Alien Enemy Internment Camp

[editor]

I just watched a show on PBS called History Detectives. It had a segment about Camp Hearne.

There were about 500,000 German prisoners kept in 650 camps across the nation in the 1940's, and there have been a couple of threads on HAIF about prisoner of war camps in Galveston County, but this was the first time I'd heard about one further inland.

The official name was "Alien Enemy Internment Camp, Hearne, Texas." It was about 720 acres, along US190 north of the Brazos River, near the Robertson County fairgrounds.

The reason the German prisoners were brought there in 1942 is that Germany was starting to lose battles in North Africa, and Britain couldn't handle all of them. According to the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war are supposed to be kept in a climate similar to the one in which they are captured (kinda explains Gitmo a little, too). Texas was considered as close to North Africa as the United States could come at that time.

Officially, the prisoners harvested cotton. But in their down time they did much more. Some decided they liked Texas and built fountains and theaters and gardens. Others weren't so happy and managed to publish their own pro-Nazi newspaper and build a secret radio transmitter. Also secret was the underground chamber used as a courtroom where fellow prisoners were tried by Nazi hardliners and sometimes sentenced to death.

There were 4,800 German prisoners kept in Hearne, overseen by a thousand guards.

Apparently, today the Hearne Chamber of Commerce has a model of what the camp looked like. It's pretty interesting, and if you're in the area it might be worth checking out.

[mrfootball]

Ain't nothing compared to the Civilian Internment Camps that the government has contracted KBR to build.

Just a bit disturbing...

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_arti...06fe03f4c9b3a77

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Stor...77662-858254656

[marmer]

My best friend from college's grandfather was a topkick sergeant in the Army (US, that is) at Camp Hearne.

marmer

[editor]

Ain't nothing compared to the Civilian Internment Camps that the government has contracted KBR to build.

Just a bit disturbing...

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_arti...06fe03f4c9b3a77

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Stor...77662-858254656

While that's lovely and all... it's not exactly on topic, is it? Nor is it news. So I guess I'm left wondering what your point is.

[Retama]

The reason the German prisoners were brought there in 1942 is that Germany was starting to lose battles in North Africa, and Britain couldn't handle all of them.

There was a small POW camp in Baytown, just off Highway 146 between El Chaco and I-10 where Afrika Korps troops were held. Many of those POWs built a few houses in Goose Creek during the war that are still standing. They also cleared several areas around town that were developed after the war.