POW Camps in the Bayou Region
kade bergeron features editor When most think of World War II, the focus shifts straight to military involvement, Adolf Hitler, the Holocaust, and a war thousands of miles away. But the impact of the war came to the Bayou Region of South Louisiana as prisoners of war were brought into camps to help with local industry while workers fought overseas. “My mother and her cousins used to ride their bikes alongside the camp in Mathews when they were little,” says Wendy Phillips, resident of Raceland. “The prisoners were there, mostly to help pick up sugarcane scraps from the sugarcane company.” “My mother and her cousins used to ride their bikes alongside the camp in Mathews when they were little.” Wendy Phillips Throughout the region, prisoner-of-war (POW) camps were set up to contain the Axis soldiers and assist in labor shortages. In all, Louisiana was home to 52 POW camps throughout the state, according to the National World War II Museum. There were multiple reasons for prisoners to be captured and dispersed at the camps. The start of this operation came from Great Britain, which had an abundance of prisoners who were filling up their camp’s space, therefore the United States agreed to take some in, according to the Prisoner of War Labor article in the Nicholls State University archives. Specifically, Louisiana had thousands of men deployed in the war, leaving farms, crops, and agricultural businesses without abundant labor. There were severe shortages of workers for these industries, and this allowed prisoners to be put to work to support and boost the American economy during the war. Prisoners mostly worked in the sugar, rice, and cotton industries, according to the Bayou Stalags article in the Nicholls State University archives. The Bayou Region parishes were home to over six camps including areas such as Thibodaux, Houma, Lockport, Mathews, and Donaldsonville, with a combined total of 2,555 prisoners as of 1945 data associated with the Nicholls State University Archives. The sole industry for the camps of the Bayou Region was sugar. For many current residents of the area, the prisoner-of-war camps along the bayous are completely unknown. Danielle Boudreaux, a resident of North Thibodaux, lives directly across the street from the POW camp location on Coulon Road in Thibodaux. Her home’s location is part of the historical site that housed 482 prisoners on its campus assisting directly in sugar cane production. “The neighborhood’s original two members just recently passed, and most likely the majority of the information regarding the camps went with them as well.” Danielle Boudreaux, who lives nextto the former Thibodaux POW camp location. “For me personally, I know very little about the camps, but I can guarantee there are some in this neighborhood that know nothing about it,” says Danielle Boudreaux, who lives on North 7th Street next door to the Thibodaux POW camp location. “The neighborhood’s original two members just recently passed, and most likely the majority of the information regarding the camps went with them as well.” Currently, the remnants of camps across the region have very little evidence of their past. It is hardly recognizable. The Thibodaux camp is now a residential neighborhood and a John Deere facility. The Lockport camp is a chemical plant, and likewise, the same can be said regarding the other Bayou Region locations. There are traces of families of German descent from World War II here in Southern Louisiana, as well as elderly community members who remember these camps from when they were children. To keep these local stories alive, Garde Voir Ci will unpack the life of the prisoners, the area of the camps, and their impact on the region. The Place Bar served as the dining hall for the POW Camp in North Thibodaux. Photo Credit: Jacob Levron, staff photographer The POW camp in Valentine, Louisiana, in 1943. Photo Credit: Nicholls Archive The Thibodaux camp’s POW soccer team. Photo Credit: Nicholls Archives Tents at the North Thibodaux POW camp. Photo Credit: Nicholls State Archives, Litt Martin Collection Scrip, a form of currency valid only within the camp, paid to German POWs at the camp in Ruston, Louisiana. The Shreveport Journal March 16, 1979