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.