It’s a one-of-a-kind treasure trove of information concerning the camp, and it is safe-guarded exactly where it needs to be. I pulled the information for the next few articles that I will be inserting in my Then & Now columns from these documents. It will certainly take two installments and perhaps even three to cover just the highlight. Surprise, surprise! Though most Americans were unaware of it at the time, during World War II over 375,000 German prisoners were in camps located in almost every state in the United States. In Oklahoma alone, there were a total of seven base camps (Alva, Pryor, Camp Gruber in Muskogee Co., Ft. Reno in Canadian Co., McAlester, Ft. Sill and one in Marshal Co. northeast of Madill). In addition to this there were many more branch camps, a couple of hospitals and a few more internment centers in the state. (See the map accompanying this article.) During WWII, the facilities at Northwestern State College were converted to use as pre-flight training for Army Air Force cadets, and several other departments were set up for training in war production. There was, for example a school on riveting that trained people (many women included) for the purpose of molding and riveting aluminum and other metals for airplane production. When it was announced that a POW camp would be located in Alva, it hit the community “like a bombshell,” according to newspaper accounts at the time. A government project had been rumored before, and Alva businessmen and the Chamber of Commerce had been in conference with the state Congressional delegation, but the citizenry in general was anticipating the locating of an air training field. The announcement came on July 1, 1942 and almost immediately a survey crew was on the scene laying out the project. On July 29 the city council of Alva agreed to build a modern sewage disposal plant to accommodate the camp, and that project was completed by November of 1942. Buildings went up quickly, and the first U. S. troops arrived in the early fall amid local rumors that the first internees would be arriving as early as January 1, 1943. Most Alvans thought even then that the camp would be housing enemy aliens rounded up in the U. S., but it was announced on Nov. 10 that the camp would detain prisoners of war. An open house was held on Dec. 20 and the citizens were invited out to view the progress at the camp. It was a bitterly cold day, but around 1000 braved the elements to see the camp for themselves a camp that was constructed to house as many as 6000 detainees. In the succeeding months the buildings were completed, trees and grass were set out and many other improvements were made. Troops continued to arrive and others departed, but spring came and went with still no prisoners in sight. Things change Then on July 31, the first few internees arrived at Fort Reno on May 26, 1943. They were POWs captured in North Africa when Rommel’s army was defeated in desert warfare there. It was but a harbinger of things to come for Oklahoma’s camps. In Alva, the first prisoners arrived July 31, 1943. The camp never reached its capacity of 6000, but at its peak there were probably around 4850 prisoners detained here, this at a time when Alva’s general population was somewhat less than that. The troopers were marched from rail cars near the Alva depot, up College Avenue and on out to the camp on foot. I did not live in Alva during this phase of the war, but I have had friends who attended Washington School tell me that they remember as first-graders being taken over to College Avenue to watch the POWs march by. Many articles have described this as a camp for the “worst” of Hitler’s army, and books and articles have even indicated a “wolf society” whose main purpose was to escape and kill as many as Americans as possible before being killed themselves. History, however, does not bear this out very well. Though these soldiers were part of the Nazi elite, and many were thoroughly Nazi-indoctrinated, there were actually few incidences of “tough guy” attitudes. The exceptions will be dealt with in the next installment, when I write about one Nazi die-hard in particular and the so-called “Battle of Alva” in general. There would be some escapees, and even one prisoner shot to death in his attempt to escape, but not a single one made it all the way to freedom. It is reported that there were 21 escapes from this camp (including a few prisoners who made it out twice), and five POWs died there from natural causes. It is also interesting to note that a branch camp of the Alva location was established in Waynoka. This was composed of about 100 POWs who helped ice down boxcars for the Santa Fe Railroad. This camp lasted from August, 1944 to September, 1945. I have not found any information as to where these prisoners were kept. In the next installment I’ll cover some Nazi activity in the camp and what I have been able to find about the “Battle of Alva.” Camp Alva Part 2 By Jim Barker - Alva Review-Courier In the last installment, I mentioned that I would cover some Nazi activity at Camp Alva and what I have been able to find out about the “Battle of Alva.” I might mention also that a reader has put me on to a new source that may contain vast information. Before I’m through with all of this it may take more than the two or three installments I mentioned in the opening treatise concerning the camp. In my search through the material that Larry Thorne, our excellent city librarian, let me look through I came across a very interesting declassified document from the Library of Congress. It appears to have been written by a very literate German prisoner (or perhaps an interpreter of the German language) after the fact. I did