Terrorism & Meeting a Former POW
Jacob Levron staff Thibodaux native Steve Willett was on a European vacation with his family in 1985 when their plane was hijacked. Willett’s hostage story takes him to a hospital in Germany where he met a former German POW who had been at the Thibodaux POW camp. Steve Willett’s Journal The hostage story Click to see full image and read page
Camp Ghost Stories
jalaysia sanders podcast editor April Cortez April Cortez as a child April Cortez
POWs in the Media
German POWs during World War II had a lasting impact on Louisiana and the United States. These stories live on through books, films and plays. Books about Louisiana Fish Out of Water A book about Nazi submariners as prisoners in North Louisiana during World War II. WWII in the Gulf of Mexico C.J. Christ’s research into the German U-boat menace in the Gulf of Mexico during World War II. German POWS in Books The Barbed-Wire College: Reeducating German POWs in the United States During World War II Ron Robin The Faustball Tunnel: German POWs in America and Their Great Escape John Hammond Moore The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America William Geroux German POWs, Der Ruf, and the Genesis of Group 47: The Political Journey of Alfred Andersch and Hans Werner Richter Aaron D. Horton Guests Behind the Barbed Wire Ruth Beaumont Cook My Journey of Captivity: The Story of a German POW Helga McKee Nazi POWs in the Tar Heel State Robert D. Billinger Jr. Nazi Prisoners of War in America Arnold Krammer Secrets of a German POW: The Capture and Interrogation of Hauptmann Herbert Clef Brian Brinkworth War, Spies & Bobby Sox (The Saga Series) Libby Fischer Hellmann German POWS in Film Fort McCoy 2011 Film: A drama based on a true story when the Stirn family lived next to a Nazi POW camp in Wisconsin during W.W.II. Camp Confidential: America’s Secret Nazis 2021 Animated Short: WWII vets reveal a secret US military camp near Washington where Jewish soldiers hosted and interrogated Nazi POWs. The Front 2018 Film: By the end of World War II, Frank Aldridge, a war correspondent sent by the United Nations, interviews German prisoners in an allied camp. Splinters of a Nation 2016 Documentary: The story of German POWs Utah. Decision Before Dawn 1951 Film: As the US Army approaches Nazi Germany, they recruit German prisoners of war to spy behind German lines. The Enemy in Our Midst 2004 Documentary: Nazi Prisoner of War Camps in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. History Detectives 2005 Season 3, Episode 2: Investigates a German POW camp in Texas. Back in Time: Oklahoma’s Nazi Prisoners 2025 Season 14, Episode 3: During World War II, 22,000 captured German soldiers were held captive in Oklahoma. Beets Play: Farmers using German POW to help grow crops in Colorado. Original premiere in 2009 Learn More
Childhood Memories of the Bayou POW Camps
jalaysia sanders podcast editor The POW camps shut down in 1946 — 79 years ago, leaving few who have personal memories from the camps. But some in the Bayou Region have memories as children. Stan Duvall Richard Barker David Plater
German POWs: A Day in the Life
Axis vs. Allied POW Camps
madison blanchard staff writer During World War II, thousands of American and German soldiers were held as prisoners of war (POWs). American POWs held in Germany, Italy and Japan endured much harsher treatment than German POWs held in the United States. More than 90,000 American POWs were held in Germany, while about 450,000 Axis prisoners — German, Italian and Japanese — were held in the United States during World War II, according to official military statistics. The 1929 Geneva Convention established regulations to ensure safety and equal treatment for prisoners held in any location. The regulations ensured that POWs were treated humanely, allowed to communicate with their families and protected from harsh punishment or discipline. “My father was one of three men from Raceland who were held in Stalag, which was a German prison camp,” says John Robichaux, whose father was an American soldier captured in Germany. “He [his father] said they were not treated too poorly, but they would often have to stand in the freezing cold for hours on end and food was in short supply, so they would eat meat and didn’t know what it was — could have been horse or donkey meat, but they were starving so it didn’t matter.” The rough conditions faced by American POWs in Germany were typically not due to a disregard for the Geneva Convention regulations, as the Germans respected this regard. American POWs were treated worse due to a lack of supplies and necessities that were available to Axis POWs held in the United States. The location of captivity played a