Virginia POW Camps in World War II

By Dr. Kathryn Roe Coker and Jason Wetzel

Tour the camps, learn stories of the daily lives of the POWs, and discover the impact they had on the Old Dominion.

During World War II, Virginians watched as German and Italian prisoners invaded the Old Dominion. At least 17,000 Germans and countless Italians lived in over twenty camps across the state and worked on five military installations. Farmers hired POWs to pick apples. Fertilizer companies, lumber yards, and hospitals hired them. At first a phenomenon of war in Virginia's backyard, these former enemy combatants became familiar to many--often developing a rapport with their employers. Among them were die-hired Nazis and Fascists, but they benefited from double standards that placed them in better jobs and conditions than African Americans.

Historians Kathryn Coker and Jason Wetzel tell a different story of the Old Dominion at War.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Nov 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781439676714

Dr. Kathryn Roe Coker

DR. KATHRYN ROE COKER received a doctorate in history from the University of South Carolina. For nine years, she was the appraisal archivist at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. She then served for thirty years as an historian for the Department of the Army (DA). Dr. Coker's interest in World War II POWs began at Fort Gordon while serving as the deputy command historian. She has published many articles in professional journals like the Georgia Historical Quarterly and chapters from her dissertation in books. While a DA historian, she published numerous books and pamphlets, including A History of Fort Gordon, A Concise History of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, World War II Prisoners of War in Georgia: Camp Gordon's POWs, Mobilization of the U.S. Army Reserve for the Korean War, U.S. Army Reserve Recipients of the Medal of Honor and The Indispensable Force: The U.S. Army Reserve (1990-2010). She retired in 2015 from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and now resides in Richmond, Virginia, with her two dogs. JASON WETZEL has an MA in education and history from Georgia State University. The bulk of his working life was in telecommunications, with side forays as a high school teacher and a Department of the Army historian. His interest is in World War II history. He was born in Australia during World War II. His mother was an Australian war bride, and he is an Australian war baby. Dahlonega, Georgia, is home.

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Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.com

Copyright © 2022 by Kathryn Roe Coker and Jason Wetzel

All rights reserved

First published 2022

E-Book edition 2022

ISBN 978.1.43967.671.4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022943539

Print Edition ISBN 978.1.46714.441.4

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Preface

1. America’s World War II Prisoner of War Program

2. Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation

3. Camp Patrick Henry

4. POW Camps on Military Installations and Their Branch Camps

Camp Lee

Camp Pickett

Camp Lyndhurst

Woodrow Wilson General Hospital

Roanoke County Branch Camps

Carvins Cove Reservoir POW Work Detail

White Hall Camp

Cartersville Camp

Sandy Level Camp

Penhook Community POW Detail

Camp Ashby

Suffolk Camp

Little Creek Camp

Camp Peary

Richmond Army Service Forces Depot

Richmond Army Air Base

Camp Allen

5. Front Royal Quartermaster Depot and Branch Camps

Base Camp

Leesburg Camp

Winchester Camp

Fairfax Camp

Timberville Camp

6. Fort Eustis and the Behind Barbed Wire Reeducation Program

POW Camp Layout and Population

Reeducation Program

7. The Mystery of PO Box 1142

Conclusion

Appendix: Death Rate of World War II POWs

Notes

Bibliography

About the Authors

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Library of Virginia was invaluable. Archivist Dale Neighbors provided affordable digital copies of images. Senior map archivist Cassandra Britt Farrell located records in the Governor Darden executive papers. Archivist Kevin Shupe was also helpful, as were other archivists and librarians.

Librarian Elaine McRey (Fairfax County Public Library’s Virginia Room) scanned several resources—nuggets aiding in telling the story about the POW camp near Fairfax. Lee Hubbard shared his memories as a young boy. Archivist Rebecca Ebert (Handley Regional Library’s Stewart Bell Jr. Archives Room) provided a fact-filled article. Archives photographic assistant Bettina Helms sent numerous photographs of the Winchester POW camp. Curator of manuscripts and archives Laura E. Christiansen (Leesburg’s Thomas Balch Library) and her colleague scanned records and made available digital copies of images.

