MARQUETTE -- A new documentary film detailing the story of roughly 1,100 German prisoners of war interned in the Upper Peninsula during World War II will debut locally this month on Public Television.
"The Enemy in Our Midst: Nazi Prisoner of War Camps in Michigan's Upper Peninsula" was completed earlier this year by local filmmakers John Pepin and Jackie Chandonnet. The program will air on WNMU-TV 13 at 8 p.m. on Aug. 30. A re-broadcast is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sept. 1.
"We're happy that our film is going to be released to the public," Chandonnet said. "We're very excited about sharing this story with the people of the Upper Peninsula."
The film project, which took two years to complete, features many scenes shot throughout the Upper Peninsula. Local residents appear in interviews and as actors in film reenactments and area singers and musicians also contributed to the production.
From 1944-46, German prisoners of war were held at five POW camps in the U.P., including Camp AuTrain and Camp Evelyn in Alger County, Camp Raco in Chippewa County and Camp Sidnaw and Camp Pori in Houghton County.
Brought in first under a cloak of relative secrecy by the U.S. Army, the prisoners would eventually be encountered by some of the local residents. Across the United States, there were about 375,000 German POWs at more than 500 branch camps or 155 base camps. Despite these staggering numbers, the story had remained largely untold.
Segments in the film feature Bergland resident and former timber company owner Jack Nordine. Nordine had a crew of German POWs from Camp Pori working for him. Footage of the woodland prison camp and the artifacts discovered there is also featured along with background scenery footage of Agate Falls.
Using dozens of historic photographs, film clips, reenactments, reporter stand-ups and interviews with many people who encountered the POWs, the filmmakers hope to bring this story out of the shadows of the past for present and future generations.
"From what we can tell, not many people in the Upper Peninsula even know there were German prisoners in this area," Chandonnet said. "It's an unknown story that we felt should be preserved."
The 161-minute uncut version of the film will be shown on TV-13, followed by a behind-the-scenes interview program with the filmmakers.
"Our film-making was a race against the clock," Pepin said. "We tried to capture this story before those able to tell firsthand accounts of the historical events have passed on."
Some provocative features of the film include modern visits to the camps to document remnants of the crumbling artifacts, rare vintage film footage and interviews with two former German prisoners who retell the stories of their captures, internment in the United States, repatriation and eventual return to the U.S. to build new lives.
The genesis of this film project began in late 1999 when Pepin, a journalist for The Mining Journal, produced a series of five articles on the POW camps. He had first heard about the Nazi prisoners as a rumor that he decided to sift for historical truth.
With the popularity of those articles, talk of making a documentary film to expand on the subject, capture firsthand interviews and document camp artifacts emerged. But it wasn't until early 2002 that Pepin decided to undertake the project with the help of Chandonnet, an evening news anchorwoman for WLUC-TV 6 in Marquette.
"Neither one of us has ever made a film before so it was an adventure right from the beginning," Chandonnet said. "We thought that with John's research and writing background and my broadcasting background we just might be able to make it work."
The pair traveled thousands of miles, overcame dozens of problems and shot more than 52 hours of film in creating their documentary. The film was edited in 10 days in January.
The three-hour videotapes, including the WNMU-TV 13 behind-the-scenes program will be available Aug. 30. To pre-order your copy, send $34.95 plus $5 shipping and handling and $2.35 Michigan 6 percent sales tax ($42.30 total) to: John Pepin/Jackie Chandonnet, 130 W. Munising Ave., Munising MI 49862.
An educational companion viewer's guide is also being published.
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