WWII POWs subject of Santa Fe Trail Days lecture

Author David Fiedler speaks about prisoners of war held in Missouri during World War II at the luncheon kickoff of the Santa Fe Trail Days celebration Friday. About 15,000 captured German and Italian soldiers were held in Missouri during the war, where Fiedler said they were treated well and even made friends among the U.S. citizens they met.

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Fiedler spoke on the subject of these prisoners of war Friday at the Santa Fe Trail Days kickoff luncheon.

Scattered across the state in about 30 makeshift camps, the POWs were a source of labor, cultural crossovers and controversies.

They were originally housed in a few large camps, with a few thousand simply imprisoned. Suggestions to utilize them for labor were deemed too risky, with the potential for escaped Axis soldiers running rampant across the U.S. countryside.

But when the flooding Mississippi River threatened the southeastern Missouri city of Ste. Genevieve, a lack of manpower convinced Missourians that the risk was no worse than losing the town entirely. Fiedler said a sandbagging brigade of enemy Italian soldiers helped save the city, which still stands as the oldest existing town west of the Mississippi.

Following this, smaller POW camps of closer to 100 prisoners branched across the state, with camps of tents springing up informally in parks and baseball fields. As they spread, Missourians became more widely aware of the level of freedom enjoyed by prisoners, who were being held in accordance with Geneva Convention terms, treated by the same standards as U.S. soldiers.

Giving the enemy access to tobacco, meat and chocolate, for example, angered many civilians. However, it built relations with the prisoners -- who generally expected harshness, malnutrition and cruelty from their captors.

Instead, the POWs were allowed to form camp theater troupes, bands and used library resources for prisoner education. In small towns without much entertainment, Fiedler said their performances were often quite welcome.

This atmosphere, along with close working relationships, fostered close ties between Americans and POWs. "By and large, people realized there was a common humanity that extended both ways," Fiedler said.

After the war, the POWs were returned overseas, but correspondence between several of the prisoners and their captors continued. When immigration was reopened in their homelands, many returned to the U.S. seeking a new home and citizenship.

David Fiedler is the author of "The Enemy Among Us," which recounts the story of POWs held in Missouri during the second world war. His speaking engagement at the Santa Fe Trail Days kickoff was his second in Marshall, previously visiting Missouri Valley College in October 2004.

Contact Matt Heger at

marshallbusiness@socket.net