|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Exploring Greensboro's Nazi POW CampBy Billy Ingram
You may be surprised to know that, in 1944, Greensboro, NC was home to a Nazi POW camp. Let’s explore what infrastructure has survived of that CAMP 80 years after the fact. There’s quite a bit remaining. With almost 400 Kraut combatants under wraps in Greensboro from 1944 until 1946, ORD’s POW camp was one of 18 small ‘branch camps.’ Compare that with much larger installations statewide, housing thousands of internees, located in Butner, Fort Bragg, Monroe, Southern Pines, and Hoffman. In 1943, Basic Training Camp-10, later designated Overseas Replacement Depot, was established on the northern edge of Greensboro, the entrance to ORD located near to where Bessemer and Summit intersect, then continuing east down Bessemer. Situated on 650 acres, ORD’s mission was to train and outfit US Army Air Forces (USAAF) recruits for the European theater of war. Grafted on to the southeastern corner of that base, located south of Bessemer at the corner of Winston and Sullivan Streets, was the gateway into ORD’s German Prisoner of War camp. The initial influx of what were referred to then as PWs were captured combatants from Field Marshal Rommel’s Afrika Korps. Somewhat coincidentally, that’s where my father was serving in the Army during this period. In accordance with the Geneva Convention, POWs were required to be housed and fed in the same manner as our recruits. Thinking being, Germans would treat our detainees reciprocally. That was not to be the case but we didn’t know it at the time. POWs crossed the ocean on ‘Liberty Ships’ returning after delivering supplies overseas, arriving by rail on the way to Greensboro on Pullman cars, the height of luxury, waited on by black porters in transit, served in dining rooms where African-Americans weren’t welcome. Treated so well it created a furor after local airmen of color complained, rightly so, that our enemies were afforded better accommodations than they were. With every able bodied male recruited for the war effort, the United States was suffering a severe manpower shortage in 1944. While women were being recruited for the manufacturing sector, we couldn’t very well have German nationals building our ships and planes now could we? Local farmers and business owners would round up prisoners in the mornings to spend the day plowing and harvesting cotton, tobacco, and peanuts, along with other duties around ORD. Limited to 8-hour shifts, they earned 80 cents a day. If you want to tour what’s left of that enemy internment facility, travel east on Bessemer, turn right at Winston. A few feet past Sullivan traveling down Winston you would be entering the pow camp in 1944, there was a guard stationed there but no serious security. Barbed wire atop fences surrounded the camp. To the right on Winston were 8 Prisoner of War barracks - the third of which is still standing at 727 Winston with an added on brick facade Next door at 725 was Mess Hall #11 for German POWs. The 8 Barracks were equipped with four latrine and shower units in the rear. One of those out-buildings can be spotted behind a more modern building at 721 Winston, known as South 13th Street then. You can still see the tracks and the ORD train depot is still standing at the corner of Bessemer and English, the outer edge of ORD. To the left of the barracks was an unfenced guard field - an administration office(?) at 704 Winston resolutely sits up on cinderblocks just as almost every other building was in ORD Meant to be temporary after all, we were going to win the war right? This building was constructed later than the others, perhaps to process Germans back to Germany? The fencing in front of this structure is precisely where the barbed wire line was in 1944. It stretched almost to Sullivan and surrounded the barracks and out buildings, you can still see where the fence line was and is today, this was the entrance into the camp behind us. South 13th Street = Winston Street = ended at the edge of camp, but today it curves to the east leading into Utility Street which retains its original Army Air Force base name. This offers us a look at the camp’s other barbed wired zone reserved for recreation and education including a library, english lessons, movies and newsreels depicting US Army Air Forces, many trained just a couple of blocks from there, raining holy hell on nazis all across Europe. Again you can see where the fence line was and is today. 