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Page28, CLOVIS NEWS-JOURNAL, W ed n e s d a y,J u tyl4,1982Fort Stonton has colorful history as internment campFort Stanton is southcentral New Mexico has had more than its share of notoriety stemming from Indian and cavalry skirmishes of the last century, the Lincoln County War and even the brief escapades of Billy the Kid For those morefamiliar with its history, it is also noted for being the first federal hospital exclusively for the treatment of tuberculosis But by far its most distinctive claim to history stems from its % service as the first US internment camp of World WarII Yet. paradoxically, thisevent elicited little public reaction at a time of highpolitical emotion and today is only vaguely remembered by even local residents The story began in 1939 two years before America’s entry into the war In December of that year, after unloading its passengers in Cuba, the tier man luxury liner “Columbas (sometimes also spelled “Columbus) was blockaded and fired upon by the British who were at war with Hitler With no guas to fight bark and all hope of escape lost, onDecember 17 Captain W ilhelmDaehne ordered the crew to scuttle the 14lt; million floating castle rather than have her fall into British hands The entireM*♦operation wascarefully planned and executed with precision In an interviewin the New Mexico Magazinesix months before PearlHarbor, Captain Baehne told how the ship was sunk “For weeks our crew had prac ticed first to open the huge valves in the bottom, then to set it afire- so when finalh I issued the grim order it was only twelve minutes until the “Columbas was settling to her watery grave and we were all in the life boars That is all but three Those three men disregarded the alarm, thinking it was just another routine practice They went down with the ship The rest of the crew was picked up by Americans and taken to Fills Island Fromthere thev were transferred toSan Francisco Some two hundred of mv rnen contrivedVto get passage home fromthere, via Japan and Russia t»ut ’hi' balance of us stayed as distressed seamen’ on parole from the German Kmbassy,wCaptain Daehne recalled “Delicate situations “ as Daehne referred to them, became all too common, however, and this prompted Daehne to begin looking for another location where he and his men could live out the war After several scouting trips, Captain Daehne chose to settle at the former CCC camp across the stream from Fort StantonBy March 1941, all 410 men from the “Columbas” were settled at the camp When Daehne made his final inspection in January 1941. the MlHiquerqur Journal ran a very noncommittal front page Uorv from the wires of Associated Press Kxcept for its penchant for referring to the seamen as * Nazis in itsheadlines the Journal usedAP stones, which were matter of fact andthe majority didn’t seem to know or to care when, and that lack of interest in public af fairs, by the way. is one reason that the fifth column and all sorts of propagandists get such a foothold before anyone realizes what is taking place Kxcept for the exaggerated analogy with the “fifth column” the story—which resembled an editorial-went on to present a factual account of the events of the sinking of the “Columbas” and a description of the* men who arrived “We saw only one‘Hitler moustache’...Moreover, the author seemed preoccupied with the “ex pensive looking leather” baggage Noting the presence of national news reporters, in eluding a cameraman from Life magazine, the author of the article was more critical of the townspeople for their poor turnout than of the events taking place Only 55 or 60 people showed up The ( arrizoto Outlook lt;which merged with the Lincoln Countv News in 1945) neverw*even mentioned the arrivals, although the trains bringing themen in three contingents) all stopped at Carrizo/o Fromthere the men were bussed toFort StantonIn the years immediatelypreceeding Pearl Harbor,‘delicate situations” werecommon in San Francisco, and in the country What were the reasons, therefore, for such self restraint by media andwtownspeople living near k'ort Stanton''Certainly it was not that the residents were isolated from world events Throughout 1939. 1940 and 1941, the two local papers regularly detailed war news Coverage of German activities and related events was actually better than localwreporting Picture pages ofmilitary hardware, invasions and military actions appeared weekly Locally, Americanization Days and blackouts set the mood of the community Despite the perception ofGermany as the enemy,” the town viewed the seamen in when the tiulk of the seamen arrived in March 1941, “Townsfolks waved ban dkerchiefs as the buses moved down the streets\lliuqurrque Journal, March1H, 1941i The seamen were in a unique situation They were not prisoners of war at the time of their arrival, because America and Germany were not as yet engaged in hostilitiesMoreover, the men themselves* *onlyalways sometimes even positiveFor example, on January 221941, the page one Journalstory reported ‘“The people of this community lt;dated Kuidosoi will accept these men as the victims of unhappycircumstances with which they have no control and this at titude will tie maintained aslong as the behavior of theseamen warrants it.' said a prominent member of the community The old timer,’ particularly it was stated has refused to tiecome disturbed over the arrival of 400 sailors of the scuttled liner Columbas. although some objection has been