Posted on Sep 20, 2020
Camp Ruston: German P.O.W.'s in Louisiana | 2007
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This documentary tells the story of the German prisoners of war who were shipped to Camp Ruston in Northern Louisiana in 1943. The prisoners housed at the camp include two German U-Boat Crews, Kreigsmarine in German, and German soldiers from the elite North Afrika Korp under the command of General Erwin Rommel, who were considered the best in Hitler's Third Reich. The program includes photos and other archival material along with re-enactments of the activities at the camp.
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This documentary from September 20, 2004, focuses on the 4,315 German prisoners of war from World War II who were housed at Camp Ruston in Ruston, Louisiana, from 1943-1946. The prisoners of war served in General Erwin Rommel’s North Afrika Korps and the Kriegsmarine, or German Navy. The documentary touches on: Camp Ruston’s first role as a training site for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps; life at Camp Ruston for the German POWs; and the secret capture of German U-boat U-505 and subsequent detention of the crew at Camp Ruston.
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This documentary from September 20, 2004, focuses on the 4,315 German prisoners of war from World War II who were housed at Camp Ruston in Ruston, Louisiana, from 1943-1946. The prisoners of war served in General Erwin Rommel’s North Afrika Korps and the Kriegsmarine, or German Navy. The documentary touches on: Camp Ruston’s first role as a training site for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps; life at Camp Ruston for the German POWs; and the secret capture of German U-boat U-505 and subsequent detention of the crew at Camp Ruston.
POW/MIA
Ruston
WWII World War Two
Germany
Posted 4 y ago
Responses: 4
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Interesting video, PO1 William "Chip" Nagel. Although I lived in Louisiana for 2.5 years I never knew about Camp Ruston while there.
I have visited the POW cemetery at old Fort McClellan, AL, though. Some of the POWs were good and some were very, very bad. This, about one of the bad guys:
“ General Captured
…A third German general, Generalmajor Hans Schuberth, was captured with his entire staff of six officers and thirty men. He was chief of the district liaison staff in Provence, and was well-known as an ardent Nazi, with a reputation for extreme cruelty....”
The Age, Tuesday, August 22, 1944, page 1, Melbourne, Australia
After his capture, Generalmajor Schuberth was interned at the POW Camp in Como, MS. He died in a hospital in Memphis and was buried in Como, MS. He was later moved and reburied at the POW cemetery at Fort McClellan, AL. He was born on September 8, 1892.
Many of the deceased POWs were reclaimed by their families and reinterred in Germany. I don’t think anybody wanted to claim this guy!
Some weren’t so bad. A German POW and an Italian POW painted (c. 1945) some seventeen murals on the walls of the lounge at Remington Hall, the officers’ club at Fort McClellan and they’re still there today. Here are two of them.
LTC (Join to see) SGT Robert Pryor SGT Mark Anderson SGT (Join to see)
I have visited the POW cemetery at old Fort McClellan, AL, though. Some of the POWs were good and some were very, very bad. This, about one of the bad guys:
“ General Captured
…A third German general, Generalmajor Hans Schuberth, was captured with his entire staff of six officers and thirty men. He was chief of the district liaison staff in Provence, and was well-known as an ardent Nazi, with a reputation for extreme cruelty....”
The Age, Tuesday, August 22, 1944, page 1, Melbourne, Australia
After his capture, Generalmajor Schuberth was interned at the POW Camp in Como, MS. He died in a hospital in Memphis and was buried in Como, MS. He was later moved and reburied at the POW cemetery at Fort McClellan, AL. He was born on September 8, 1892.
Many of the deceased POWs were reclaimed by their families and reinterred in Germany. I don’t think anybody wanted to claim this guy!
Some weren’t so bad. A German POW and an Italian POW painted (c. 1945) some seventeen murals on the walls of the lounge at Remington Hall, the officers’ club at Fort McClellan and they’re still there today. Here are two of them.
LTC (Join to see) SGT Robert Pryor SGT Mark Anderson SGT (Join to see)
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LTC (Join to see)
I have been to former Clellan and I do remember seeing what was left of the prisoner of war camp. I went to Fort mcclellan and basic training in 1994 and when I became a second lieutenant and the officer basic course and 1997.
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I think I was watching some movie showing African American soldiers and that the German soldiers were treated better by the racist Southerns than the black soldiers were. A German Prisoner of War could eat in a diner that a black soldier could not eat at. I think the scene showed 1MP guarding a couple German prisoners who are working out in the field and they stopped off at a restaurant and the black soldier could not eat at that restaurant.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
LTC (Join to see) I Remember My Stay at Bad Aibling. My Step Father in Law told Me to tell the Base Cook where I was From. I Told this Big Old German I was from Kansas at which Point He bear hugged Me and tried to Crush the Breath Out of Me. "I Love Kansas, I was a POW on a Farm in Kansas".
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SFC William Farrell
I've read that too LTC (Join to see). Its outrageous if you ask me. I dont remember what camp it was at but there were some black soldiers who were court martialed after a some white MP was stabbed to death during a riot over how the Italian prisoners were treated better than the black soldiers; sort of what you just mentioned. It was posted here awhile back of how the soldiers who were court martialed fought to clear their name as they did not stab the MP but they took the blame.
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Interesting documentary. Looks like these enemy POWs were also treated much better than the 120,000 innocent Japanese-American civilians, many of them women and children, that were incarcerated in the U.S. concentration camps during WWII. They also have pilgrimages now to these historic sites for memories, education, and life closures.
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