Re: Encountering POWs in the Woods of Michigan

Date: April 07, 2004

"UP loggers tell POW tales in film

4 men worked with German prisoners in Michigan war camps

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MARQUETTE -- Ray Maki, Jack Nordine, Robert Godell and Robert Graves worked with German prisoners of war held at camps in the Upper Peninsula from 1944 to 1946.

These Upper Peninsula residents helped tell the story in John Pepin and Jackie Chandonnet's just-finished documentary film, "The Enemy in our Midst: Nazi Prisoner of War Camps in Michigan's Upper Peninsula."

The film debuted on March 27 in Marquette, and tells of the Upper Peninsula's contribution to the war effort.

Maki, 78, was 18 years old at the time and logged on U.S. Forest Service land with his father near their home in Watton. The POWs were brought in to cut pulpwood -- small poplar, spruce, balsam and hemlock, and definitely were not overworked, according to Maki.

"They didn't have to do a hell of a pile," he said, "maybe a fifth of what a local logger would do."

Not only were their workloads light, but Maki said their working conditions were better. Loggers usually have to fight a lot of bugs in the woods, but when lunchtime came around the POWs didn't have to sit on a log and swat mosquitoes.

"Instead of throwing a sandwich at them, the prisoners were hauled back to camp to eat," Maki said. "They were treated too good."

Maki's POW workers were housed at Camp Sidnaw, one of five in the Upper Peninsula established at former Civilian Conservation Corps camps.

Another Upper Peninsula logger, Jack Nordine, had contact with POWs at Camp Pori in Houghton County.

Now 90 and living in Bergland, Nordine said his company suffered from a lack of manpower, no different from businesses all across the United States. Men were serving in the military -- or, as was the case in the rural Upper Peninsula, they had left for big city factory jobs.

"I was short of men," Nordine said. "I got 40 from Camp Pori to cut the pulpwood," he said, referring to POWs.

Pulpwood was crucial to the war effort, according to Pepin and Chandonnet. Cartons for food, clothing, ammunition and blood plasma were some of the products made from it.

In Alger County, Robert Graves was employed by the Munising Paper Co., now Kimberly Clark Corp., during World War II. His words echo Nordine and Maki's. There was no one to cut pulpwood and the POWs saved the day.

"Our plant was going to have to shut down," Graves, 83, said.

After seeing the film Saturday for the first time, Graves expressed surprise that three prisoners had escaped (and were recaptured) from one of the Upper Peninsula camps. His experiences with the POWs were positive.

"What great boys they were," he said. "My crew was wonderful, obedient -- mostly Polish, Russians and Finns."

Robert Godell, 82, of Watton said the same of the POWs he encountered in the woods.

"I was really impressed with them," he said. "They were young and relieved to be out of the service. They were concerned about their families and as friendly as can be."

Although Pepin and Chandonnet were not able to locate any former POWs encamped in the Upper Peninsula, they interviewed two men who had been held in camps in other locations in the United States.


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