significant role in how POWs were treated, according to the article “How were prisoners of war treated in WW2?” by Civil War. In the later years of the war, POWs suffered food shortages, overcrowding and deteriorating infrastructure. POWs in rural Germany or the United States were more likely to receive adequate housing and food supplies than those captured in other areas. “America had a better record of treating POWs than any other country, and Japan had the worst,” says Paul Wilson, head of the history department at Nicholls State University. “The death rate of American POWs in Germany was around 1-2 percent, while in Japan it was nearly 30-40 percent.” “America had a better record of treating POWs than any other country, and Japan had the worst. The death rate of American POWs in Germany was around 1-2 percent, while in Japan it was nearly 30-40 percent.” Paul Wilson American POWs being sent to Berga slave labor camp in Germany. Photo Credit: National Archives Barracks in Stalag Luft where American POWs were held. Photo Credit: National WW2 Museum, Liberation Stalag Luft Collection Two German POWs at the Thibodaux campsite. Photo Credit: Evert Halbach Collection, Nicholls Archives & Special Collections German POWs taking a break from working in the Thibodaux cane fields. Photo Credit: Evert Halbach Collection, Nicholls Archives & Special Collections Group photo of German POWs in the cane fields in Thibodaux. Photo Credit: Evert Halbach Collection, Nicholls Archives & Special Collections
U-boat POWs
aynsley andras staff writer German U-boats (submarines) targeted merchant vessels in the Gulf of Mexico in an effort to disrupt the Allies’ supply lines. This campaign had a significant impact on Louisiana’s coast and the prisoners of war captured from the U-boats. The U-boats specifically targeted defenseless tankers and transport ships to cut American oil supply lines through the Gulf, according to When German Submarines Brought WWII to Louisiana’s Shores by Eli A. Haddow. This was due to the Gulf having access to the Mississippi River and merchant ships passing through. One of the most well-known U-boats to be captured and the crew sent to Louisiana was U-505. U-505 was seized on June 4, 1944, as it was returning home after patrolling the Golden Coast of Africa, according to The U-505, a Submarine from Hilter’s Deadly Feet, is Captured. Brian Davis, the executive director of the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation, says the U-boat crew was sent to Camp Ruston, located seven miles northeast of Ruston, Louisiana. “The crew was sent there because it was such a remote area,” he says. “They [prisoners] were less likely to have a direct route to be able to find their way back to U-boats.” The U.S.S. Task Force Guadalcanal captures the German submarine U-505. Photo Credit: LDL/Louisiana Tech University/Camp Ruston Collection. Portrait of the U-505 German submarine, which was boarded and captured at sea, and the first foreign man-o-war captured by the U.S. Navy since 1815. Photo Credit: LDL/Louisiana Tech University/Camp Ruston Collection. Crew of the U-505 before being captured by the U.S.S. Guadalcanal. Photo Credit: LDL/Louisiana Tech University/Camp Ruston Collection. A U-boat crew cramped in the sleeping quarters. Clay Blair Collection- American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming A U-boat crew that was captured and sent to a POW camp in Louisiana. Photo Credit: C.J. Christ A U.S. merchant ship sinking after being attacked by U-boats in the Gulf of Mexico. Photo Credit: National WWII Museum In New Orleans A map of U-boat tracking in the Gulf between 1942-1943. Photo Credit: Houma National WWII Museum
Life for German POWs Leaving America
madison blanchard staff writer The war was over in 1945, but for thousands of German POWs, the journey home was put on hold. Instead of going home, they helped rebuild the countries their army had torn apart. Under the terms of the Geneva Convention, POWs were not allowed to stay in captivity as they were to be sent home. However, many POWs were held for months or even years after World War II, continuing to work despite the war’s end. About one percent of German POWs remained in the United States, and a larger percentage returned later due to poor employment prospects in post-war Germany, according to an article from HistoryNet. “Many of them [German POWs] wanted to come back to America,” says Kurt Stiegler, an assistant professor of history at Nicholls State University. According to German estimates, 5,000 Germans did come back to America. When they did an exit poll of the German POWs, 74% of them had favorable opinions about America.” “Many of them [German POWs] wanted to come back to America . . . 