{"id":293,"date":"2015-10-10T21:54:46","date_gmt":"2015-10-11T01:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ss.sites.mtu.edu\/mhugl\/?p=293"},"modified":"2016-10-17T20:17:46","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T00:17:46","slug":"fort-custer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ss.sites.mtu.edu\/mhugl\/2015\/10\/10\/fort-custer\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Custer and Prisoners of War"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Postcard<\/a>
Postcard of the Fort (dspace.willardlibrary.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fort Custer was a military installation that was built in 1917 between Battle Creek and Kalamazoo in Augusta, Michigan. \u00a0It was created as a training installation for troops during WWI and WWII and is comprised of a few major sections. \u00a0These include the barracks, state park, and industrial park. \u00a0The barracks section of the installation, seen in passing from a car, takes up a large amount of space. \u00a0It contains a large number of housing buildings laid out in neat even lines surrounded by open training fields and other buildings. \u00a0This area is used as a training space and housing for the Michigan National Guard. It was also used as a POW camp for German soldiers during WWII as well as a medical facility for casualties during WWII.<\/p>\n

The Fort Custer\u00a0National Cemetery is placed near the grounds of the current training base, and it is the resting place of 26 German POWs who died while at the Fort. \u00a0Of these, 16 of them died when the truck that they were being transported in was hit by a train on its way to a sugar beet farm. \u00a0There is a memorial on the grounds commemorating them and a number of German veterans visit to pay their respects.<\/p>\n

The industrial park, which now houses a score of factories which are owned by numerous companies, was once a massive training ground for the troops needed during WWI and WWII. \u00a0While this area was operated by the Army, it oversaw the training of 300,000 troops during WWII alone. \u00a0This area also saw use as labor areas for the German POWs interred at Fort Custer during the war. \u00a0This part of the grounds was run from the forts creation to the 1960s when it was shut down and abandoned. \u00a0The land was then given to Battle Creek Unlimited who turned it into the industrial park it is today.<\/p>\n

All of this area encompasses that which is known as Fort Custer. \u00a0The actual military installation is now much smaller than it was in the past, yet it is just as important to the surrounding cities and towns that it provides it services to.<\/p>\n

POWs in Michigan<\/h3>\n
\"Barracks<\/a>
Barracks Internal View (www.anglefire.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

German POWs numbered fairly high in the United States and a number of them assisted in labor in the Midwestern states. \u00a0By the time 1943 rolled around prisoners of war from Germany had started to flow into camps that had recently been converted or constructed in Michigan.\u00a0 Many German prisoners were transferred from camps in Great Britain to camps in the United States.\u00a0 A large number of prisoners were transferred up from Texas and other southern states to camps in Michigan.\u00a0 These prisoners were held at Camp Custer until they were moved to any of the other camps in and around Michigan.<\/p>\n

The number of German soldiers captured and then held in the United States during the war outnumbered\u00a0the number of Americans held as POWs in Germany by a factor of 4 to 1. \u00a0These men were integral to the industry of Michigan and other Midwestern states, as these prisoners were used as an influx to the labor force on the farms of these states.<\/p>\n

The work that these men performed was not forced upon them and was done so that they could have something to do during their lengthy incarceration.\u00a0 As America followed the Geneva Convention for the holding of prisoners of war, these camps were well supplied with food and other amenities.\u00a0 However, in order for the prisoners to get access to extra amenities from the camps store, the prisoners would need\u00a0to work for them.\u00a0 On a farm near Eau Claire, Michigan, these working men were paid 80 cents for each work day performed.\u00a0 While this may not seem like a lot of money, it comes out to around 11 U.S. dollars after inflation is induced.<\/p>\n

One of these farms was owned by William Teichmann in Eau Claire.\u00a0 Mr. Teichmann hired the German workers from the U.S. military to assist him and his family in harvesting his 120 acre farm.\u00a0 Many farms in the Midwest needed all the extra labor help that they could get, as these farms used seasonal labor from the lower parts of the U.S.\u00a0 With the need for troops and the rationing on rubber and gas, these men did not come up from the south to help work the farm.\u00a0 Farmers like the Teichmann family pleaded to the U.S. government that they needed a labor force or they wouldn\u2019t be able to harvest effectively.\u00a0 The call was answered by between 5,000 to 8,000 German prisoners all throughout Michigan.\u00a0 This veritable army of a labor force worked in Michigan\u2019s factories, orchards, and lumber mills.<\/p>\n

The prisoners that helped Mr. Teichmann at his farm made sure to keep in touch with him and his family using mailed letters after they were released from the POW camp following Germany\u2019s defeat.\u00a0 This was started by Mr. Teichmann when he told each and every German POW that worked with him to make sure to write when they returned home and that if they ever need help to just ask for it and he would be there.\u00a0 This hospitality, generosity, this humanity, lead to the Teichmann family getting around 50 letters from prisoners that they employed for the three seasons of work that he needed.\u00a0 These letters helped document troubles that post war Germany and her citizens faced. \u00a0Similar stories were all over the Midwest, as the moral of these prisoners was quite high due to the condition of the camps they were held in and because they had previously been held in camps in the southern states or they were being held at British camps, which were a bit less hospitable.<\/p>\n

