Milford chronicle., 1945-05-07
4 Tour Of German Prisoner
Of Var Camps In Delaware


early pea crop when il came in ahead of time lat"
last spring; they helped to good portion OF
the peach crop. and also lot of apples. They have
Gcd many iohs ior which the state lost workers duF
Sclcrtivc Service Withdrawals for the Armed
Forces and the moving of other workers To industrial
UrntC|&.
And All ot this is borne by the financial
ords the prisoners OF throughout the nation
and Delaware. During the ten months the POM"5
have hc"n employed throuchout Delaware. private
,CnIrIcor8 have paid into the L. :. Treasury total
Of $t3l l%O tor the work the prisoners of war.
Let explain this Ivy saying that after the War
M:npCWcr Commission tjnd' no available workers
I'll the orders placed with in" United States En-
rl"ymcnt Service the w NJ. &. c"rtifcs to the Army
the need of prisoners Of war to replace the absent
tree labor.
Then. tho Army aud the private contractor draw
~ contract covering the use OF a certain number
g prisoners OF for certain man days or
houG The prevailing wage rate mnGt I've paid hS
the employer. and in Delaware the minimum is -
pcr hour. And most of the prisoners work s..
Cr 4l2 nOUrS per day sin days per week.
It's true the prisoners do not receive any money
They normally under the Geneva Convention rCcu-
ati0H* get 10 cents per day for personal items such
the soaps tooth paste. Ctc- which we mentioned
early but you k3ow that tea cents doesn't buy
great amount of these items Then. while they
king. they so per day in ctntccn credits
These credits can be used To purchase these articles
or can b" left to their credit for refund when they
arc returned to Germany. There are very few the
officers say. who saving any of the money they
earn.
According to the statement prepared by the
l23l&1 Service Command Unit at Fort DUPONT of
which Colonel Randolph Russell is the Commanding
Officer while Colonel Harris has charge of the pris
oners !of there has been average of 230o
prisoners working public. private and Army pro-
jcctS throughout Delaware
Major Arthur T. Flood Public Relations Officer
al the Fort explained that the prisoners private
contracts worked 179o00 man-days. Nearly 900
hours used by farmers and 657 600 man
hours by various food professors. y total of 1863
man-hourS were used in cleanup and repair work
after the hurricane and 1.0St.Sl6 man-hours were
used in maintenance work at the New Castle Air
Base. Dover Air Field Fort Miles and Fort DUPONT
The prisoners cf war. in Delaware accounted for
Sl.o5S.O21 worth Of work during the months.
62i.9o1 which they earned for the Army in the pri-
employment jobs and s433 926 which they saved
for the Army in work done military projects
On these military projects and the public pro
Jcct5, TN" number of man days increased the total
worked in the state 315.674 or 1857 OPS man
hours. The Jobs included apple picking and pack
ing bean picking. corn cutting. corn husking pcac,
picking and packing. tomato picking. tree trimming;
and pruning. wheat harvcsting lumber operations
canncry labor. poultry processing. ice plant labor
hih OIL rendering. freight loading and unloading
and various industrial jobs.
Throughout the nation it was learned that thc
United States Treasury collected some $22 COO. .nn1
from private employers for German prisoners of war
work. And Dclaw"rp's returns. average. are
hotter than any other state despite the fact that tn"
prevailing wage is higher in some Other sections.
1t was explained. too. that just quickly as free
labor became available for any of the jobs being per
formed hy the prisoners. the latter would be with
drawn to make way for the free labor.
All of these items are important to show that
thcIc Is no "coddlinS OF the prisoners and what We
saw of the camps. two of them at Georgetown and
Brdgcville in addition 10 our earlier visit I,
tn" base camp at Fort dnIon bears this out Officer.
III charge 0f the various camps. most of them mon
with long SERVICE do not have much trouble with tn,
PRISONERS they say simply because they do not lister
10 MINOR complaints and arc firm their rulings
Nn
housing for the prisoners. There is nothing clahor
ate. The prisoners live in room bungalows will
SIN iron cots in each The prisoners have made snal
tdDlcS and shelves and have pictures ON IN,
walls. AT the No. camp in Georgetown a former
CC' camp the prisoners live in long barracks will
GOublc-dcck hunks.
They have their own cooks and bakers for tn
mCsS-halls They have their cantecns in c,rb ,,mr
Ihcy have their reading rooms play soccer and fist
ball in the open and other games chess pinc-pouc
etc IN their own recreation room. They are per
mlttcd 10 receive newspapers and two German Ian
suaGc newspapers are included, hut they say tina
most of the war news is propaganda: believing onl
thc ofhclal German cOmmuniquc. which appears il
the New York Times
Ihcy are permitted one radio in each outfit pur
CHASED from the profits of the canCen. if il can "
found Not all of them have radios Thcy arc als
told many interesting stories.
One who arrived New York. declared tina
America must have great wOrkmcn to rebuild tn
city IN such short space time because he sal
they were told that New York had been Icvoled n
the German bombcrs. However, they didn't beliey
the stories of D-Day in Normandy. even though the
were up and heard it on the radio before the mo
EuarulhS them until some of the prisoners capture
there were brought into camp later
MOST ol the men were members of the fame
>lIlha No'pS' ana spent some months in Arizona an
New Mexico camps before coming 10 ncl.v.rc Ns
oI the prisoners arc of the husky blond Cerma
type; appear satisfied that they are out of il an
WhlIP' according to Colonel Harris, they still tr
to get away with some fast ones dont furni.h =,
much trouble ~ w.
II was pointed out that there have bccu ouI
lhIc" deaths among the prisoners in Delaware. on
'oin "atu'ai causes. one from accident ON the o
ana one as result of heating from - Gcru.
mcSS-at'endant when he objected to the food Th
.chdaht struck the obicctor and in r,lln,
r ms "c"u struck an object and he died as "A result ,
'!'c INJURY Inc mcsS-attcndan was tried pivo
'on'e years IN the pcnitentary and told the Arm,
"Hccrs he thought he had a fair trial and . Coo