Nancy Sorrels (Augusta County Historical Society) provided numerous newspaper clippings and other resources about the Woodrow Wilson General Hospital. Archivist/historian Robert Hitchings (Norfolk County Historical Society of Chesapeake, Virginia) provided details on the history of various newspapers. He photographed the Camp Ashby historical marker in front of the Virginia Beach library and forwarded it. That marker exists mainly due to the excellent research of local historian Julie Spivey. In fact, nobody can accurately write about Camp Ashby without referring to her research and giving Julie well-deserved credit. Special collections librarian Troy Valos (Norfolk Public Library’s Sargeant Memorial Collection) provided access to images of Camp Ashby. Historical collections librarian Miranda Burnett (Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society) found several helpful articles in the collection about Albemarle County POW camps.

Director of public relations Sarah Baumgardner (Western Virginia Water Authority) was also of invaluable assistance. She shared some of the original agreements the authority’s predecessor had with the U.S. Army. Her colleague Lisa Adamo scanned and organized the documents.

We extend our profound appreciation to others who were of inestimable assistance, like Barbara Gamage (Cumberland Historical Society), library clerk Kate Weis (Virginia Museum of History and Culture), Lisa Williams (The Mariners’ Museum and Park) and Patricia Jacobs. These and more people helped us complete this book, especially challenging during the pandemic.

PREFACE

A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails,

and then asks you not to kill him.

—Winston Churchill

The first moments after capture are breathtakingly dangerous," writes Arnold Krammer in his foreword to Robert Doyle’s book The Enemy in Our Hands. The treatment of the prisoner of war (POW) depends considerably on the mindset of the enemy. In short, Krammer explains, how do the captors feel about their prisoners? Some armies, such as the Japanese, Soviets, and Germans in World War II, found them subhuman and treated them harshly; others, he continues, such as the German and British airmen in World War I, treated each other with cavalier equality. The key…lies in the political and military leaders of the captors since their attitudes are translated into action at the lower levels.¹

There are parallels between the treatment of Revolutionary War POWs and that of World War II Axis POWs held in America. World War II POWs were held in Winchester, Virginia. Virginians probably are more familiar with the Revolutionary War Winchester camp. The story of World War II POW camps in Virginia is mostly unknown and/or an overlooked part of the commonwealth’s and America’s history. This extraordinary history is endangered as men and women of the Greatest Generation fade away. Knowing about the treatment of POWs remains relevant given incidents like those at Abu Ghraib and the seemingly never-ending debate over detaining prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

During World War II, American authorities adhered to the conventions when managing POW camps across Virginia and the nation. We study the past to provide insights on contemporary matters, from which we can learn lessons to better our present and future viewpoints, perceptions and practices. Colonel William Ganoe, World War II European Theater of Operations historian, said it best when he warned: History is the last thing we care about during operations and the first thing we want afterwards. Then it is too little, too late, and too untrue. This book is a starting point for learning about the World War II POW story in Virginia and its relevance and to encourage more research.

CHAPTER 1

AMERICA’S WORLD WAR II PRISONER OF WAR PROGRAM

The account of prisoners of war in World War II is incomparable to the history of wartime detainees because the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of War Victims stipulated that POWs were to be protected from acts of violence, retaliations, affronts and public curiosity. Signatories agreed to provide detainees with food and clothing, medical care, safety and other guarantees, such as religious freedom, mental and physical recreation, labor opportunities, mail and repatriation. Prisoners were not to be placed in hazardous situations, nor were they allowed to work in war-related industries. The International Red Cross, YMCA and Swiss Legation inspected POW camps. The Geneva Convention stated: (1) prisoners were to be considered as honorable soldiers, not to be derided or abused and (2) the decent handling of Axis prisoners would help ensure comparable treatment for American POWs.²

America’s POW plan involved numerous agencies. Actions flowed downward from the War Department to the Provost Marshal General Office (PMGO) and finally to the U.S. Army, which managed the camps. The State Department’s Internees Section worked with organizations like the International YMCA’s War Prisoners Aid.³

Liberty ships became the most cost-effective means of transporting POWs to America. But the frequent overloading caused cramped quarters and a strain on the ships’ facilities. The prisoners just had to endure.⁴

The Geneva Convention mandated that prisoners be held in environments comparable to the climates where they were captured. This meant that two-thirds of the camps were in the South and Southwest. Camps in Virginia were located primarily to assure maximum employment of prisoners, meaning that many camps were on military installations.⁵

German POWs during chow aboard the SS Joseph Warren, April 1945. Courtesy Mariners’ Museum and Park. P0003-01-P-13715.

German POWs in the mess line aboard the SS Joseph Warren. A typical meal included hash, beans, mashed potatoes, tomatoes, tea and Vienna sausages. April 19, 1945. HRPE, Newport News, Virginia. Courtesy Mariners’ Museum and Park. P0003-01-P-13714.

