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SANTA FE — POWs held In New Mexico?Most New Mexicans seem a little Incredulous, even those who lived in the state during World War II. It lends some credence to the contention by Germans that they weren’t aware of the Holocaust going on inside their concentration camps.Were New Mexico’s POW camps kept secret? Not at all. Besides the two maincamps at Roswell and Lordsburg, which held thousands, branch camps were formed in agricultural areas all over the state as soon as our government realized the prisoners could be used for farm labor to replace the workers who had gone to war.Farmers applied to federal offices for the number of laborers they needed, paid them the prevailing wage of $1 to $3 a day and transported them to their farms each day. Prisoners received 80 cents a day out of what the farmers paid and the rest helped the government finance the prison camps.The fascinating story of POW labor in New Mexico is told in an exhibit thatrecently opened at the Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces.Curated by Robert Hart and staff, the exhibit includes photos, letters, World War II memorabilia, and testimonials gathered over the last several years. It will run through June and then go on the road.The highlight of the opening day activities Jan. 26 was Dr. Rudiger Overmans, a German author and history professor, who is the leading expert on the German POW experience in World War II. Overmans saidJay• r. AVW.VMillerInside the Capitolthe first wave of German prisoners in New Mexico were from Gen. Rommel’s elite Afrikakorps who had been defeated in North Africa early in the war.The men were battle-hardened veterans, many of whom were Nazis, brownshirts or SS troops, who were convinced that even though they had lost the African front, Germany still would prevail. Overmans said when their prison ships sailed into New York harbor, they were surprised to see the skyscrapers still standing.Overmans said the prisoners had been told Americans were rich but had no culture and that they were ruled by the international Jewish community.The number of cars in America confirmed their notion about our wealth. The POWs were even more astonished whenthey boarded trains and sat in coaches with padded seats and were served coffee and snacks. As German troops, they were accustomed to being loaded onto boxcars.They never gave up thinking they would win. When later arrivals, who were eitherteen-aged or middle-aged, told them of Germany’s imminent defeat, they wouldn’tbelieve it. They blamed the new arrivals -for not fighting hard enough.But despite remaining fiercely loyal to their homeland, German POWs foundthemselves well received by Americans for whom they worked because the German people were accepted in this country as an “intelligent race.Overmans said the POWs were some-! what befuddled to see Jews treated asequals but Blacks discriminated against even more than prisoners of war. .. - !After hearing stories of American PQWs starving and tortured in Japanese prlsop camps, many in this country felt we were coddling the POWs here. Overmans admit- • ted there was some truth to that becauseevery country treated its prisoners differ- • ently, mostly because of the economic con-! ditlons in each country. 1^1!More than two-thirds of the German!prisoners in Russian camps died, but the conditions under which they lived were not much worse than that of the Russian people themselves. r, !Conditions did get worse for the German POWs, however, in the spring of 19^5 when Allied troops reached the German concentration camps. Those horrifying rev-! elations caused a change in attitpcip toward the German prisoners, who could,-! n’t believe the stories were true. !But overall, the German POWs left With! a good feeling about their American cap-! tors. Some wanted to stay and continue! their farm work. Others returned to visit!after many years and many later emigf't-! ed to America and became citizens. *
Newspaper Details
Roswell Daily Record
Roswell, New Mexico, US
Wed, Feb 13, 2002
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Dale E.
USA 19 Mar 2019
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Roswell Daily Record
