By Elaine Rassel
Wednesday evening, (Oct. 25) Linda Betsinger McCann presented a program on Prisoners of War in Iowa. Linda has lived in Iowa all her life. Her ancestors settled in Iowa by the 1850’s. She enjoys researching the genealogy of her family as well as of the history of Iowa. Did her family know of the POW (Prisoners of War) that in 1942-43 were in Iowa? It seemed no one really knew about these POWs or the camps they were in. She decided it was time to do some research and write about this.
It was between 1941 and 1945 that about 435,000 enemy prisoners of war came to the United States and were held in approximately 900 camps throughout our country. Something is wrong about the picture—we had some of our military as prisoners of war, why would we have enemy prisoners of war in our country? England had reached its prisoner capacity and in the fall of 1942, requested the United States to take 175,000 of their prisoners on an emergency basis as they already had 280,000 prisoners.
The United States agreed and between 1942 and 1943, with approximately 25,000 housed in Iowa. Algona and Clarinda were the main camps in Iowa, each that could hold 3,000 prisoners. There were about 17 “branch” camps or temporary camps in Iowa that had POWs come and do a specific job. Some of the branch camps were at Audubon, Charles City, Clinton, Eldora, Muscatine, Onawa, Sioux City, Shenandoah, Storm Lake, Tabor, Toledo, Wapello, and West Liberty.
Ocean liners were painted gray and converted to transport 1,500 Italian, German, and Japanese prisoners of war, arriving in New York, Virginia, and Boston. They were then transported in Pullman train cars to reach the Midwest. Every state had POW camps except Nevada, North Dakota and Vermont. Many Americans had contact with German people for the first time. The American farmers and manufacturers were able to meet the demands for food and supplies when the POWs came to help them.
The Geneva Convention Agreement in 1929 had rules for POWs. They had to be safe from potential threat of combat zones. They had to have food, lodging, access to hygiene facilities in the same amount and characteristic as the soldiers and those in control of them. Camps had to have five barracks, a latrine containing showers and laundry tubs with unlimited hot and cold running water, a mess hall and administrative building for each company. They also had to have a chapel, a station hospital, and a large outdoor recreation areas for all camps. The quarters for the officers must provide 120 square feet per man, and for other ranks, 40 square feet per man. There had to be sufficient heat and lighting for buildings or tents, adequate drainage and water supply.
In need for camps for these POWs, many of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC camps) camps were converted for POW camps. Fairgrounds were used as well as tents being set up in city parks. Not all went well in these camps. Some of the prisoners at some sites refused to work. This was the time the U.S. adopted the slogan, “No Work, No Eat”! The Nazis and SS troops had to be segregated from the prisoners and were sent sent to special camps away from the other POWs.
The United States divided POW labor into two classes. Class one included the labor to maintain the prison camps. Class two encompassed all other types of labor, not connected with military operations. The civilian labor unions were against using prisoners of war and protested that. Several states had the unions use strikes or work stoppages to illustrate how important the labor unions were to the workforce. The War Department worked with the unions to supply the needed manpower for the jobs, and refused to allow labor unions to charge the POWs dues.
The second need to be addressed was religion. Civilian clergy or priests visited the camps and held services with Army chaplains assisting. Most of the POWs were German or Italian. The Lutheran Church established the Lutheran Commission of Prisoners of War. The National Catholic Welfare Conference organized the War Relief Branch to provide for religious needs of POWs.
We have the POWs religious needs taken care of and they were working—but what were they to do when they weren’t working? Sports were important to the Germans but not the same sports we had. They liked soccer but also played ping-pong and tennis. The U.S. solved this problem by allowing guards to organize competitions and games between different camps. We provided recreation equipment for the camps. The military personnel allowed theater and music to be practiced and performed by the prisoners. The YMCA shipped about 50,000 musical instruments, 3,820 gramophones, and 220,000 records to POWs in America. Films were found in German or Italian language for movies provided. Books and magazines were obtained in the prisoner’s language.
Was there any fear of the POWs being in the U.S.? From the beginning, there was fear the Nazi and Japanese prisoners would escape and sabotage or rape their way across the U.S. all the while the U.S. was in combat overseas. Every location had floodlights, war dogs, the mail was censored, there were bed checks, recruiting prisoner informants, a shakedown of inspections and keeping military discipline. All POW clothing was stenciled with PW to indicate they were Prisoners of War. This would identify them and they wouldn’t be making advances to people. It as later learned that the biggest problem was not the prisoners but to keep the American people from fraternizing with the prisoners.
