Question About German POW's (WWII) in Texas

Subject: Question About German POW's (WWII) in Texas Fri 20 Jul 2007, 5:32 pm

There is much to be found on the Web concerning the German prisoners held in camps in Texas during World War II. A teacher of mine once related to me, though, that some of the prisoners elected to remain in the United States (having been held in Texas, originally) rather than being repatriated at the end of the War. I have been unable to confirm this. Does anyone know if there were some German POW's who stayed behind and if so, what their numbers might have been?

Thank you,

Holly

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/GG/qug1.html
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The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

Trailblazer Joined : 29 May 2007 Posts : 88

Unquestionably some stayed, or wanted to and managed to return after repatriation. Numbers - I'm not sure.

There is at least one book that I know of (NAZIS IN THE PINEY WOODS, I think the title is) dealing with the German POW experience in East Texas camps (of which there were several).

Most of the German POWs who wound up in the USA were captured in North Africa, in the big surrender in Tunisia in 1943.

Age : 68 Joined : 04 Feb 2008 Posts : 5

I am reasonably sure that the Geneva Covention required that all German POWs in the United States be repatriated to Germany at the end of the war. But I know of at least one who returned. In the 1960s there was a very fine German cabinetmaker in Austin whose last name was Oswald. He first came to Texas as a POW. He was related to the von Rosenberg family of La Grange and Austin, an old Texxas-German family, and when they learned he was here they visited him and sent him books and food parcels in his camp. At the end of the war some of the von Rosenbergs sponsored his return to Texas as an immigrant and helped him become an American citizen. Alfred O. Wupperman of Austin, who was related to the von Rosenbergs, told me about him and I had some furniture repaired by him in the late '60s.

Lonn Taylor
Fort Davis, Texas