The Enemy in Our Own Backyard!

(Lesson will take place after a lecture and notes on the United States home front during WWII.)
The following questions will guide the lesson:

• Why were German P.O.W.s held in South Carolina?
• How were they treated?
• What impact did they have on South Carolina’s economy?

1. Students will be divided into groups of four or five and given all of the primary sources (see Primary Sources section in the resources) and the list of Primary Source Questions.

2. Using the primary sources, students will work together in their groups to answer questions ranging from supplying factual information, to questions that require them to make inferences, to questions that require them to make personal judgments.

3. After the students have completed the questions and have turned them in, the teacher will review the questions with the class as a whole, noting where the information could have been found or how the inference could have been made based on the sources.

Historical Background Notes
With thousands of young men off fighting the Second World War, many towns across the country were experiencing a labor shortage.  Some of these jobs could be filled by women, but in the agricultural industries of the south their numbers were not enough. In the early years of the Second World War, the economy of South Carolina was muddling by despite these labor shortages all the while hearing the mostly negative reports of the war’s progress against Germany.  Hitler had built such a stronghold over most of Europe in the early days of the war that it seemed almost impossible to break. For many rural counties, the only exposure to the infamous Nazis was from newspapers, newsreels, and other war time propaganda which portrayed these soldiers as arrogant, deceitful, and even evil. However, by 1943 the tide of the war was beginning to turn and rural South Carolinians, including Florence residents would come face to face with Hitler’s so called “Supermen” and have many of their labor needs met as well.

After the invasion of Nazi-occupied North Africa, the allies had captured many German prisoners which they intended to send back to the United States. The location of Prison of War (POW) camps was determined largely by cost. Most POW camps were located in the South and Southwest due to the moderate climate which made camp construction and operating costs cheaper. (Segal 48) Many POWs were housed on abandoned Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps, unused military installations or fairgrounds. (28) Most of these camps were “temporary, make-shift affairs” consisting of mostly tents and a few buildings. (Moore 315) Security was the largest factor in determining the location of POW camps. Camps were to be in rural areas that were easily guarded, away from black-out areas, at least 150 miles from the Canadian or Mexican border or vital-war industries, and 70 miles from the coast. (Segal 28) However, “lack of funds for construction and security provisions” made it necessary to locate some camps in Myrtle Beach and Charleston, South Carolina. (29) The first German POWs arrived in South Carolina in September of 1943. (29) What they would do and how they would be treated when they arrived in South Carolina were largely dictated by location and guidelines set down by the Geneva Convention.

The Geneva Convention signed on 27 July 1929 by the United States (US) and many of her allies and future enemies, defined "Prisoner of War" and outlined how they were and were not to be treated. (23-24) Throughout the war, the US strived to set an example for enemy nations in their treatment of prisoners. (24) Military personnel in South Carolina followed the guidelines of the Geneva Convention closely. It was hoped that by following these international laws that American POWs held by the Germans would be treated humanely. (Mclaughlin 140)

These international laws stated that POWs could not be assigned to work that they were physically unsuited to perform. They were not required to work for more than twelve hours each day, and they were to be given twenty-four hours of rest each week. Their work could also not provide any direct benefit to the war effort. Military officers were not required to work (Segal 47) but were paid based on rank (51). Non-commissioned officers were only supposed to serve as supervisors. (47)

According to Segal approximately two-thirds of prisoners worked on their respective camps or bases as clerks, bakers, carpenters, laundry, road repair and other various duties. (48) There was no compensation for this work which was expected. (Moore 307)  The other one-third performed manual labor including cutting pulp wood (Segal 55), harvesting fruit, picking cotton and tobacco and various other field labor. (57) It was these later tasks that POWs in Florence performed for farmers in the area.

