POW's

[Hugh]

I grew up on a farm in northeast Louisiana. There was a POW camp about 7 miles from our farm. From 1943 to 1945, we had a group of about a dozen of them that came out to "chop cotton" and 32 that came out to pick cotton. They were guarded by one guard with a carbine. There was a mixture of Germans and Dutch. The Dutch had been conscripted into the army and were "anti-Nazi". There was one guy in the bunch that the others shunned; saying that he was a diehard Nazi.


I was eight at the time, and my sister was five. One day she was riding her horse in the fields and he was scared by something and ran away, jumping over a ditch. My sister was thrown off and knocked out. The "Nazi", ran over and picked her up and carried her in his arms about 1/4 mile to our house.


When they were shipped back overseas in May of 1945, some of them made up the "folder" below and gave it to my dad. Regretfully, when our house burned at a later date, although it was saved, it got water stained.


One of the Dutchmen was a banker in Amsterdam and corresponded with my dad for several years after returning home. He spoke and wrote perfect English.




http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/POW::s.jpg