not save the portion of the document that contained the prisoner’s name, but I do not recall that it was ever mentioned. Anyway, the excerpt I want to present here is as follows: “Shortly after we had come there (Camp Alva), HEIM’s Nazi methods which were already prevailing, made themselves felt across the barbed wire of the neighboring compounds. Naturally all of this went on secretly and without the permission of the Americans. Very soon the fellow prisoners were divided according to the well known methods into organizations, groups and smaller groups, which poisoned the whole camp and kept it in check. During the night HEIM’s delegates climbed up to us and vice-versa and transmitted orders. That’s how a GESTAPO group of about thirty men was formed and acted as informers and examined every single person as to his political (i.e. Nazi) reliability. Compulsory political meetings for all camp inmates were held under strict secrecy once a week. “I never found what “Heim’s” first name or his rank was. Another passage in the document reads: “Every camp inmate had to fill up a FRAGEBOGEN secretly – it said on instruction of the Americans, which was not true – in which Party membership, organizations, etc. were the major features: and soon there were BLOCK and ZELL (cell?) leaders here, and the HITLER youth leaders and SS leaders there. One organization outdid the other; in short there reigned a Party and GESTAPO terror far worse than in Germany.” I looked up the term “fragebogen” on the internet and found it defined as follows: N. A questionnaire, document containing a list of questions to be answered, the exam paper, sheet of paper on which questions for a final test are written. Parts of this definition would make perfect sense in keeping with the subversive activity that was going on in the camp. Though there were no officially listed killings of prisoners by other inmates in the camp, there were two unexplained suicides that could be called suspect. Some German prisoners, the author of this quoted document and a “Herr Ruge,” for example, who remained opposed to the Nazi-controlled proceedings. Ruge had a position as a mess orderly and could inform the American camp manager of the conditions. He obtained a promise that he would be safeguarded under all conditions. He once even dared speak out in front of the entire assembly on inmates in ridiculing the Nazi policies within the camp. I’m sure there is a great deal more to this activity within the camp, but I have found no access to it. The Battle of Alva Word first came concerning this conflict when a rather vanilla report from the central controlling department for military POW camps in Dallas issued a statement indicating that an altercation had occurred between prisoners and guards. The Daily Oklahoman, however, received an anonymous letter (perhaps from one or more of the American guards) concerning the incident. That paper issued the following in its Jan. 22, 1945 issue: “Letter to Editor Tells of Battle of Alva.” The Daily Oklahoman first learned of the Alva disturbance in the following letter to the editor. It adds a few facts to the Dallas announcement, but we think you will agree it is more graphic. This material comes from Linda Wagner’s OkieLegacy website. January 15, 1945 – (Other records indicate the “battle” occurred on Jan. 11) Yesterday began and ended The Battle of Alva. To our knowledge this was the only engagement between American and German forces on this continent. The fighting was brisk and bloody, but there will be no campaign ribbons issued; no battle stars displayed. Casualties were broken heads and smarting eyes, as 64 American soldiers accosted 1,400 “supermen,” former members of Rommel’s famed Afrika Korps. Armed solely with riot clubs and weak concentrations of tear gas, into the valley of death marches the fighting 64 to storm the Nazi bastion. The battle was joined as clubs flew and splintered; gas flowed freely, mingled with Nazi tears and blood dripped from many a lacerated scalp. Gradually began the famous strategic retreat, the oft-heard Teutonic expression for a battle lost. When the smoke had cleared 1,400 supermen stood with a new respect for these unpredictable American soldiers ground into their grimacing faces and the fighting 64 reformed and marched out. Righteous anger and malice were no more. If a 2-day restriction and Nazi stubbornness can bring such a change to men – most of whom are wounded, overseas veterans and limited service men – how then can we lose? NOTE: The trouble started when one compound refused to move out for a routine shake-down. They were asked again and again. Finally, as a last measure, they were given the only treatment they can understand. Brute force and bestiality is all the men will ever understand. I doubt if the American public will ever understand how difficult it is to treat these POW’s with kid gloves, while our boys are treated as war criminals, Geneva convention not withstanding. (Serviceman’s name withheld by request.) For another slant on this, read the following from a letter that Dr. Miles Kelly wrote to his wife concerning the incident. (Dr. Kelly was an army doctor who worked at the camp during the last year of its existence. This material comes from an account of the Dr.’s experiences written by his son and again comes from Linda Wagner’s OkieLegacy website.” According to his son, he began by writing that “the following information is confidential and please don’t repeat it.” That portion of the letter dealing with the altercation follows: “This morning they ordered the Germans in Compound #1 to go to the recreation area in preparation for a “shake down” inspection of their barracks. They (we) had