Work Details
The majority of labor details in Michigan and Tennessee were in the agriculture sector.1 Michigan's population has a strong German heritage which facilitated friendships between farmers and prisoners who worked side-by-side in the fields. Some farmers knew enough German to communicate with the prisoners in their native tongue.2
Due to the proximity of the military-operated Percy Jones Hospital to Fort Custer, a large number of POWs were assigned there. One such man was Kurt Schlegel, who conveyed fond memories of his work at the hospital in a 1978 letter to the United War Veterans Council.3
German POWs at Camp Crossville worked for potato and vegetable farms. Other POWs worked at the University of Tennessee.4
1 William R. Lowe, “Working for Eighty Cents a Day: German Prisoners of War in Michigan, 1943-1946” (Master of Arts in History, Eastern Michigan University, 1995), Eastern Michigan University Bruce T. Halle Library.
2 Kevin T. Hall, “The Befriended Enemy: German Prisoners of War in Michigan,” Michigan Historical Review 41, no. 1 (Spring 2015).
3 “Totensonntag in Battle Creek,” November 25, 1978, Fort Custer National Cemetery Archives.
4 Jesse Burt, “Camp Crossville: Barbed Wire in the Oaks,” The Tennesseean (Nashville), April 14, 1968, Newspapers.com.