2200 Sullivan Street operates out of two refurbished rec halls built for POWs on the eastern edge of the POW Camp. Luis Felicia, who went on to establish a well-known dance studio in Greensboro, was stationed on the base from 1943-45. In an interview with a UNC-G history project, he recalled supervising Germans servicing the Officer’s Club, said to be one of the most elegant in the nation. Besides minor problems communicating there were no snags, just the opposite actually. “They were real happy,” Felicia remembers. “I think they were happy to be prisoners. Because they had a lot of good food to eat. One of them said, ‘My goodness,’ he finally got it across to me, he says, ‘Hitler would feed the whole army with what you just threw away.’” A year after V-E Day, in 1946, all Axis combatants were forcibly deported back to their hometowns. If given a choice a great number would undoubtedly have stayed put, they had it a lot better in the USA than the war ravaged nation they returned to - a large portion of which was occupied by bloodthirsty Russians hellbent on revenge. Many of the Germans quartered in Greensboro wrote letters back to the families they worked for and dined with in Greensboro, often receiving ‘care packages’ in return. In those missives, former combatants remarked that they never understood the concept of freedom until they were imprisoned here. So 425,000 Germans incarcerated around the country, including about 10,000 in North Carolina, helped America win World War II? Nazi that coming! Post-Modern Sitcoms / Actors That Wrote Books / 1987 Gilbert Gottfried Pilot Written By Larry David / Tarantino, DiCaprio & Pitt on Once Upon A Time In Hollywood / Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci Talk Goodfellas / Coming to America - The Awful Sitcom? / Robert Wagner Interview / Helen Mirren on 1923 / Lucky 19-Year Old Birthday Boy on The Price is Right / 1990-1999 TV Commercials / James Hong on the First & Only Asian Talent Agent in Hollywood / More Than Myagi: The Pat Morita Story / Chevy Chase 2021 Interview / Ally McBeal and that Darn Dancing Baby / Ed Begley Jr. Interview / Rap Folk Artist Demeanor Interview / Peter Boyle's Heart Attack on the Set of Everybody Loves Raymond / Patrick Swayze Refused To Do 'Ghost' Without Whoopie Goldberg / Clark Furlong on Stephen King's Mini-Series Lisey's Story / 14-Year Old Brody Bett Steals the Show at a David Foster Concert / Worst Big Budget Superhero Movie of All Time / Jerry Springer's Toxic TV Legacy / Three Generations of Talent / One Season Too Many / Dick Wolf on the Writer's Strike / Angela Lansbury Tribute / Sam Fribush Organ Trio / Houston Knights / Rissi Palmer is Still Here / Uncle Buck Sitcom / My Brush With King Charles / Bonnie Bartlett Daniels Interview / Frank Zappa Talk Show? / Remembering Marvel & Buffy Scribe Pierce Askegren / Piper Laurie Tribute / 1993 Route 66 Reboot / David Hyde Pierce on the Last Days of ‘Frazier’ / Angela Lansbury Interview / The Shadow Movies of the 1930s & 40s / Remembering Hal Holbrook / Remembering Angela Lansbury / Greensboro Movie Theaters : Star Theatre / Police Squad Shot-By-Shot Remake of M Squad! / A Painting Saved Bill Murray's Life / Why Jim Carrey Fought to Cast Jeff Daniels in 'Dumb and Dumber' / Meredith Baxter Talks Breast Cancer / Sopranos Creator David Chase Had to Fight to Make Tony Soprano the Mobster He Was / Joan Collins on Working With Drunk Actors / Snowmaggedon 1969 / Joe Pesci HATES Practical Jokes / Books About Showbiz / Making It in Showbiz / Dark Justice / My Fave Book About Showbiz / Remembering Billy Packer / More Celebrity Biographies / Peter Falk : Inside The Actor's Studio / Jason Alexander on Duckman / Robert Ebert on Robert Mitchum / Watch Dave Chappelle's New Netflix Special for Free / Margaret (Wicked Witch of the West) Hamilton Was Almost Scarred For Life Filming Wizard of Oz / Restaurant Chains We Might Lose In 2020 / Night Heat / Short History of TV Advertising / Is Ellen A Monster? / To Binge Or Not To Binge? / 1986-87 TV SEASON / Celebrity Bios 4 / 1988-89 TV SEASON / 1990-91 TV SEASON / Can Comic Book City Survive? / When TV Plays Politics for Laughs / The Worst Thing I Ever Saw (Part 2) / Greensboro's Beef (Biff) Burger Has Closed! / Sally Field Looks Back on Smokey and the Bandit / Actors Writing Memoirs 2 / Gene Wilder's Sexual Chemistry with Richard Pryor / WORST Pizzas Served On Kitchen Nightmares / Ricky Gervais' Cruelly Funny 2020 Golden Globe Monologue / What It's Like To Win A New Car on The Price Is Right / Night Train! 