Mr. Teichmann\u2019s farm was a bit of an oddity compared to some of the other farms in the area, as the Teichmann family had moved from Germany in 1890.\u00a0 Mr. Teichmann often found that he had an easier time conversing with and ordering around the German prisoners.\u00a0 Because of this he would often assist the other farms in the area as an interpreter between the workers and farm owners. \u00a0Mr. Teichmann was considered a full-blooded German in the eyes of the prisoner workers where he was.\u00a0 One soldier, Gerhard, told him that \u201cWhen I was on your farm it felt like being at home\u201d.\u00a0 This camaraderie showed itself in the letters that the family got after the war; often starting with a phrase containing the words \u201chomeland\u201d or \u201cold country\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Teichmann family did not interact too much with the German workers due to the amount of work that needed to be done.\u00a0 However, one of these times of respite and conversation was during their transfer period from the camp to the farm.\u00a0 During one of these times, Mr. Teichmann accidentally ran over a small chicken from one of the other local farms.\u00a0 This moment was captured by one of the soldiers in the truck with him via a hand drawn sketch.<\/p>\n

Stories from Prisoners<\/h3>\n

Elmer B. was a German corporal who served in the Wehrmacht starting in 1937.\u00a0 He thought of himself as a proud German and was part of the Nationalist party.\u00a0 During the war, Elmer took part in the invasion of Poland, France, and the Soviet Union.\u00a0 In 1942, Elmer joined up with the Afrika Korps and was involved in the fighting in Tunisia and Libya.\u00a0 When he was captured, Elmer spent\u00a0four whole months in the sweltering heat of a British POW camp in Algiers.\u00a0 Elmer was transferred to Norfolk, Virginia where he would take a train to Camp Custer where he spent\u00a0the rest of the war.\u00a0 During his time at Camp Custer, Elmer used his skills gained as a butcher in Germany to work as a cook supervisor for the camp.\u00a0 Elmer did not know any English when he was captured and thus he decided to take part in an English class during his incarceration at Camp Custer.\u00a0 When interviewed by Barbara Heisler, Elmer stated that he was satisfied by the living conditions in the camp and the only times that he had complaints was during the food rationing in 1945 and when he was put into solitary confinement for stealing and destroying some anti-Nazi newspapers (Der Ruf<\/em>) that he considered to be anti-German in content.\u00a0 Also during his interview, Elmer told Barbara that his views of the United States from in the camp were quite positive and he expressed his interest in visiting the U.S. later with his wife.<\/p>\n

A large number of Germans returned to Germany and their families after the war ended. However, some of them like Karl H. found their way back to the country where they had once been held.\u00a0 Karl fought for Germany form 1940 when he was drafted till 1944 when he was captured in Italy.\u00a0 Karl H. was transferred via the same route as Elmer and found himself being held in Fort Custer.\u00a0 While Karl was being held at Fort Custer, he met a woman named Stella, who was a civilian worker with the purchasing and contracting department.\u00a0 They became quick friends and kept in contact even after Karl transferred to England.\u00a0 The two were reunited in 1948 when Stella found a job with the American Occupation Forces and the two married a year later.\u00a0 Karl and Stella moved back to America and Karl ended up working in Ypsilanti, Michigan for 33 more years.<\/p>\n

The Security of a Fort<\/h3>\n

Due to the conditions that the prisoners of war were being held in were more than hospitable and the weather comfortable, the security detail with working prisoners was rather relaxed. \u00a0More often than not, one could see a group of up to 100 prisoners being guarded by only one guard. \u00a0It wasn’t uncommon to see the guard assigned to the group of prisoners to be sleeping on the job, leaving the group to watch themselves. \u00a0One prisoner, Hienz, had a job with a guard watching over the camp stove. \u00a0During these shifts, Hienz would read an English dictionary and talk to the guard he was with; waking him if he slept to long so Hienz could learn more English. \u00a0By 1944, Hienz was performing work without a guard as he assisted in additions to Fort Custer. \u00a0Another prisoner, Rudolf H., stated that “guarding by the Americans became very superficial.”<\/p>\n

The camps were barricaded with barbed wire fences and guarded by watchtowers, but it was very rare to see a POW try and escape from the camp and if it did happen, the escapees would be recaptured not long after. \u00a0Why would the prisoners want to escape and where would they go. \u00a0These men were thousands of miles from Europe and even then, their accent wouldn’t get them anywhere in the US. \u00a0As one prisoner from Fort Custer stated, “it would be foolish to escape from a place where\u00a0we were enjoying relative freedom and good care to return to a\u00a0Germany where death, hunger and other dangers were still the rule of\u00a0the day.” \u00a0Each camp had an elected intermediate that would speak with the heads of the camp when they had any concerns. \u00a0Other than that, the structure of prisoners often reflected that of American POWs in camps, keeping their ranks even when they were being held prisoner.<\/p>\n\n

 <\/p>\n

Primary Sources<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Hahn, L. (2000) \u00a0Germans in the Orchards: Post-World War II Letters from Ex-POW Agricultural Workers to a Midwestern Farmer<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Heisler, B. S. (2013)\u00a0From German Prisoner of War to American Citizen<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Secondary\/Tertiary Sources<\/h3>\n
      \n
    1. Buntjer, J. (2010)\u00a0Tending to the boys of war<\/a><\/li>\n
    2. Hall, K. T. (2015)\u00a0The Befriended Enemy: German Prisoners of War in Michigan<\/a><\/li>\n
    3. Butler, M. G. (2009)\u00a0Camp Custer<\/a><\/li>\n
    4. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (2015)\u00a0Fort Custer National Cemetery<\/a><\/li>\n
    5. Krammer, A. P. (1976)\u00a0German Prisoners of War in the United States<\/a><\/li>\n
    6. The Yale expositor (1917) \u00a0Health at Custer Nearly Perfect<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Further Reading<\/h3>\n