This page shows WWII POW and Internment Camps in the U.S. and Canada. It is incomplete but actively being worked on. The blue markers are internment camps. The red markers are POW camps. Every state except Nevada, North Dakota, and Vermont had POW camps. Alaska and Hawaii were U.S. territories at the time, but they also had internment camps - both had few POW camps.
The POW camps that were located on military bases were considered main camps. There were far more branch camps that were located near work sites, where POWs labored. Some of these were Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps that were setup by the Roosevelt administration in the 1930s. This map does not yet distinguish between main and branch camps.
Help using Google Maps
The Full Screen control in the upper righthand corner of the Google Maps display expands the display to cover the entire computer screen. This full-screen feature is not available on Apple IOS devices like the iPad.
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The Map/Satellite control in the upper lefthand corner of the screen lets you choose either the normal map view or the satellite view. The satellite view allows you to see the actual military facility when you zoom in. You can choose to turn Labels on or off. The labels are the names of places, businesses, cities, etc. that appear on the map. You can turn off the labels if they obstruct your view.
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Wisconsin
Wisconsin has a large number of POW camps mainly because it has a large population of German-speaking people.
Oklahoma
Jan 31, 1945-(AP)-Newsweek magazine says in its February 5 issue that five German prisoners of war have been sentenced to death by court-martial for killing a fellow prisoner at Camp Tonkawa, Oklahoma on November 5, 1943, and are awaiting "their doom in a federal penitentiary." The five non-commissioned officers "proudly admitted at their trial—the first American court-martial involving a capital offense by German prisoners of war—that they killed Cpl. Johann Kunze, who was found beaten to death with sticks and bottles. They and other prisoners at the camp regarded Kunze "a traitor to the Reich and to the fuehrer: because "some of them had seen a statement Kunze had given American army officers information they believed had been of great value to the Allies in bombing Hamburg."
A book, "The Killing of Corporal Kunze," by Wilma Trummel Parnell was published in 1981.
Acknowledgments
- Peter Cook, Director of Programs and Outreach, North Berrien Historical Museum
- Linda at the Town of Diana Historical Society, Diana, New York
- Ross Young, Town of Diana, New York
- Linda Fabian and Cheryl O'Brien at the Wyoming Historical Society