In order for farmers to hire prisoners to work for them they had to “establish that no local labor was available” for the work they required and then pay the prisoners’ wages to the US government. (Moore 307) Funds from the War Department paid POWs $3.50 per day. Eighty cents went to the POW in the form of coupons that could be redeemed at the camp canteen. The remaining money was used for “prisoner upkeep.” Segal notes that if you consider that POW facilities were paid for and that minimum wage in the timber industry (which many POWs were a part of) was forty-eight cents per hour, POWs were paid just a little less than civilians. (Segal 65)

If prisoners refused to work (and were able), they could be put on a restricted diet known as the “no work- no eat” policy. They would only be given eighteen ounces of bread per day and water to drink. (59) There were recorded cases of low morale or anger among prisoners due to sharing a mess hall with the prison guards, a restriction on sun bathing, and in some cases inadequate facilities. (63) On one occasion prisoners were fed bean soup for lunch every day for eight weeks at the Shaw Field Camp in Sumter. (Mclaughlin 141)

Despite the predictable complaints and low morale of any Prisoner of War, we have strong evidence that, in general, POWs in South Carolina were treated very well. John Hammond Moore reports that many prisoners returned home to Germany with “fond memories of South Carolina.” (Moore 315) There are also several letters, postcards, and pictures sent by former German prisoners to local residents, months and even years after the war testifying to the excellent treatment and fond memories of their time in South Carolina.

By the end of World War II there were over 20 camps in 17 counties that housed anywhere from 8,000 to 11,000 German POWs. (Segal 1) As the war was coming to an end, there was significant pressure to close these camps so that more jobs would be available for returning GIs. (Moore 311) For a short time during the Second World War, it was the infamous Nazi troopers who provided the much-needed labor that saved many farms and businesses across South Carolina.

Teacher Reflections
Overall, I felt as though the lesson went well. Most of the students seemed to be moderately interested in using primary sources which were not out of a text book. No one slept and most students were on task. It was exciting to see them discovering surprising or funny information in the sources. It was also fun to watch the interaction between the students as some explained to others how they inferred answers based on a map, picture, or article. After each group had answered the questions that I had presented them with, they had to write a postcard to their family or friends as if they were a German POW living in South Carolina. I was encouraged to see that most of the students understood that German POWs in South Carolina were not treated harshly. Some of them wrote very creative messages describing what they did and how they felt.
There were however a few things that did not go so well. The average high school student is not used to having to dig to find answers. Somewhere along the way, they have fallen into the habit of looking for “THE ANSWER” that should be in bold letters and worded the same way the question is asked. When asked how many hours per day most prisoners worked, many students told me that they worked 40 hours per week. This was at the beginning of a short article so they simply wrote the answer without looking at what the question was really asking. The next time that I ask them to use primary sources I will explain that they must read the questions carefully and may have to read closely to find the answers. Another problem that usually comes along with group work is that one or two students do most of the work and the other members of the group just copy the answers. This was the case for most of the groups in my classroom. The next time I teach this lesson, I may assign a few questions to each student in the group so that they will be held accountable. One final problem with the lesson was that many of my students were not used to inferring information. When asked what German POWs did in their spare time, many students did not understand that they could infer what prisoners did by simply looking at a list of items that German POWs could buy at the canteen. Many students also had a difficult time reading the hand-drawn maps of Florence and the airfield because the words were in German, and then some of the students themselves were not familiar with the major highways in the area. I foresaw these last two problems which is why I put the students in groups. I was hoping that some of the students could explain to the others how they found a particular answer. Before I teach this lesson again, I would like for my students to have had practice inferring information on other assignments.
Despite some to the weaknesses of the lesson, seeing students awake, engaged, curious, and thinking was evidence that some learning was taking place. Most of the students demonstrated that they had learned a lot about German POWs in South Carolina because they answered almost all of the questions correctly, even the ones that required them to infer information. Lastly, most students proved that they truly understood what kind of work German POWs did, what they did in their spare time, and how they were treated in general. One student wrote as a POW, “I thought there camps would be horrible places but to my surprise I was treated very well.”
Based on the results I had from teaching a lesson using local primary sources, I will definitely use more primary sources in the future. I believe that it does increase student interest and involvement and does encourage the highly sought after “higher order thinking.” 

Based on the information they gathered, students will write a message on a copy of an actual POW postcard to a family member or friend as if they are a German POW living in South Carolina. They must include information on what type of work they do, what they do in their spare time, and how they are being treated in general.