World War II Woman

German POW camps (continued)

All of the following material has come from an article by Mike Argento in the York Sunday News.

Toward the end of World War II, the Stewartstown Fairgrounds were converted into a Prisoner of War camp. German prisoners were housed there during the summers of 1944 and l945, although they were stationed at Fort Indiantown Gap during the rest of the year. Most of the prisoners were young fellows who were glad to be anywhere except in the midst of battle in Europe.

Farmers and those who owned canneries were in desperate need of workers. Most of the young men had enlisted or had been drafted, and many of the women were already working in defense industries. The idea of using POWs for this kind of work was warmly welcomed. Stewartstown offered its fairgrounds, turning the idea into reality.

Not many residents are still living to remember but a few have shared the story. The prisoners worked from dawn to dusk, stopping only for lunch. They received five cents for every bushel of crops they gathered. This money was placed in an account, which they could use to buy essentials at the canteen. The Geneva Convention was carefully observed. As the manual states, “In serving his country, he has done no wrong. He is not a convict. He is a soldier.”

One of the residents recalls the prisoners working on the family farm. When he came home from school, he would drive a tractor out to the fields to take water to the men. He was told never to talk to any of them. Another resident recalls going to the camp with some of the guards and playing the pinball machine. It was a relaxed atmosphere. No one can remember any attempts of the prisoners to escape.

And then one day the camp was gone. It was in October of 1945 when the United States began sending the prisoners back to Germany. Today the camp is back to being the fairgrounds. The canteen and PX are now the community center and the kitchen became the concession stand. No one would ever know a POW camp had existed.

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