Program on German POWs set for Thursday
By Candace Cooksey Fulton - Brownwood Bulletin
The incarceration of German POWs at Camp Bowie is not always a remembered segment of local history.
But in fact, 60 years ago hundreds of the POWs were kept at the camp and, historians say, Texas had one of the highest POW populations of any state in the nation. At the end of the war Texas held 78,982 enemy prisoners, mainly Germans, at 14 military installations, including Camp Bowie.
The monthly Historical Society meeting will be at 4 p.m. this Thursday at the Senior Citizens Center, 3210 Milam Dr. The center is a former non-commissioned officers' club at Camp Bowie and has a mural that was painted by German POWs during their stay.
Jeff Turner, an instructor at Howard Payne University, is the speaker for the program. Turner's father, A.J. Turner, was a chaplain at Camp Bowie at the time prisoners were kept at the camp.
A.J. Turner, 92, is a resident at C.A.R.E., Inc., and Jeff Turner said though invited to speak his father had declined the invitation. Instead, his son will recall some of the stories his father has told over the years.
Jeff Turner said one of his special memories is meeting a former prisoner, who returned to Brownwood in the early '90s because of his fond and lasting memories of the kind treatment he received in the two years he was kept at the camp.
"I look back on those two years when I was a prisoner of war as the best years in my life" up to that time, Ernest Gies said through an interpreter during his visit. "I was glad when taken by the Americans," he said, "I had been having a hard time and from the moment I was captured, I was happy. The Americans were always friendly to me."
Before his visit, Gies and the elder Turner corresponded, and, once pictures were exchanged, realized they had known each other at Camp Bowie. Gies said in a newspaper interview during his visit that he worked as a cook at the officers' mess hall and helped keep the chapel "in good order." Turner recognized Gies because of his work at the chapel.
Gies remembered the murals and told Turner he had known the artists. At some point after the war, the murals were covered with wallpaper and forgotten, but in the '70s, they were uncovered during a renovation project. A local artist retouched the murals and they're still on display today.
The Historical Society meeting is open to the public and there is no charge.
© 2004 Brownwood Bulletin