The last POWs in America left on July 23, 1946. Other than the seriously sick or injured, and 24 escapees, the 435,788 prisoners held in the U.S. were returned to Europe. Not any of the POWs were allowed to stay in the U.S., but had to return to their country.
Between April of 1940 and July of 1942, more than 2,000,000 men left the farm to go to war and by the end of the war, the agricultural population had decreased by six million. Farmers called for federal measures to provide labor and assistance for the production of their crops. They sent women to assist and the farmers protested citing their inability to operate heavy farm equipment. With thousands of hungry soldiers being shipped overseas daily, agricultural states like Iowa, increased food production in order to feed them. An Algona newspaper encouraged Kossuth County farmers to raise more sugar beets in order to keep the state’s two sugar beet plants (Mason City and Waverly) at full operation. Contracts had been signed with farmers for 9,000 acres but 14,000 acres were needed. Plans were in the making to ration sugar in the U.S.
Farmers were also asked to boost hog and egg production and to increase the acreage devoted to soybean and flax crops. By August of 1942, there were 4,000 Kossuth County farm families found increasing production was difficult due to no labor to help them. One newspaper reported, “It begins to look like the army boys may have to fight on empty stomachs.”
The Geneva Prisoner of War Convention (1929) had approved using enemy prisoners to meet labor shortages. Iowa did set up smaller, or satellite camps in locations were the prisoners were needed. POW labor was allowed in local canneries, hemp mills, nurseries, and area farmers to meet their wartime production goals. In one town, the draft board had stripped it of 1,500 young men to go to war. When 90 of the POWs came to help, the farmers were more than glad to welcome them.
In Buena Vista county, it was said that every available man, woman and child was needed to save the crops. Laborers were brought in from Mexico and Jamaica. A minimum of 500 laborers were needed to save the 125 acres of beans that would be ready to pick the second week of July. There were 300 Mexican nationals that were to arrive in Storm Lake to work for the DeKalb Seed Corn Company. They were housed at the DeKalb plant.
Sioux City had a prisoner of war camp in 1944. January 12, 1944, Italian prisoners housed at the armory, whose labor was to be used to harvest ice. They were 325 Italian POWs from Camp Clark, Missouri, along with 43 Army personnel. The Central West Ice Company cut the ice from Crystal Lake. It as expected the men would be there four to six weeks. Warm weather ended the ice harvest unusually early, and they returned to Missouri on Feb. 1, 1944 after harvesting 20,000 tons of ice.
In July of 1944, POWs were again sent to Sioux City and being housed at the West Junior School because the armory had recently flooded, as well as the Perry Creek district and the Country Club area. The POWs did all their own cooking and slept on cots in the gym. The army supplied their needed clothing—hip boots and the tools and work equipment required to clean up from the flooding. There were only 50, including guards and translators there instead of the 100 the city had asked for.
The community was to give these POWs no monetary gifts. Citizens were reminded that anyone giving a POW even one cent of money could be court-martialed. Food for the prisoners was supplied by the army. The prisoners were paid in canteen tokens. The POWs began cleaning basements in private homes and then moved on to the streets. The mayor had signed a contract for thirty 8-hour days labor, at a rate of 62¢ per hour, paid by the city. The homeowners had no cost. The POWs worked in groups of four or five, with an army corporal overseeing them.
The United States had gotten rope material (hemp) from the Philippines, but because of the war, this was now impossible. It was discovered the hemp plant could be processed and used for rope. Mills or factories had to be constructed to process the hemp. They were to be located at Algona, Boone, Britt, Eagle Grove, Grundy Center, Hampton, Humboldt, Mason City, Rockford, and Traer. The War Hemp Industries, Inc. signed a contract with the army for the use of prisoners with about 30,000 expected to be used. The hemp mill operators were to provide transportation of the POWs to and from the barracks daily. The men were to work ten hours a day for six days a week. They might have to later stack hemp at the mills if insufficient local labor was available.
Hardin County received 280 Italian POW soldiers who were quartered in the former CCC camp buildings, located at the Fairgrounds. The prisoners were shocking hemp on farms in central Hardin County, near Eldora. They were under guard of 35 soldiers and two officers.
There were two main POW camps in Iowa—near Algona in Kossuth County and near Clarinda in Page County. The Chambers of Commerce were instrumental in getting POW camps to Iowa. They felt that the construction of these camps would stimulate the local economy and assist the farmers. The camps at Algona and Clarinda were identical. The design permitted 3,000 prisoners and 500 American soldiers to live in 186 buildings at each camp. Barbed-wire fence with towers manned by machine-gunners oversaw the activities. The camps included twenty frame barracks, each housing 50 men, a post theater, church, fire station, ice house, machine shop, barn, hospital, electric manufacturing plant, and water and sewer facilities.
