ElaineAndMike.com . Camp Ellis . Camp Ellis POWs
Satellite Camps
There were several "satellite camps" that housed POWs during World War II.
- Eureka, Illinois
- This is what we know: German prisoners of war were housed in the basement of Pritchard Hall on the Eureka
College campus. Pritchard was the physical education facility at that time. Each workday the men were marched down to
the canning factory to work, and then marched back in the afternoon.
Fyke said the POWs would often gather on the lawn at Pritchard Hall in the evening and would sing their German songs.
Everyone who remembers hearing their singing said it was thrilling and wonderful.
After the war, the men were repatriated to Germany, but some returned to Central Illinois, and at least one lived out his
life in Eureka. (Woodford County Historical Society)
- Gibson City, Illinois
- Hoopeston, Illinois
- April to November (1944 & 1945)
- Harvested sweet corn - pulled by hand from the stalk & thrown into a wagon
- Harvested asparagus
- "One of my classmates married one of them (German POW). He left (Hoopeston) and came back (after the war)."
-
- Galesburg, Illinois
- Milford, Illinois
- Pomona, Illinois
- Streator, Illinois
- In the summer of 1945, a group was brought to Streator from a POW camp in Fulton County, to work at a canning factory in Streator. The POWs were kept at a camp in South Streator, near the area where the Vactor plant now stands. (MyWebTimes)
- Washington, Illinois
- Another local site of interest is the "old canning factory", which is now occupied by American Allied Railway Equipment Company Inc. In 1943, the canning factory (which after the war was run by the Libby's company) had a shortage of workers, and the government needed K rations and canned goods to feed the troops.
The solution was to bring in 50 captured German soldiers from the prisoner of war camp known as Camp Ellis in Fulton County[4] The Washington sub-camp was first commanded by Colonel John S. Sullivan, and later by Captain T. A. Cox.
Captain Cox at one point in the war commanded the 1613th Service Command Unit, detachment 5 guarding German POWs at the Mayo hospital in Galesburg.[5]
The POWs were brought in on the old rail line that ran down Wood Street (the foundation of a sentry tower can be seen just northeast of the intersection of Wood and Jefferson near the entrance to the bike trail).
They were trucked from the camp to various local farms to help with the pumpkin harvest. Once a POW jumped from a truck going down South Main Street and was almost shot before the guard realized he was just trying to retrieve his hat which had blown off.
The prisoners were allowed no visitors, nor could residents speak to the prisoners. An exception was made for local ministers, such as Pastor Kammeyer from St. Mark's Lutheran who spoke fluent German and ministered to the POWs spiritual needs.
Years later when the Libby plant burned, they found a U.S. Army rifle issued to a soldier who was a guard. It was reported missing, and suspected hidden by a prisoner. (Wikipedia)