just made a previous inspection about three days ago and the Krauts didn’t like to have it repeated. In order to get them out the C.O. mobilized the entire guard and gave each man a good supply of tear gas grenades. At about 10:30 this morning we evacuated all the American patients and personnel out of the hospital so (that) if the wind changed they wouldn’t get the effect of the gas. Then the show began and they really turned out in record time. It was fun to see the “square-heads” making for the recreation area. After they cleared the barracks a very thorough inspection was made and I imagine it will take some time to get them back in order. As a result of the events today the “Krauts” agreed to cooperate and they are back on three meals a day. Never a dull moment in a P.O.W. camp.” Camp Alva Part 3 By Jim Barker - Alva Review-Courier Descriptions of the physical characteristics of Camp Alva are contained in several sources, and they are generally the same. The camp was divided into four compounds, three used to house non-commissioned officers and enlisted men, and the fourth set aside for officers. The compounds for non-coms and enlisted men each contained thirty-two single-story, wood-frame buildings covered with sheet rock and tar paper. Each of the 20x100 foot barracks was designed with bunks for 50 enlisted men. The officers’ compound contained 150 buildings which were divided into small two-room apartments. The compounds of the officers and enlisted men were separated by barbed wire. There were 13 guard towers arranged along the fences. The compounds extended 700 feet to the west and 1100 feet to the east and 700 feet to the south of the concrete water tower. The capacity of the camp was around 6000, but the prison population at its maximum was a bit less than 5000. One source lists the maximum at 4850. Each compound contained four buildings for showers, toilets and basins, four building for kitchens and mess halls, one building for a canteen, one for an infirmary, and one building for a recreation hall. The City of Alva provided water and also took care of the camp’s sewage. The hospital stood just north of the prisoner compounds and west of Washington Avenue with service and supply areas between it and the Section Line Road. The water tower, a brick chimney, and the VFW building are all that remain of the camp today. Back when the stock car races were being held in that area during the early 1950s, I remember that there were three or four of the brick chimneys still standing and a few others that were toppled to the ground. Deaths and escapes at the camp Five POWs died during the time the camp was in operation. One of these, Emil Minotti, was shot in the left chest and died from shock and hemorrhage during an escape attempt. Klaus Eberhard Bork was sent to the Borden General Hospital at Chickasha for an appendectomy and died there from peritonitis. Englebert Mayer died from an occlusion of the coronary artery, and two prisoners (Erwin Grams and Eric Schindler) hanged themselves. Some sources say the hangings were suspicious, implying that they may have been killed by other prisoners. Some of these men were buried temporarily in a small plot on the post, but all were eventually moved to the cemetery at Fort Reno in Canadian Co., Oklahoma. Twenty-one escapes were reported from this camp, but all were caught and returned. Two prisoners, Max Wolff and Karl Heinz Zigann, escaped twice. Other escapees as listed in Alva Review Courier and Woods County Enterprise newspapers of the time, included Heinz Aulenbacher, Werner Wolf, Heinz Roth, Franz Holm, Bergmann von Schweinicher, Hienz Homme, Eberland Wilms, Pauul Zahn, Heinz Shulz, Fritz Puescha, Anton Sheffer, and Erich Wulf. Hardened Nazis? Many earlier articles have described the Alva Camp as a “Nazilager,” and a place where trouble-makers from other POW camps were sent. When reading through accounts at the camp, there seems to have been only minor trouble, if any, and things generally ran rather smoothly. The major exception, of course, was the “Battle of Alva” that occurred in 1945 and was discussed in the last installment of Then & Now. I also read an old Courier newspaper account at the Alva City Library that described a visit to Alva by former prisoners who denied that the prisoners were Nazi die-hards. On the other hand, there are accounts written in several sources that I found on the internet that would seem to support the “hardened Nazi” claim. Consider this passage authored by Chris Lewis while preparing a lesson plan for the New Hampshire Historical Society’s New Hampshire History Summer Institute: “In many camps Nazi and anti-Nazi groups battled each other despite efforts to separate them. The real hard-core Nazis were weeded out and sent west to a camp in Alva, Oklahoma” Another report from an Alabama source made approximately the same claim, and I noted allusions to this in several other sources as well. The camp was declared “surplus” by the government on September 25, 1945, and the camp was closed on November 15, 1945 after all the prisoners were processed out. The buildings and other movable property were offered for sale on January 16, 1946, at which time some were purchased and moved to Alva to become houses and apartments, some were used by businesses, and some were moved to farms and nearby communities, the most famous in this area being the large community building in Kiowa. Some of these buildings still remain in Alva, those that were not sold initially remained in place in one compound and became apartments for returning vets going to Northwestern on the GI bill. All were eventually sold and moved. |
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