Camp Papago Park

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Camp Papago Park was a prison camp for German prisoners of war of World War II in Scottsdale on the outskirts of Phoenix , Arizona . It existed from September 16, 1943 to April 8, 1946 and accommodated up to 3,100 prisoners of war, mostly from submarines and ships of the Navy . In the US public the camp gained attention through the " fememord " of an informant of the US authorities, the prisoner Werner Drechsler , but in particular through several escape attempts, with 25 prisoners, mostly officers, temporarily in an escape on December 23, 1944 escaped.

Geographical location in Scottsdale

Camp Papago Park, which, like all US prison camps, was administered by the United States Army for the permanent accommodation of prisoners of war , was located between what is now McDowell Road and Thomas Road and the Crosscut Canal and Barnes Butte, while what is now 64th Street through the former camp runs. Today parts of the site are built over with residential buildings. Another part still serves as the Arizona Army National Guard's military compound , while larger parts now form part of Papago Park City Park .

Construction and opening of the warehouse

Camp Papago Park was initially built to house US soldiers trained in Arizona for desert warfare. While the number of Axis soldiers captured in the naval war was manageable, the number of prisoners of war increased rapidly in the course of the fighting in North Africa , especially due to the surrender of the Italians and the German Africa Corps in Tunis in May 1943. The camp was converted into a POW camp in 1943 and opened on September 16, 1943, with Colonel Allen H. Means - veteran of the First World War, former geologist and prison director - as the first camp commandant. The first prisoners came from the Italian army defeated in North Africa.

In January 1944 the US Department of War designated Camp Papago Park as a prison camp for German submarine drivers and ordered all submarine prisoners to be transferred to this camp. Until then, most of the prisoners from submarines were in a camp in Stringtown ( Oklahoma accommodated). The first German prisoners arrived at Camp Papago Park in January 1944, while the Italians were transferred from here to camps in California . On March 3, 1944, the US Department of War designated Camp Papago Park as a prison camp for all German prisoners of war from the Navy.

Furnishing

Camp Papago Park had a hospital that employed two US Army doctors and nine German doctors, as well as three US dentists and one German dentist, who looked after both the American workers and the prisoners. There were Catholic and Protestant church services in Camp Papago Park, but they were rarely attended - allegedly because of the high proportion of inmates raised by the Nazis and thus remote from the church. The Camp Papago Park library contained 1,600 German novels, 600 German non-fiction, 400 English novels and 350 English non-fiction. Most of the books came from donations. The camp also had a cinema where films were shown on Sundays and a few other days - usually American propaganda films in German.

Everyday warehouse life

A prisoner's day at Camp Papago Park began with a wake-up call at 5:30 a.m. followed by a morning roll call, breakfast at 6 a.m. and work from 7:30 a.m. However, there were many prisoners in this camp who were considered to be potentially dangerous, who were excluded from work and marched back to their quarters. All prisoners had to be back in their barracks by 5:00 p.m. The morning roll call was temporarily canceled on Sundays, so that the prisoners could sleep longer, but escape attempts were also made easier.

Each prisoner received a short military haircut and trousers and shirts with the very large inscription "PW" (Prisoner of War). In the summer, however, prisoners often wore shorts and no outer clothing.

Each prisoner received vouchers worth 10 cents a day, which they could use to purchase items for personal care or cigarettes.

Trustworthy German prisoners of war could report to work in the canteens, laundries or car garages and earn an additional 80 cents per day. In addition, prisoners were used to harvest cotton or vegetables, make hay, or dig or clean irrigation canals.

Power structures among the German prisoners of war

Camp spokesman for the German prisoners of war was the sea captain Jürgen Wattenberg (1900-1995) from U 162 , who, as a thoroughly convinced supporter of National Socialism and Adolf Hitler's government, exercised considerable influence on the prisoners through his supporters among the officers and men. As is customary in all prison camps, the captured officers and men were kept strictly separate from each other, but officers and men managed to communicate with each other via hidden notes, by throwing bottles with notes or by means of light signals with mirrors. These structures were also used to intimidate prisoners who were not fully behind National Socialism. The camp spokesman Wattenberg rejected any cooperation with the Americans and viewed activities such as work in cotton production, which he believed to be important for the war effort, as high treason . He succeeded in exerting such pressure on his fellow prisoners that only a comparatively few prisoners - around 700 out of 3,100 - volunteered for work in Camp Papago Park.

Briefly, Lieutenant Captain Hellmut Rathke from U 352 replaced Wattenberg as camp spokesman. However, with threats and the accusation that Rathke was an anti-fascist, the latter managed to start a hunger strike to get out of the camp and away from Wattenberg.

Most of the submarine prisoners who were now concentrated in Camp Papago Park were loyal to the Hitler regime at least until the end of the war. Many of these prisoners openly showed their loyalty to Hitler - for example, a self-made swastika flag was hung from a transport truck on February 7, 1945.

Fememicide of Werner Drechsler

On March 12, 1944, when the first camp commandant Colonel Allen H. Means was still holding this office, Werner Drechsler from U 118 , who had collected information about submarines in other camps for the US authorities by interviewing fellow prisoners, was replaced by seven fellow prisoners lynched from other submarines on the day he arrived at Camp Papago Park . In the weeks that followed, the seven perpetrators were quickly identified in interrogations, some of which were brutal. One of them was quickly recognized by a bite wound on a hand that Drechsler had inflicted on him as a result of his fierce resistance. All seven perpetrators were sentenced to death on August 16, 1944 and hanged on August 25, 1945 at Fort Leavenworth . The act was later also referred to as " Fememord ".