German POWs aboard the Eleazar Wheelock have food trays washed after their meal. April 19, 1945. HRPE, Newport News, Virginia. Courtesy Mariners’ Museum and Park. P0003-01-P-13706.

Three types of camps were built: base camps, branch camps and processing stations. Base camps were large and permanent. Branch camps were temporary to fill a definite work requirement. By mid-1945, about seventeen thousand Germans were held in camps across the Old Dominion.⁶

POW camps were constructed to American military camp standards and held two to four thousand prisoners. Four companies of prisoners (one thousand men) were in each compound. A fence separated them. American guards remained outside the stockade, having minimal contact with the prisoners.⁷ Each compound was like a miniature camp, containing four kitchens and mess halls, an auditorium, infirmary, chapel, canteen, latrines, recreation building and administration building. The camp at large had a chapel, a station hospital and an outdoor recreation area. If a station hospital was not available, the prisoners used designated wards in the post hospital. The entire POW camp, writes Arnold Krammer, was surrounded by high double fences, guard towers and search lights. The barracks were designed for utility, not comfort: a concrete slab floor, a 2x4 built structure covered by tar paper or corrugated sheet iron, rows of cots and footlockers, and a pot-bellied stove in the center aisle.…The only difference between the POW camp and a normal army training area, in fact, was the watch towers, located at each corner of the installation.⁸

German POWs on the chow line aboard the Eleazar Wheelock. April 1945. HRPE Newport News, Virginia. Courtesy Mariners’ Museum and Park. P0003-01-P-13709.

Overhead view of German POWs on the transport Neville, taken from bridge. August 4, 1943. HRPE, Newport News, Virginia. Courtesy Mariners’ Museum and Park. P0003-01-P-3617.

One of ten POW barracks at Camp Patrick Henry. Each held fifty men. Each barrack had a long, narrow room with two rows of wooden bed frames, with wire mesh springs. Most beds had footlockers, except those near the stove. Courtesy Mariners’ Museum and Park. P0003-01-P-8400.

The branch camps held 250 to 750 prisoners in tents, auditoriums, mobile units, fairgrounds, armories, schools, sometimes privately owned facilities and hospitals and prisons. Virginia’s branch camps were located near farms and factories. When the war ended, there were 490 base and branch camps across the United States and Hawaii.⁹

After the usual six-week voyage from North Africa or the two-week journey from Europe, the POWs landed at New York, Boston or Norfolk, Virginia.¹⁰ Vigliam Verzola disembarked in Norfolk. We came right off the boat onto the pier. There was this long wooden shed where we went inside to take a shower and get new clothes with those big white PW identification letters painted on them.…After we had our showers, and then some Italian-American soldiers told us how everything was going to be okay, did we feel great!¹¹

The SS Joseph Warren at quarantine with three hundred German enlisted POWs. April 1945. Newport News, Virginia. Courtesy Mariners’ Museum and Park. P0003-01-P-13713.

Military police escort guard company aboard the SS Eleazar Wheelock. This company was commanded by First Lieutenant James H. Hutchinson Jr. April 19, 1945. Courtesy Library of Virginia.

Military police escort 462 German POWs from Naples, shown here aboard the USS John Harvard. 1944. Courtesy NARA.

First Lieutenant T. Peter Welch, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion, addresses two German POWs. April 21, 1945. HRPE, Newport News, Virginia. Courtesy Mariners’ Museum and Park. P0003-01-P13716.

German POWs debarked from HMS Empress of Scotland, Newport News, being examined. This shipment of one thousand Germans was captured in Tunisia, May 1943. Courtesy NARA.

A German American soldier from HRPE’s Intelligence and Security Division interviews Xaxer Detten Kofer, fifteen years old, while an officer from the HRPE Historian’s Office takes notes. May 9, 1945. Courtesy Mariners’ Museum and Park. P0003-01-L-13981.

Aldo Ferraresi said after debarking, he and his fellow POWs were led to a huge metal warehouse:

We are divided from the Germans, thank God and we go through another frisking, while our luggage is inspected. We strip and put all our stuff in a canvas bag, attach a name tag to it, and with only a towel march naked to the disinfestation station. We pass in front of wooden boxes where an American soldier is standing with a sprayer…front…back…bend over…front again… the liquid burns our skin, but only briefly, then it is finished. We proceed, show our name tag to some colored soldiers (white teeth