"Jap Camp" Crossville, Tennessee's POW Camp 1942-1945
This camp was coined the "Jap Camp" by locals of East Tennessee, not because it housed Japanese, that's for sure. In fact, this camp NEVER held a Japanese soldier. The people of East Tennessee took their anger at the current affairs with Japan, out on the prisoners housed there, showing how easily misinformation can spread. The words Internment camp, and Concentration camp, aren't the terms that really depict the POW camps the German Nazi's inhabited during WWII in America. Instead steak dinners, and nightly entertainment were a regular thing in these prisons. Many locals remember, the Nazi's eating better than the people of Crossville. Camp Crossville opened in 1942 and closed by December 1945 for the end of World War II. Crossville camp held some of the highest ranking German Nazi soldiers and as well Italians soldiers. During World War II Tennessee was home to eleven prisoner of war camps. Four of them being large installations. The Crossville location was built on top of the old 1930's CCC camp that was abandoned years before. First prisoners to arrive in Crossville, Tennessee were 1,500 German Nazi's most whom were veterans of General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps. Camp Forrest nearby held nearly twice as many prisoners, and Camp Crossville eventually became a branch of Forrest as well, Camp Campbell was a special purpose camp which served as a safe house or haven for "anti Nazi's". Prisoners were generally cooperative, Italian prisoners seemed to get along very well with one another, but the German democrats often quarreled constantly among themselves. Small wages could be made for small labor or agriculture tasks. Security at the camps for the most part was highly lax, prisoners were allowed outside the gates/fences on a regular basis for walks etc. Most always these prisoners would return. Of 356,560 prisoners in the United States of America only 1,583 prisoners escaped and of those only 22 were never captured. One story that used to be told, three German submariners had escaped the camp and made their way to a mountain side cabin, were a old granny yelled to them "git" and when they didn't heed her warning she shot one of them dead. When the local deputy sheriff arrived he had told her she shot a German POW and she said she would of never fired, " I thought it wuz a damn Yankee ". Conditions were comfortable for prisoners in Crossville, By the Geneva Convention, the enemy never did without. Entertainment was a nightly thing, steak dinners on the regular, like mentioned before, the prisoners actually lived better than most of the local families in the area. Camp Campbell prisoners formed two Orchestra's. German prisoners camped in at Memphis Camp formed a Orchestra as well. Prisoners were allowed to buy wine and beer as they pleased, even had day trips to the mountains. Camp Crossville and Campbell both had published newspapers. Educational programs were setup at nearly every camp. Gerhard Hennes was a German Lieutenant captured in North Africa on May 13, 1943. Five months later after a few short stays in a bunch of different holding facilities, he entered the gates of Camp Crossville. Imprisoned here for a term of two years. After the war Gerhard Hennes became a U.S. Citizen and in 2004 published the book " The Barbed Wire: POW in the USA". He gives a detailed description into the life at the Crossville Camp. They were given new uniforms, they were never interrogated and were left to the authority of their own German officers. "Three square meal a day" Hennes wrote, breakfast included long forgotten or newly cherished things like scrambled eggs, crisp bacon, fresh orange or V8 juice. All kinds of cereal; and hot caked soaked in maple syrup. Gerhard Hennes had the rank of Lieutenant so he was given the salary of $20.00 a month. Prisoners in return could buy beer, cigarettes, and just about anything they could imagine out of a Sears catalog. The prisoners formed soccer leagues, kept themselves occupied by playing cards and they took educational classes taught by other prisoners. Prisoners had no complaints about treatment, and we know this from Gerhard's book and many post war visits and post war letters. Several German prisoners returned in 1984 to visit Memphis and the Camp site they were imprisoned. Many Germans emigrated to the areas they were imprisoned after the war. Crossville Camp is currently housing Clyde M York 4h Training Center near Ponoma, Tn. Take Sparta Highway from Crossville to Ponoma and left at the crossroads. A museum stands nearby with artifacts from the times, The currently listed number is, (931) 788-2288. Why did we give such good treatment to the Nazi's? Did we go over and beyond the rules of Geneva Convention? How about our POW's how are they treated in their foreign prisons? A great film on YouTube really puts it all in prospective for me, look up A Rich Man's Trick JFK - 9/11. Did we back the Nazi's? Feel free to review this film, in my blog post titled "Can Purposeful Misinformation be used as a Weapon?" These are all loaded questions, some may call them silly, but if we do not ask them, and remember all of our past, both good and shady, how will we move forward and grow? Keep asking questions.
1 Comment
Sal L
3/24/2018 10:40:11 pm
Great read bro! Never knew any of this and I have lived here since forever!
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