Drechsler was the only prisoner who was murdered in Camp Papago Park, but others were hit by beatings or threats, including officers such as Leutnant zur See Hermann Ritter (1891–1968) from the weather observation ship 1 Hermann and Lieutenant Captain Hellmut Rathke from U 325 .

New camp managements after the Fememord

After the fiasco of the "Fememord" against Drechsler, Colonel Allen Means was replaced in March 1944 by Colonel George Barber as the camp commandant, who took action against Wattenberg, who was considered a troublemaker, and now isolated him from the other prisoners. Under him, a stricter regime with regular roll calls was enforced throughout the Sunday morning.

On August 1, command passed to Colonel William A. Holden, also a World War I veteran, but also already experienced in setting up prison camps. Of all camp leaders he tried most consistently to separate convinced supporters of the Hitler regime from other prisoners. Holden, who as an officer had previously had most to do with the common American soldiers, paid off the German prisoners in the camp orchestra and theater, although he thereby violated regulations of the US Army. Under his leadership, morning roll calls were abolished on Sundays and public holidays. However, Holden suffered from heart problems and was therefore unable to take part in the court martial against the murderers of Werner Drechsler. On February 11, 1945, the highly decorated Colonel Verne Augstin took command of the camp. Under his leadership the camp was closed after the war.

Escape attempts by prisoners of war

The first attempt to escape by captured officers from Camp Papago Park took place shortly after their arrival in the winter of 1944, before the infamous murder of Drechsler. On February 12, 1944, five submarine commanders - the four lieutenant captains August Maus , Friedrich Guggenberger , Hermann Kottmann , Jürgen Quaet-Faslem and the first lieutenant at sea, Hans Johannsen - managed to get through the truck hidden in a truck that had been driven to work by prisoners Escape main gate of the camp. August Maus and Friedrich Guggenberger were caught again during a police check in Tucson . The camp management only found out about the escape through a phone call from the police. The other three escaped first across the state border to Mexico , which they considered a neutral country, as they had not heard of its entry into the war on the side of the Allies (on May 22, 1942 after the sinking of two Mexican tankers by German submarines) . Believing that they could now return to Germany, they were arrested by the Mexican Federal Police (Federales) and extradited to the US Army, so that they were again imprisoned in Camp Papago Park soon afterwards.

Entrance to the escape tunnel

The most extensive and most successful escape attempt (" Great Papago Escape ") was largely planned by the camp spokesman Jürgen Wattenberg. The elimination of morning roll calls on Sundays and public holidays under Colonel William A. Holden made escape attempts easier. A tunnel was dug through weathered granite under the camp, from which the camp administration in no way assumed that such a tunnel could be dug at all. A small barrack, which was used for showering, was chosen as the starting point for the tunnel. Wattenberg informed the camp management that the officers wanted to create a fistball field and needed shovels and other tools for this. They received this tool without any problems, dug the tunnel and spread the resulting earth on the fistball field. The excavation work began in September 1944 and was carried out in three night shifts of three men each. On December 20, the 54 m long tunnel with a 1.8 m deep entrance shaft was completed. In addition, components for a raft were prepared to sail the nearby Salt River downstream. The materials for this had been obtained for the alleged sealing of the shower rooms. In addition, the refugees were provided with civilian clothing, forged ID cards and contact addresses in Mexico . August Maus, who was badly injured in the leg, was unable to take part in this escape attempt, but he helped dig the tunnel.

On December 23, 1944, 25 prisoners of war, along with Jürgen Wattenberg, among others Friedrich Guggenberger and Jürgen Quaet-Faslem and Hans-Werner Kraus , managed to get out through the tunnel unnoticed. The escape began at 9 p.m. in groups of two and three and was completed on December 24, 1944 at 2.30 a.m. On the Salt River, however, it turned out that the raft was useless because the river carried almost no water. Since December 24th was a Sunday and there was no morning roll call, the absence of those who had broken out was only noticed during the course of the day. A comprehensive search has now been initiated. Most of the fugitives did not get far and were caught after a few days. Guggenberger and Kraus were only arrested by the American authorities about six kilometers from the Mexican border after two weeks. Wattenberg, who had already gained experience escaping from captivity in Argentina back to Germany in April 1940, was the longest able to evade the US authorities. He had two of his U 162 crew members with him and fled north instead of south. One of his companions smuggled himself into the camp several times in exchange for comrades working outside the camp and provided the group with food, but was finally discovered and arrested. Wattenberg was arrested as the last fugitive on January 28, 1945 and returned to Camp Papago Park.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jane Eppinga (2017), p. 52.
  2. ↑ a b Jane Eppinga (2017), p. 55f.
  3. ↑ a b c Jane Eppinga (2017), p. 57f.
  4. ↑ Jane Eppinga (2017), p. 51.
  5. ↑ Paul Carell , Günter Böddeker : The prisoners - life and survival of German soldiers behind barbed wire . Ullstein, Berlin 1990. Chapter A Fememord and Its Consequences , pp. 77–91.
  6. ↑ Jane Eppinga (2017), p. 52.
  7. ↑ Jane Eppinga (2017), p. 53.
  8. ^ Keith Warren Lloyd, p. 57.
  9. ↑ Keith Warren Lloyd, pp. 93-98.
  10. ↑ Theodore P. Savas: Silent Hunters. German U-boat Commanders of World War II. Savas Publishing, Campbell (California) 1997, pp. 105f.
  11. ↑ Keith Warren Lloyd, pp. 147-156, 173-180.

Coordinates: 33 ° 28 ′ 14.5 "  N , 111 ° 56 ′ 57"  W.