By MaryAnn Morris
Newszap Florida, FL
During World War II, sons, fathers, brothers went away to the far side of the world to fight the terrible war in Europe. Stateside, ration coupons were issued for meat, butter, gasoline. Women took up the jobs in factories and industry because the men were off to the war. But the war effort also deprived of agriculture of valuable labor. Jamaican cane cutters refused to travel from their island because German U-boats harassed American shipping all along coastal Florida.
"We could go to the beach," remembers Mrs. Frances Nall of Clewiston. "But if we went out to eat at night, we had no light at all. We groped along in the dark because of the fear that the Germans would see the light and know where we were."
Paul V. McNutt, Chairman of War Manpower Commission wrote Florida Senator Claude Pepper that he had certified to the War Department the need to establish detention camps for German prisoners of war in Florida "to supply much needed labor in pulpwood cutting and the gathering of naval stores."
The German POWs found themselves in rural communities such as Belle Glade, where they worked in a bean cannery; Polk County, where they picked citrus fruit; and, Clewiston, where they were put to work cutting sugar cane.
Liberty Point Camp at Clewiston was one of 26 prisoner war camps that the U.S. government established in Florida during World War II. Located eight miles southeast of Moore Haven, the green-roofed white buildings had housed laborers on U.S. Sugar's plantations until February 1944 when no workers came. The POW camp existed there until Sept. 6, 1945, according to "Hitler's Soldiers in the Sunshine State," by Robert D. Billinger Jr..
According to the provisions of the Geneva Convention of 1929, the German prisoners had the same food, clothing, housing and transportation that America's own soldiers stationed stateside received.
The Red Cross initially called the Clewiston camp, the "worst camp ever seen" referring to the 103 degree heat and dusty conditions caused by lack of rain. Apparently the Red Cross observers did not realize that these were normal conditions for the south Florida region. Northern bred German detainees and American officials visiting the camp must have had the same experience that anyone moving from northern areas has with Florida summers - those first summers are awful!
But most of the camp's workers were from Hitler's elite Afrika Korps. They were tough and so were the work and the conditions at Clewiston. Detainees worked eight hours a day harvesting sugarcane.
According to "Enemies in our Midst," by Scott Fields, POWs were paid for their labor - up to 80 cents a day in camp coupons, which they could use at the camp store. The store was run by the POWs and proceeds were used to buy sporting equipment and musical instruments for the POWs to use during their free time. The "store sold writing implements, paper, selected American newspapers and magazines, soda, tobacco. The POWs could also purchase up to two bottles of beer a day, at a price of 10 cents a bottle.
Although Red Cross visitors were appalled by the snake-infested camp and cane fields, snake catching was favorite pastime for P.O.W.s. When the cane fields were burned for harvesting, prisoners would ask permission to stand at the edges of the fields and watch for the snakes to crawl out.
In an interview in 1996, quoted in, "Hitler's Soldiers in the Sunshine State," Gerhard Anklam of Berlin recalled that "he had killed a snake, had ants eat away the flesh and kept the skin as a prized souvenir."
The POWs even tried to tame an alligator to keep as a pet - but changed their minds about it when one of them was bitten.
At times the guards would march the detainees - healthy young soldiers - into town for exercise, much to the interested delight of the young ladies of Clewiston, whose menfolk were overseas.
"These young men were real poster boys. They were very, very handsome. We heard they were the cream of the German army and some of the local girls would go and watch them when they came to town," remembered Mrs. Frances Nall. "A girl who lived with me at that time was dating one of the American sergeants stationed there at Liberty Point Camp."
"Today nothing remains of the old buildings," said Karl Larsen of Shawnee Farms, "all that area is in sugar cane now." But once upon a time some 60 years ago, captive soldiers of a world war harvested sugar cane for America here in Clewiston, Florida.
According to "Enemies in our Midst," many "German POWs later remembered their days in Florida with a certain degree of fondness, and though many camp guards became good friends with the men they were guarding (often playing games and sports with each other or enjoying swimming in local lakes and ponds), there were many instances of Germans attempting to escape captivity. All but one were later captured, most within a week; the one who evaded capture killed himself. On July 10, 1944, a POW named Franz Drews escaped from the Winter Haven prison camp. Drews was seen scaling the fence on the west side of the enclosure at 1:30 in the morning. Before the guards could apprehend him, he fled northward across some lots and through grove near the Atlantic Coast Line railroad track. Within hours, the Tampa FBI office sent three agents to assist the military police in the recapture of this POW.
"Later that same morning, the Winter Haven Daily Chief newspaper reported the escape, adding that local and county officers were cooperating with the FBI in the search. The paper also noted that Drews was 5' 10" tall, about 175 pounds, had a fair complexion with gray eyes and blond hair, was balding, and was dressed in blue denim clothes. Four days later, the Daily Chief reported that Drews had been caught in an old shack in the northeast section of Winter Haven known as Florence Villa. He had been seen by Jesse Scott, a caretaker of the George Kunberger grove, a quarter mile northeast of First Street and Avenue T. Drews, who suffered exhaustion due to lack of food, offered no resistance and was glad to be back where he could be fed."