POWs in Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK — Letters, we get letters, all of them prompted by recent references here to a program about Japanese Americans.

By the way, that program, recently hosted by the Northwest Arkansas Genealogical Society at the Bentonville library? Its proper title is “Life Interrupted: The Japanese American Experience in WWII Arkansas.” And here’s hoping that’s my last brain blip of 2011. Yes, despite writing at length with numerous references to the Japanese Americans held in internment camps during World War II, I managed to omit “American” from the program’s title not once but twice.

Moving right along, I don’t often share my mail, but the references to the internment camps located in Arkansas at Rohwer and Jerome and the fact that after Jerome closed it was used to house German prisoners of war elicited several letters that you might find of interest.

For now let’s turn to the German POWs, ofwhom one reader was quoted here as saying that he’d once read that they “were allowed to work outside the camps and got paid. They deposited their money on local banks, brought instruments at local stores for camp orchestras and school supplies for the camp classrooms. If their camp was in a wet county, they could buy beer.”

Not exactly, says Michael Pomeroy of Clarksville, Tenn., formerly of Monticello. When you’ve had an interest in a subject that spans 40 years, he wrote, you tend to collect a lot of information. Here he shares some of it.

“The POWs were paid in script, which could only be exchanged at the camp PX,” Pomeroy wrote. “Officers and above could have a certain percentage in cash, but the amount was small to prevent escape. Some of those generals did occasionally go to the bank, but for why we don’t know.

“Transfers of funds through the military banking system were more timely and secure. Besides, from their own PX in their compounds, the could order items-cashing in their script-from the Sears catalogue which they would thenin turn send home. So they didn’t have much to keep accounts in town.

“Many POWs did buy instruments, but many were donated or bought with Red Cross-provided funds. As for beer, they were eventually allowed to buy beer at their own PX, but being in dry counties didn’t have anything to do with it. Still, the beer was all ‘near-beer,’ 3.2 half strength. That was meant to make the grain, hop and rice crops stretch during wartime shortages and had little to do with keeping the soldiers sober.”

The topic of Arkansas’ role in WWII has long been of mild interest to me, but Pomeroy’s letter really fueled my interest. Did you know that the Germans at Jerome were among “the most hardened Nazi officers and enlisted men”? Or that there also was a prison camp at Monticello, this one housing Italian POWs? So many intriguing tidbits, so little space. Perhaps we can revisit the topic later.

Charles McNutt of Little Rock wrote about one of his experiences with WWII German prisoners.

“I finally decided to leave Chicago and go to my new home in Hot Springs, Ark., to finish my leave. My brother, who was discharged from the Army, met me at the train station and I surprised my folks. They were not expecting me for two or three more days.

“It was great to be home. I went hunting and fishing with my dad and some of his friends. I figured that I should spend some time with my mother. They lived seven miles from Hot Springs and she wanted to go to town to do some shopping. I made up my mind to go, although I didn’t really want to, but it made her happy.

“As we were walking down Central Avenue, I noticed a bunch of men with a large ‘PW’ on the back of their shirts. I asked my mother, ‘Who are they?’ She told me they were German prisoners of war that were housed in Arkansas [and] worked on the farms. They were allowed to come to town and shop.

“This really upset me because I could not believe that there were no guards with guns over these people. The reason I say this is at every Navy base that I had ever been on the . . . prisoners were guarded with Shore Patrol or Marines with guns. These Germans were walking around like they owned the country.”

Anyone out there know more about the German POWs in Arkansas? How about the Italian ones? If so, drop me a few lines and I’ll try to share them.

I can’t be the only Arkansan who is ignorant about that part of our history. Maybe we can learn something together.

Associate Editor Meredith Oakley is editor of the Voices page.