp Sturgeon Bay

Camp Sturtevant

Camp Waterloo

Camp Waupun

Camp Wisconsin Rapids


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