PATRON + On September 30, 1945: Aliceville Camp, a prisoner-of-war camp in Pickens County for members of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Africa Korps, was deactivated.[pics & film]
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i LIVED IN ATTALLA, AL DURING THOSE YEARS, AND WAS AWARE OF THE PW/CAMP SIBERT.., PLUS
IT WAS ALSO AN ARMY TRAINING BASE.
ANY INFORMATION OF SUCH AVAILABLE?????
I saw an interview with a German prisoner of war who was brought to this camp on a train. He said they had apprehension because a large number of the townspeople had gathered to see them arrive. The soldier said that they were concerned because they did not know how this large group of Americans would respond to them. He stated that he then noticed many of the people go into the train station. He said they came out with coffee. sandwiches and other things for them to eat and they were hungry when they arrived. i am proud of those Aliceville citizens for doing that and showing humane behavior toward them. Both my father and stepfather were in POW camps in Germany and they were not having it very easy because they were starving. The war was at a stage where even their captors did not have much food. Daddy said he was standing in the yard one day with a German guard nearby and he heard something drop close to him. He noticed that it was a chocolate candy bar. He reached down, scooped it up and quickly put it in his pocket. He said that this soldier could have been killed for doing what he did and that may have been all he had to eat for that day.
My dad was a guard there in aliceville Alabama after the prisoners went home some wrote him became friends years later we lived at the old army camp a lot of other family did too if you have any information can you send it to me I sure would love to find a video of him are a picture he was good to him and they were good to him
[…] In 1943, a Prisoner of War camp which housed 6,000 prisoners was built in Aliceville, Alabama [pics … […]
My Uncle Clyde Martin was a guard in Aliceville and I have a letter one of the German prisoner’s wrote him after the war
My father, Henry H. Madison worked at this Prison Camp in Aliceville Alabama during the construction. I was a small child and knew only that he went to work in Aliceville, Alabama. In later years I was told what he did in Aliceville and that his brother James Lafayette Madison also worked on this project.
History is habit forming. I’m an addict.
I like it too…I would love to go through the US learning the real history of our country and the people who made it. ….just saying
Brandi Bishop Joel Stancer
My dad Robert R Weekley guarded prisoners at Aliceville. After the war some of my kin lived at the camp. We lived in Aliceville at one time. After the war my mom & dad worked in the cotton mill there & we lived in the cotton mill village. My middle brother was born in Aliceville. My grandad & grandmother lived & died in Aliceville.
Colby Hamner….ask hicks is this the camp that was located on Twin Rivers hunt club
They were treated so well. Proud of that.
That was an interesting read
Been there, my home town is just a little ways from there!
Interesting. Very good
He thinks so.
Wow surprised I never knew this.
There’s a fair amount of information about Camp Aliceville, but not Camp Sibert. Could someone please tell me about Camp Sibert? Was it a satellite of Camp Aliceville?
Thank you so much for sharing this!!!
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Richard Jesse
Some of those men returned to the U. S. in later years due to their good treatment and the warm weather. They even liked the southern food. I know because I met one of them. A man that returned and knew my daddy and collected coins like he did!
Would love to read a out the German POW’s at Fort Rucker, also. I remember them coming to our farm to help pick cotton and stack peanuts. We had to furnish meals for them. Had to feed them what we had and what we ate, but they did not eat corn on cob, said it was for swine.
Hello,
My father was war prisoner in the Second workd wäre in Alabama. He died 1980 and I don’t know in which Camp in Alabama he was arrested. He talked me from alabama, that earthnuts grow not in the earth….. in Germany we think so… they grow on bushes (sorry my English is bad!). I was a little girl and remember me!
My father Heinrich Wolf born 11, July 1914, was a German soldier in Tunesia, than he was war prisoner of the USA and must go by ship to Alabama. But I don’t know in which camp? He worked by farms.
1945, on the end of the 2. worldwide USA changed prisoners with France, my father must go to France and worked by france farmers till 1949. Than he come back to Germany/Bavaria . Which people can say me, in which camp my father lived in Alabama?????
Wonderful !
My mother was a nurse at the camp. My daddy was stationed there.
Beverly Walker
Great book of interviews on this I read:
Guests Behind the Barbed Wire https://www.amazon.com/dp/1575872609/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_9SQrxbF58V376
We visited and it was great. We may go back.
Very interesting, learned something new.
Do you have any information on the POW camp just south of Foley, AL? Would love to learn about that.
Not yet. Maybe I’ll find something some day.
I knew Camp Rucker was a POW camp, but did not know about Aliceville. Thank you for the info.
midge durbin
We were in Mobile during the war but I remember the pow camp in Aliceville.
There was also a small camp in Troy, AL,
Very interesting article . I always been curious to learn about historical facts . I think they should make a movie about this historical incident .
This article is so refreshing. Thank you for your writings.
Great read for someone like myself who loves history. Please keep these wonderful stories coming.
Thanks.
I find it very telling, and it demonstrates exactly where black people, fellow American citizens, rank in the hearts and minds of white people.
black soldiers fought bravely in WWII, my father was one of them.
it is a common consensus in western civilization that members of the Nazi party are the most repugnant individuals of the civilized world.
yet these prisoners of war were treated with respect, dignity and civility.
I must admit, this bit of history has opened my eyes and made me aware that,
“in the eyes of many whites then an now black people rank well below the scum of the earth”
I now understand my place in the scheme of society as you see it, this website illustrates that extremely well.
Mike Oakley
Sharon Oakley
Rayford Newman
John W. Brandon
Jennifer Bondurant Steele
My mother worked in this camp as a civilian employee for one year soon after graduating from the University of Alabama. She was a hospital dietician. She told me that while she worked there, one prisoner refused all food for two weeks so that he would have a better chance of escaping under the fence. He was fatally shot in his attempt to escape. Mom said that was the only prisoner who was killed while she worked there. . . Mom and I attended the first staff/prisoner reunion hosted by the Aliceville Museum, which occupies the old Coca-Cola bottling plant. Some of the prisoners & their family members attended that reunion. Quite a few of the prisoners’ families have donated their prison memorabilia to the museum in Aliceville. I have some memorabilia as well that I’m in the process of donating to the museum. It is an amazing, interesting museum & well worth a trip to see! See their FB page.
Can you share their facebook page?
My maternal great grandparents had POW’s working their farm and this was in the Dale County area. My grandfather was an MP and escorted a few POW’s to and from. He would also take them from the east coast down to the Ft. Polk area.