evident in other quar ters ’’What “other quarters were was never specified and cei Ui inly they never presented themselves in the local media An analysis in the Lincoln (ountv News from January 1939 August 1946, uncovered onlv three stones about themGerman seamen The first and longest, appeared on January 31, 1941 under the headline “First Contingent of German Sailors Arrive Wednesday The story began, “News of National and international importance is taking place at our very door and we go calmlyabout our business as if nothing were taking place and with an attitude of let the government Lake care of that ’ The averageof the county knew some Germans were to be here, but»*• •were unique As sailors, they had spent most of their time either at sea or in contact with peoples ofmanv countries Based in New York, they were required to speak fluent Flnglish In his article “Anchors Away.” which appeared in the June 1941 issue of New Mexico Magazine,Wildred McCormick summedup the general perception ofthese Germans Thev have acquired a much broader, tairer view of the current world situation than d they had been cooped inside Germany and entirely dependent on thatgovernment's rigidly con trolled press other media referred to the men as well educated, or highly trained in their lines, each man a specialist During their internment, the men did nothing to c hange theinitial impressions lt;in their arrival, the crew had found a camp with only a handful of deserted, unpaintedbarracks surrounded by sand¥and sagebrush By working together they turned the camp into a relatively attractive, comfortable place to live They painted the buildings and hung curtains on windows. In time, the land near the quarters was landscaped with trees, shrubs and whitewashed rocks One barracks was converted into a recreation hall w here the men could read, play games or watch motion pictures The ship s orchestra also providedentertainmentSecurity apparently never developed as an issue of sub-% *Auto InsuranceYour Problem?Turned Down Tickets DWt Young Old Cancelled Motorcycle Monthly PaymentsBurns Agency420 Mitchell 762 4403stantial community concern Even before the United Statesentered the war. the men were closely confined If they wished to go into one of the neighboring towns, they needed written permission After PearlHarbor, one change took place a wire fence was constructed around the camp even though the crew was never in the “prisoner of war” status Officers of the Border Patrol, which was responsible for taking roll call twice a day granted permission for leaves A total of 10 patrolmen guarded the camp itself and alsochecked outsiders in the areaOne Lincoln County Resident interviewed by this author recalled how a group of four Germans tried to escape bydigging a hole under the chain link fence and heading out across the hills The only problem was there was no place lor them to go. and they finally wound up walking back to camp and giving themselves upOddly, the local papers mentioned neither this incident nor the release of the men at the end of the war. By 1945evidently the presence of the men had become routine They were no longer “news ”Tolerance for the situation may very well have been due to economic factors Even today it is hard to find anyone in the area who has not himself worked at F'ort Stanton or at the camp, or who has not had a familv member do so Theinternment camp providedguard jobs in an area where jobs were and are scarce At the end of the war. most ofthe Germans returned to their native land, either as private citizens or in an official capacity A few, however, had already chosen another alternative Dr W. O Denzer.Konsulat der BundesrepubllkDeutschland for the south western states in the early 1970s. wrote this author. “I happen to know personally that some members of the crew joined the l\S Army after the outbreak of the war, and were stationed temporarily in Germany as members of theAmerican Occupation F'orcesin 1945.”Four of the crew membersnever made it home They died at the camp during their internment and were buried in the northwest corner of the Public Health ServiceCemetery on the Fort Stanton reservation, near the remains of other seamen from throughout the world who diedof tuberculosis Today, the events are all but forgotten In more than a dozen interviews conducted by this author among residents having direct connections with the camp, none produced anythingbut the sketchiest of information For the local residents, the internment camp was evidently only a minor interruption in the slow course of their lives The ship’s bell which once clanged its message through the quite southwestern countryside each half hour is now silenced All that remains of the German camp are three run down shacks where 20 com fortable buildings once stood Someone has penned a couple of sickly pigs in one of thebuildings, but the wind blowsunencumbered through the broken windows and collapsed roof of the recreation hall where 400 men once passed thetime waiting for a war to endThe first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel was a woman, Anna Edson Taylor. 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Newspaper Details
Clovis News Journal
Clovis, New Mexico, US
Wed, Jul 14, 1982
Page 26
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 25 Aug 2019
Other Publications Near Clovis, New Mexico
The Clovis News
The Eastern New Mexico News
Clovis Evening News Journal
Clovis News Tribune
Clovis New Mexico Evening News Journal