74% of them had favorable opinions about America.”” Kurt Stiegler Although German POWs could not remain in the United States after the war because of diplomatic issues, many wanted to return and took the necessary steps to re-enter the country and become citizens. In the early 1990s, nearly 47 years after World War II ended, the Thibodaux Daily Comet published an article featuring former German POW Gerhard Hoelling’s return visit to Camp Thibodaux. Hoelling, a retired electrician from Bremen, Germany, remembered Louisiana as a very interesting place, with its snakes, cane fields and lenient American soldiers. In this newspaper clipping, reporter Suzy Fleming quoted Hoelling as saying,“I came here with my daughter only to see one small Thibodaux, I was about six weeks in camps (in France) captured by Americans. Then to Great Britain only four days, then from Liverpool we needed nine days to come by ship to New York.” While being captured brought uncertainty and fear for prisoners of war held in the United States, the experience turned into one of opportunity and work for many. Some stayed in Germany after repatriation, while others chose to return to the United States and start a new life. Former German POW, Gerhard Hoelling and his daughter Sabine Giese visiting Thibodaux 47 years after he was released.
POWs and the Economy
aynsley andras staff writer Faced with a wartime labor shortage that threatened Louisiana’s sugarcane industry, they turned to prisoners of war to keep the crops, and the economy, growing. World War II led about 280,000 young men and women from Louisiana to help in the war, leaving a shortage of workers in local industries, says Glenn Falgoust, who researched the Donaldsonville POW camp. “They [U.S. Military] just left the territory for four years, so these sugarcane plantations were in trouble,” Falgoust says. “No labor. No labor, you can’t produce a crop.” “They [U.S. Military] just left the territory for four years, so these sugarcane plantations were in trouble. No labor. No labor, you can’t produce a crop.” Glenn Falgoust With that labor shortage, sugar prices rose. Eventually, the Office of Price Administration set a price ceiling on sugar and implemented rationing, according to Prisoner of War Labor in the Sugar Cane Fields of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana: 1943-1944 by Joseph T. Butler Jr. With labor in demand, the state decided to employ prisoners in the sugarcane fields. Prisoners worked six days a week starting their day at 4 a.m., says Falgoust. Prisoners who completed their assigned tasks ahead of time were allowed to return to their respective camps before the end of the work-day, while repeated failure to finish assignments resulted in disciplinary action according to Prisoner of War Labor in the Sugar Cane Fields of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana: 1943-1944. While the POWs worked in the sugarcane field, they were paid for their labor. The Sugar Act of 1937 established minimum wages for cane workers providing benefit payments to sugar planters and extended through the end of 1944, according to Prisoner of War Labor in the Sugar Cane Fields of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana: 1943-1944. The War Manpower Commission set the average daily wage for inexperienced free labor at 80 cents, while the maximum a prisoner could earn was $1.20. The prisoners were paid in canteen scripts, which the prisoners could use to buy items. “One of the things I found was a copy of a canteen script, which was the money you would use at the canteen paying for things,” says Brian Davis, executive director for the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation. Falgoust says the prisoners could buy paper, pencils, razor blades, soap, and non-alcoholic lotion with the canteen scripts. They were allowed to bring these things back into the camps. By placing POWs in Louisiana’s sugarcane fields under regulated conditions, the state was able to maintain a vital industry during a time of global conflict. German POW working in sugarcane fields at Camp Allen, Livingston, LA. Photo Credit: Joseph T. Butler Jr. German POWs in a cane field. Photo Credit: Everet Halbach POWs in front of a transportation vehicle. Photo Credit: Everet Halbach German POW loading into a transportation vehicle going back to camps. Photo Credit: Everet Halbach German POWs working in a cane field. Photo Credit: Evert Halbach Prisoners of war on work detail at local timber farms. Photo Credit: LDL/Louisiana Tech University/Camp Ruston Collection. An interview with John Lajaunie, finance professor at Nicholls State University, about POWs, the economy and war rationing.
POWS Path to Louisiana
