WWII Prisoner of War Camp

Front inscription

From 1942 to 1945 more than 400,000 Axis-power prisoners of war were shipped to the United States from Europe and North Africa. Nearly 500 prisoner-of-war camps were built to house them, predominately in the South and Southwest. More than twenty camps were built in S.C., including one at this site on Shaw Field. Opened in March 1945, it operated only briefly and housed several hundred German prisoners.

WWII Prisoner of War Camp

Many of the prisoners worked as laborers on local farms that were experiencing steep labor shortages with so many military-age men fighting in the war. Farmers paid both the laborers and the U.S. Government for their work. Later, many of the POWs were sent back to Europe to help rebuild cities devastated by war. Most were repatriated to Germany by 1947. Some POWs would later return and obtain U.S. citizenship.