Clifton Theriot

I am the archivist here at Nicholls State University and we have different collections that have information pertaining to the POW camps, so that is where I have learned most of what I know at the camps. Growing up, my grandmother always spoke of the camp that was located in Matthews during WWII so she talked about what she remembered during that time.

I don’t remember much about the camps in Matthews from my grandmother’s stories. Pertaining to the camps in Thibodaux, I met someone who used to work at the library and his father was one of the guards at a camp here in Thibodaux and he shared some pictures with me. One of my former coworkers, Mr. Butler, also wrote an article or two about the POW camp where he interviewed a man that came back to visit and show his family Thibodaux in the 1980s.

I think it’s one of those things that were just forgotten with time, a lot of people that were part of that generation have either died off or are in their 90s or close to 100 years old, so it was forgotten throughout younger generations.