GERMAN
& ITALIAN P.O.W.s @ CAMP PERRY
While
working on our local Bataan collection; and, in my involvement with the Ottawa
County Historical Society’s oral history project, it became quite clear that we
needed more information in one central location regarding the German and
Italian prisoners housed at Camp Perry.
Donna Bovia, our late local author,
created a legacy in print to those passed through the gates of Camp Perry.
There are also newspaper articles from the Port
Clinton Herald and Republican from
October 1943 when the POWs first arrived until they departed in December 1945.
These articles have been very useful in my research. The Italian prisoners were
the first to arrive and they were settled into their five-man huts. The
prisoners had their own mess hall where the meals were prepared by their own
cooks. Prisoners also had their bakers, laundry and cobblers for shoe repair.
German prisoners began arriving in
June 1944. In July 1944 a larger group arrived after their capture in Normandy,
France. All prisoners were put to work as farm laborers, if physically able
(unwounded). Local farmers and fruit growers who were within a 50 mile radius
of Camp Perry were provided with laborers. The prisoners were paid $.80 per day
plus a basic allotment of $.10 per day. The local farmers, growers and others
who were provided with the laborers paid the U.S. Government a fee of $2.00 per
day for each worker. Anna writes that “in 1945 $2,000,000 was paid to the U.S.
Treasury” from the German and Italian P.O.W.s working in the fields and at side
camps.
The prisoners also tended a 5 acres
vegetable garden at the Camp which resulted in a $5,000 savings to the amount
that was necessary to feed the prisoners. Over 1,000 bushels of potatoes alone
was produced from the garden.
The oral History Committee has
collected a number of stories about this time period at Camp Perry. We are also
interested in adding to these stories. If you are interested in contributing to
our local history, please contact Connie Cedoz at the Ida Rupp Public Library,
(419) 732-3212.
Sources
Bovia, Anna L. and Maj. Gary L.
Wirzylo. Camp Perry 1906 – 1991. The Hubbard Company, Defiance, Ohio. 1992.
Ottawa County News. July 13, 1945.