3 - Las Vegas Comic Pat Cooper / Night Train! 4 - Resurrection and Death of Louis Prima / Denis Shepard of Paradise Lost / Space Force Logo is a Ripoff from Star Trek! / Batman Movie from 1939? What?!? / Michael Richards (Kramer) Really Hated It When his Seinfeld Co-Stars Messed Up / Melissa McCarthy Almost Quit Acting Days Before Landing Gilmore Girls / Bar Rescue's Wildest Customers! / How The Golden Girls and Elvis Got Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs Made / Charlie Brown Voice Actor Released From Prison / New Year's Eve on TV / Sir Laurence Olivier on the 'Genius' of Marlon Brando / 1967 Futurists Predict The 21st Century / Remembering Diahann Carroll / 50 Funniest Niles Crane Insults / TV HITS - By the Numbers / How Tom Hanks Played Mr. Rogers / Colin Farrell as The Penguin? / Alex Baldwin On His TV and Film Roles / Ray Charles' BIG Problem With TV / Malcolm Gladwell on TV Crime Dramas / Why Dolly Parton Would Not Let Elvis Record 'I Will Always Love You' / Top Ten Sitcoms of the 1970s / Danny McBride Rebooting Hogan's Heroes? / Fashion on TV / Alive & Well / James Cameron Made No Money for Titanic / Whatever Happened To Miss Cleo? / Lucy Blows Off Burt Reynolds / Dave Navarro Meets His Mother's Killer / The Real Mindhunters Killers / John Goodman Breaks Down His Iconic Roles / Growing Up In The Playboy Mansion / Ed McMahon Drunk on the Air! / Lucy Interviewed by Barbara Walters / Valerie Harper Cancer / Jeff Bridges Breaks Down His Iconic Roles / Dog Fight! The KCNC Scandal / Buckley vs Hefner / Laurence Olivier vs Marilyn Monroe / Dallas vs Eight is Enough / 1974 MAD Magazine TV Special - Never Aired! / Iconic M*A*S*H Restaurant Coming To Kroger? / Matt Damon, Bill Murray, and Graham Norton - Big Laughs! / When Lucy Got Fired / Partridge Family and Brady Bunch at Kings Island theme park 1972-73 / Awkward Talk Show Moments / Allan Blye Interview / Jack Benny's Last Tonight Show 1974 / Patricia Heaton's Audition for Everybody Loves Raymond / Luke Perry's Last Role / Johnny Cash's Last Interview / Judy Garland's Last Film / Who Was Bob Gordon? / Richard Dreyfuss vs Bill Murray / Jeff Ross vs Everybody / Tennessee Williams 1972 Interview / Ed Asner Interview / Norm Macdonald vs OJ Simpson / Tony Kornheiser Interview / Freddy's Nightmares TV Series / Awful 1990s TV Shows / The Funniest Comebacks in Talk Show History / Was Sonny Bono Murdered? / Robin Williams' Mrs. Doubtfire Screen Tests / Robert Downey Jr Asks for Forgiveness for Mel Gibson / Russell Brand / Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave / Judy Garland vs Liz Taylor / Emmy Award Multiple Winners / Nathaniel Taylor aka Rollo Lawson / Anthony Zuiker: Mr. CSI / Jimmy & Cher / Diana Muldaur: A Viewer's History / Uncle Andy's Funhouse / Bea Arthur vs Betty White / Skidoo: Worst All-Star Comedy Ever? / Every Marvel Cartoon Opening Theme From 1966 - Present / When Stars Play Themselves / My Pen Pal is in the Pen, Pal / Small Roles Big Performances / Barbara Hall / Stars Before They Were Famous / Stars Before They Were Famous 2 / Stars Before They Were Famous 3 / A Better Classic TV Network / Bill Paxton / Who Was the Black Daliah? / How Frasier Was Created / Music Videos / Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - Behind the Scenes / Shirley Jones Interview / What We Lost When We Lost VHS / When Hit TV Shows Return / Commercials Starring Sopranos Cast Members / Shows Nobody Remembers But Me 4 / Shows Nobody Remembers But Me 1 / Bryan Cranston Interview / FREE streaming movie service you didn’t know you have / The Great Cable TV Migration / Sportscaster Woody Durham / Movie Posters and the documentary 24x36 /Chris Robinson /Dallas Reboot /David Letterman /Auditioning For Game Shows in the 80s /Ghosts of Cable TV past / Honey Boo Boo - WTF?!? / Steven Bochco Tribute / Ian Abercrombie / Joe Franklin / John Nettles / Gotham / Family Fued: Gilligan's Island vs Lost In Space / Jon Cryer / Jon Stewart / Lana Wood / David Letterman / Matt Bomer / Molly Ringwald / Morgan Brittany / Music Rights for TV Shows / Neilsen Ratings / Norman Lloyd / Not Your Dad's TV / TV Series Reunions / Rich Little / Special Bulletin with George Clooney / Howard Stern VS Jamie Foxx / Top Ten Action Movies / 2013 Emmy Awards / 2010 Celebrity Deaths
|
|