The cost of keeping one Italian POW averaged $23.28 for thirty days, compared to the cost for a German POW of $21.64. This cost was 15¢ per day for the Italian and 9¢ less for the German per day than the cost for enlisted service men. Maintenance cost at the Algona camp up to June 21 was $64,373, and Clarinda was $83,827.

This Story will continue in next weeks November 9th issue of the Marcus News

When the first trainloads of prisoners pulled into the station, local residents turned out to watch. In many cases, the population of the town doubled with the arrival of the POWs and soldiers. The captives were lined up and marched to the camp. Most of the citizens welcomed them as they would provide the much labor help needed. However, not all people felt this way. They had family members fighting in the war and others had family members who were actually prisoners of the Germans. They were upset at how well the enemy was treated by us.
The prisoners carried what belongings they had to the POW enrollment area. All attempts were made to prevent contact between new prisoners and the ones already at the camp. They had to fill out identification forms, have a medical examination, and have all their possessions cataloged and searched. It was in later years that the POWs were fingerprinted. The prisoners had kept their belongings safe. The belongings included family pictures, toiletries, shaving kits, first-aid supplies, books, letters or some other individual keepsakes. Many prisoners were surprised to be handled with respect and to have their possessions handled carefully.
The POW camps allowed prisoners to keep most of their belongings. All letters were closely inspected. All money was taken and placed in an envelope with the prisoner’s name on it and kept until they were discharged so that the prisoners would not be able to bribe guards or other workers to buy civilian clothes or train tickets. The POWs were issued blue work clothes since they could wear their uniforms only during leisure time. A large “PW” was stenciled on the back of each item. Other items supplied to them included 1 belt, 2 pairs of cotton trousers, 2 pair wool trousers, 1 wool coat, 1 overcoat, 1 pair shoes, 4 pairs socks, 4 pair underwear, 4 undershirts, 1 raincoat, and 1 wool shirt.
The prisoners were lined up for inspection, welcomed by the camp commander who outlined important rules to be followed and the punishment for escape. The prisoners had translators as well as the Americans who had translators—that way both sides were aware of what was said and expected of them. Then they were escorted to their barracks and given bunk assignments. All prisoners received a large “welcome” meal, no matter what time of the day they arrived.
The POWs were awoke to reveille at 5:30 a.m., had eaten breakfast by 6:30 a.m. By 7:30 a.m., they were loaded on trucks and taken to the work site. Lunch was at noon and by 4 p.m., they were loaded on the trucks and returned to camp. Dinner was between 6 and 7, and then they were free for the remainder of the evening. One prisoner wrote back to his family that he had more to eat in a single day than they did in an entire week at home. POWs told the family not to send food to them but to keep it at home to eat.
Prisoners were paid 80¢ per day for an eight hour work day of work done outside the camp grounds. Those who worked inside the camp received 10¢ per day. They were paid in coupons which could be used in their canteen. Or, they could have the money placed in a savings account to be redeemed upon the settlement of the war. They could buy necessary items like razors, toilet articles, belts, tobacco, candy, literature and radios. They could get two pints of beer per day. The beer was 3.2% alcohol (required Iowa’s law) but the prisoners thought it was too “soft” as they were used to 8 to 14% alcohol!
All incoming and outgoing mail was checked. One reason was to see how the POWs felt toward the Americans. They were allowed to send one postcard and two letters per week. Letters and cards had to be written on special prepared green paper so one could not write something with water or other fluids to make it readable later. All letters were examined by censors—both American and German. Most letters were of concern for their families and praise for the food and wanting their family to send German books. No plans or uprisings were ever reported.
These POW camps had hot and cold running water, showers, and indoor latrines. Dental and medical care and hospitals were at the camp. This is more than they had while being a prisoner at home. These German prisoners desired to remain in the U.S. rather than go back home.
Transporting prisoners, the guards had to keep watch over the prisoners in “uncovered” trucks. With the trucks being open, the prisoners could reach a hanging branch, swing on it, and get away. Actually the prisoners were not trying to return to Germany but rather to get lost in the U.S.
The Japanese soldiers held as prisoners at Camp Clarinda, were not as accepted as the Germans and tended to anger the Americans. Prisoners could not work in war activities, like manufacture of ammunition or weapons, could not participate in dangerous work; so this is where they went to work in the fields or food factories.
