Milford chronicle., 1945-05-08
4 Tour OF German Prisoner
OF War Camps In Delaware

rh, nrisoners' Labor definitely helped to save the
early pea crop when it in ahead of time late
last spring: they helped To save good portion OF
the peach crop and also lot of apples. lhcy nave
hcd many jobs for which the state lost workers uut
to Sclcctive Service Withdrawals for the Armed
Forces and the movin2 OF other workers to ihuuSulal
cCntcrs.
And all of this is borne out by the financial rec
ords of the prisoners OF war thlouSh"o ,ne u nauon
and Delaware During the months the POW s
have been employed throuGhout Delaware private
contractors have paid into the t : treasury total
oI Sb2 10 tor the work ot the prisoners ot wal
Let explain this by saying that after the war
M4npowcr Commission finds no avallahtc workers
To I'll the orders placed with the n''d states fh-
p,cymcnt Service. the W. NJ e. Ccl uheS ~ inc Army
the need OF prisoners of war to replace the absent
labor
Then. the Amy and the private contractor draw
MP contract covering the use ot certain number
prisoners OF war for cClta;n man-GiHS "f man
hours The prevailing wage rate must be paid Ivy
the employer. and in Delaware the minimum is ;"
cents per hour. And most OF the prisoners Wofk So
or 912 hours pei day. six days per week
lis truc the prisoners do not receive any money.
They normally. under the Geneva Convention rCGu-
lations get 10 cents per day tor personal items Sncn
as the soaps. tooth paste. etc. which we mentioned
early. but You know that ten cents doesn't buy
great amount OF these items. Then while they are
working they get 81 cents per day cantccn credits.
These credits can be used to purchase these articles
cam be LETT to their credit tor refund when they
returned to Germany. There are very tew the
officers say. who aie saving any ot the money they
According to the statement prepared by the
123lst Service Command Unit Fort DUPONT, of
which Colonel Randolph Russell is the Commanding
Officer while Colonel Harris has charge of the pris-
of war. there has been an average OF 900
prisoners working ON public. private and Army pro
jcCts throughout Delaware.
Major Arthur f Flood. Public Relations officer
the Fort. explained that the prisoners on private
contracts worked l79.eon man days. Nearly lS5ooo
hours used NY farmers and 657.oo0 man
hours by various food professors. y total of 1863
man-hours were used in cleanup and repair work
after the hurricane and l.0S4.S16 man-hours were
used in maintenance work al the New Castle All
Ease. Dover Air Field. Fort Miles and Fort DUPONT
The prisoners of war in Delaware accounted for
$1."5$027 worth OF work during the ten months.
S6249ol which they earned the Army in the pr
vate employment jobs and $f33926 which they saved
for the Army in work done ON military projects.
On these military projects and the public pro-
tects. the number OF man days increased the total
worked in the state to 315.674. or 1857 OPS
hours The Jobs included apple picking and pack
ing. bean picking. cutting. corn huskine peach
picking and packing. tomato picking uce trimming
and pruning. wheat harvesting, lumber operations.
cannery labor, poultry proccssinc ice plant labor.
fish oil rcndCrinG freight car loading and unloading
and various industrial Jobs.
Throughout the nation it learned that the
United States Treasury collected some $22.c00.00
private employers tor German prisoners of
work. And Deawarcs returns, or an average.
better than any other state despite the fact that the
. prevailing WAGE is higher in some other sections.
1t explained that Just quickly as free
labor became available for any of the jobs being
tormcd Ivy the prisoners. the latter would be with
drawn to make way for the free labor
All of these items important to show that
there is no "cOddling of the prisoners and what
' of the camps two of them at Georgetown and
at Rrdgeville, in addition earlier visit to
the base camp Fort DUPONT bears this Officers
charge of the various camps. most of them men
with long service. do not have much trouble with the
prisoners, they say. simply because they list
to minor complaints and are firm in their rulings.
We saw at the Georgetown No. 1 camp the
housing for the prisoners There is nothing elabor-
Wit
six iron cots in each The prisoners have made small
n tables and shelves and have some pictures on the
Il walls AT the No. camp i'll Georgetown. former
+ CCC camp. the prisoners live in long barracks with
t douhlc-dcck hunks.
They have their cooks and bakers for the
mcss-halls. They have their canteens in each camp
They have their reading rooms. play and fist
ball in the open and other games chess ping pong
d etc. in their own recreation They are per
mitted to receive newspapers. and German Ian
:, Guagc newspapers are included but they say that
most of the war news is propaganda: believing only
: the official German communiQuc, which appears il
y the New York Times
- They are permitted radio in each out fit pur
chased from the profits of the cantcen if it bt
r found Not all of them have radios They are alst
u told many interesting stories.
e One, who arrived New York declared tha
l. America must have great workmen to rebuild th
ia city Ill such short space of time. because he sac
lie they were told that New York had been leveed h.
st the German bomhers. However they didn't believ
the stories of D-Day in Normandy though the
in were up and heard it on the radio before the mel
IN guarding them until some of the prisoners captures
of there were brought into camp later.
Il Most of the men members q the famo
II Afrikd korps and spent months in Arizona an
III New Mexico camps before coming to Delaware Mos
~ of the prisoners are of the husky blond. Germa
- type appear satisfied that they it an
~ while. according to Colonel Harris. they still tr
to get away with some fast ones don't furnish to
.e much trouble.
no 1t was pointed out that there have been onl
cv three deaths among the prisoners in Delaware: ON
natural a on thp in
a and one as result of heating from a Gcrma
!, mess attendant when he objected to the food Th
vi attendant struck the ohicctor and in falln
20. ~ :: m, ." o'ION' "'iu "' "''u dH result
nd the INJURY. The mess-attcndan tried, give
m three years in the pcntentiary and told the Arm
hhlcCrs ne thought he had fair trial and a goo
-, verdict because in Germany he thought he wou
80 nave been shot Tor the same thing. Only one ha
.pd ctrinnod tc coo H. I'm" w ''O w