Pictorial History of Fort Wolters, Volume 13: Police, Fire, Training Aids, Band, Weather Squadron, Recreation, Prisoner of War Camp, Nike, Camp Wolters Enterprise, Parks Page: 98 of 212
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Handbook of Texas Online: Page 3 of 4
A few prisoners wanted to escape despite the insurmountable odds against
success-the vast countryside, the language difference, and the absence of
an underground railroad or safe haven. The records indicate that only
twenty-one POWs escaped, the majority from Hearne and Mexia, and that
every escapee was caught within three weeks, most of them much sooner.
Motivated by boredom, the need for privacy, or a desire to meet girls, the
prisoners often simply wandered away from their work parties and were
picked up within a few hours, confused and helpless. Most escapes were
comical affairs: a prisoner from Mexia calling for help after having been
chased up a tree by an angry Brahman bull; three from Hearne who were
found on the Brazos River in a crude raft hoping somehow to sail back to
Germany; and another from Hearne who was picked up along U.S.
Highway 79, near Franklin, heartily singing German army marching
songs. There is no evidence that any of the escapees committed any act of
sabotage while on the loose.
After World War IIqv ended, the prisoners were readied for repatriation.
They were moved from the smaller branch camps to the base camps, and
from there to the military installations at forts Bliss, Sam Houston, and
Hood. Beginning in November 1945 the former POWs were returned to
Europe at the rate of 50,000 a month, though most were used to help
rebuild war-damaged France and Britain before their ultimate return to
Germany. As the POWs left Texas by the trainload, the camps began to
close. In Hearne the campsite and its 200 buildings were put up for public
auction; in the 1980s the space comprised a small municipal airport and a
proposed industrial park. The camp in Huntsville became part of Sam
Houston State Teachers College (now Sam Houston State University); in
April 1946 Camp Mexia became the site of Mexia State School for the
Mentally Retarded; and Camp Swift in Bastrop later comprised scattered
housing developments, a University of Texas cancer research center, a
unit of the Texas National Guard,qv and an $11 million medium-security
prison for first offenders. See also PRISONERS OF WAR.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Arnold Krammer, Nazi Prisoners of War in America
(New York: Stein and Day, 1979). Arnold P. Krammer, "When the Afrika
Korps Came to Texas," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 80 (January
1977). Robert Tissing, "Stalag Texas, 1943-1945," Military History of
Texas and the Southwest 13 (Fall 1976). Richard Paul Walker, Prisoners
of War in Texas during World War II (Ph.D. dissertation, North Texas
State University, 1980). Richard P. Walker, "The Swastika and the Lone
Star: Nazi Activity in Texas POW Camps," Military History of the
Southwest 19 (Spring 1989). Weekly and Semi-Monthly Reports on
Prisoners of War, June 1942-30 June 1946, Office of the Provost Marshall
General (U.S. National Archives, Washington).
Arnold P. Krammer
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/GG/qugl .html 7/6/2006
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Casper, Willie H., Jr. Pictorial History of Fort Wolters, Volume 13: Police, Fire, Training Aids, Band, Weather Squadron, Recreation, Prisoner of War Camp, Nike, Camp Wolters Enterprise, Parks, book, Date Unknown; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth25111/m1/98/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boyce Ditto Public Library.