By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist
In last week’s column, I wrote about the significance of Camp Nelson, located in Jessamine County, and its intriguing involvement in the American Civil War. Doing further research about Kentucky in its times of war, I discovered proceedings in the state during World War II for which I was unaware. Kentucky directed fifteen prisoner-of-war camps, holding about 10,000 German and Italian POWs.
Sound crazy? The dynamics of such, I believe, are fascinating.
It started on September 23, 1942, with the U.S. Army instituting two camps in the state. One was Camp Breckinridge (covering Union, Henderson, and Webster Counties.) The other was Camp Campbell (Christian and Trigg Counties and parts of Tennessee). Security was tight, but some ranking military men complained the number of guards was excessive and took too many personal away from the battlefront. Another complaint came from farmers and manufacturers, who believed the prisoners should be put to work for America’s good, in their communities.
One instance of pressure exhibited was in March 12, 1943, when a canning company in the town of Calhoun, in McLean County, asked Senator A.B. “Happy” Chandler to use his influence to push government use of prisoners to help harvest their local crop of tomatoes, snap beans, corn, and hemp.
The War Department made a big change in 1944, essentially broadening the labor force using the war captives from the foreign lands of Germany and Italy. Security might suffer a bit, acknowledged the Department, but reasoned that security concerns would not overmatch the productivity gained from the POWs. The thinking was that America was in the middle of a global war; war changes the way things are done—and always involves risks.
Soon, contract labor with prisoners increased in a big way. Canneries and factories saw German POWs working in their plants. Agriculture-related prisoner work became a Godsend for rural Kentuckians. At Camp Campbell, labored on a nearby 66.5 acres tract. According to a 2002 article in The Register of the Kentucky History Society, “prisoners planted and tended the crops reaped a bountiful harvest during the summer and fall of 1944.” And with the new focus emphasis on POW productivity, a third camp, Ft. Knox — covering Hardin, Meade, and Larue Counties — had already opened in February 1944.
Smaller satellite camps branched from the three. Those were at Eminence, Maysville, Frankfort, Owensboro, Paris, Shelbyville, and Lexington, Louisville, and Danville each ran two work camps.
Following are some specific examples of local uses for the POWs:
• in Eminence, 316 prisoners were assigned as Army and city cooperation helped save the 1944 tobacco crop.
• in another Henry County instance, POWs harvested corn, baled hay, scattered grain, filled silos, and dug ditches. Altogether, the Eminence Camp contributed 6,843 man-hours of labor to the local economy.
• POWs worked at Darnall General Hospital, in Danville, and Nichols General Hospital, in Louisville.
• in Owensboro, prisoners harvested wheat, strawberries, apples, and tobacco, and were also credited with bringing back the raising of hemp, formerly a staple of Kentucky’s economy. At Robert Reid Sr.’s farm, prisoners even helped produce hemp seed, which in turn was sent to Kansas to grow new plants.
• one Breckinridge Camp prisoner, a professional botanist, was given use of a large barrack to turn into a greenhouse.
In summarizing the benefits of the prisoner work camps, the cited Kentucky History Society article noted: “By war’s end, U.S. government officials, state authorities, farmers, other employers, and even a high percentage of prisoners labeled the POW program in Kentucky a success. German and Italian POWs had worked on military details and for farmers and manufacturers, performing tasks that likely would not have been completed without them.”
It is likely fair to say that despite some challenges, such as antagonism amongst the prisoners between Nazi and anti-Nazi leaning factions, along with a relatively small number of escapes, it was a win-win situation for the prisoners — who were paid — the Army, and Kentucky communities who needed a work force during trying times.
World War II is known as a conflict that all “pitched in and helped.” In this case, even the enemy helped the Commonwealth of Kentucky.