The camp at Algona did have two prisoners escape. There were daily counts on all prisoners. On May 21, 1944, the number was two short at the count, but that was not discovered until May 24. A West Bend marshal called the camp that he had two of their POWs (16 miles away from Algona). The two men had dug under the fence during the night, crawled out and filled the hole, and then spread apart the second fence in order to reach freedom. Everyone was in shock. The prisoners were returned and placed in the stockade. There was NO lock on the door but they were to be checked every thirty minutes. At 1 a.m, there were NO prisoners. A search began with no alarm being sounded. The next morning an officer arrived to inspect the camp, and issued an order to search the camp. The two prisoners were found hiding above a latrine ceiling. This called for several investigations on the Algona camp. Part of the roll call—the number of prisoners on work details—was supplied by German clerks, who produced fictitious numbers to cover the missing pair. Within days, the present Colonel was replaced and reassigned.
According to the Algona POW Museum, there were 79 civilian workers at the camp. A total of $120,000 was spent by the camp personnel in Algona for rent, food, and utilities. The value of the work done by prisoners in the four-state region overseen by the Algona camp was 3.5 million dollars.
Some of the POWs hired to pick corn on farms were professional men like doctors, lawyers, etc. They had to be taught to pick corn. Some of the farms had no armed guard accompany the prisoners. The farmer would pick them up and return them to camp. The prisoners did enter the house and ate at the table with the family. A sergeant would inspect the work every couple of days or so. There was never an interpreter with these prisoners.
Depending on who came with the prisoners, some of the prisoners were allowed to eat at the family table. A guard stood his distance away from the table, watching. The family was told not to talk to the prisoners. The family couldn’t speak German, anyway!
POWs also built projects. Lightning had ignited a fire at the wooden elevator at Plainfield Coop. The owner couldn’t find laborers to build a new one. German prisoners were trucked from the camp, south of Waverly, to work in Plainfield. They worked 20 men in three shifts, round-the-clock, for nine days to build the new elevator. The outside of the elevator was built of concrete and finished by Ryan Construction of Omaha. The POWs were hired by Ryan. There was a translator hired for the prisoners.
There were those prisoners that did not want to return to Germany, and begged the farmers to let them stay and work on their farms for free. Almost 50 years later, one man returned to the area where he had worked as a prisoner. Why did this man make an effort to find the farm family? He was grateful and wanted to let them know it.
Linda told of the world famous Nativity Scene created by German prisoners at Camp Algona. It is located at the Kossuth County Fairgrounds in Algona. Eduard Kaib was an architect in his private life and a non-commissioned officer in the Germany Army when he was sent to Camp Algona in the fall of 1944. With Christmas approaching, Eduard was lonely and felt the isolation deeply as he thought about home, family, church services and happy festivities of the holiday. These feelings prompted him to build a small Nativity Set. The figures were made out of soil, baked in an oven to harden them, then placed in a twelve foot wide scene. A Camp Commander, Arthur Lobdell, viewed the set on display in the prisoner’s quarters and was very impressed. He later called Kaib to his office for a discussion and at this time asked Eduard to consider building a larger Nativity Scene, which would be funded by the prisoners (about $8,000 total). The project was finished and ready to display for Christmas of 1945.
Mr. Kaib, who had lived in Bielefeld, Germany died May 24, 1988. He was a peace-loving man who left an on-going legacy to Algona, Iowa. In the spirit in which it was given, the NATIVITY SCENE will continue to be shared each year during the month of December. (There are more interesting facts about this NATIVITY SCENE that there is not room to write about at this time but I will write about it at another time.)
Many Americans felt having prisoners in Iowa was a positive experience. Without the POWs, many crops would not have been harvested, many Americans and soldiers would not have had enough food. Europeans would have had less food than they had without American help. Life-long friendships were formed with many Iowans. The POWs—Italians, Germans, and Japanese, returned home with a positive impression of Iowans, that they shared with others and that influenced other generations numerous years later. The POW camps opened countless doors that would have remained closed if Iowa had not hosted the POWs during World War II.
Linda has done a lot of research on “Prisoners of War in Iowa” as well as with the other eleven books she has written about Iowa that include: Civilian Conservation Corps in Northeast Iowa, Civilian conservation Corps in Southeast Iowa, Lost Black Hawk County, Lost Bremer County, Lost Butler County, Lost Cedar County, The Cedar Valley Road, Lost Chickasaw County, Lost Franklin & Grundy Counties, Lost Linn County and Prohibition in Eastern Iowa.