German POWs At Lake Wabaunsee, Part 3 of 4  

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Opposition

Relations between German POWs interned at Lake Wabaunsee and American civilians were better than anyone had ever expected. Some Americans were alarmed by the close relationships that developed between them. George Edgerton said that farmers and POWs "got along almost too well." Howard C. Myers, Wabaunsee County Agent, believed that some of the farmers of German descent were too close to the POWs and were actually sympathetic to them.

Many people developed serious reservations about using POW labor or even having a camp in the area. Jim Busenbark led the opposition. He reminded local citizens that POWs were the enemy who had recently tried to kill American troops. Consequently, they would be poor labor. He believed that they might sabotage American production, or at least work half-heartedly. Busenbark also believed that to use the POWs as laborers would reduce them to slaves, which would be an immoral policy. Busenbark contended that the labor shortage was not severe enough to warrant using POW labor, and that 100 men could not make that much difference if the labor shortage was genuinely acute.

Ray Lovell wrote a letter to the editor condemning the POW camp at Lake Wabaunsee. His letter was published in the July 13, 1944 Eskridge Independent:

"The next time you see Jim Busenbark on the street, step up and shake hands with a grand old man who has the guts to stand up and say what he thinks.

"The prisoners in the other work camps have proven no great success and there have been some escapes and some of the citizens have been hurt. Just give this thing time and it may blow up and shatter our court house; go clear down and reach the county agent’s office.

"Shawnee County won’t let the German killers in, but oh, no! We must have them to carry on! Railroads or any other industry won’t have them, but the farmer is the dumping ground for everything.

"With the equipment our larger operators have, could they not trade work with the smaller farmers? Is it work they can’t do or is it their greed? Why don’t our county save the road money and give the road work after the war is over, to that list in the paper that is growing longer each month?

"If there was any way to get this question on our county ballot, I would be sure of the result.

"Judgment day is coming for everyone of us. It isn’t what we have but hew we got it. It isn’t the total score b ut how we played the game."

A letter from a serviceman opposing the camp appeared in the September 14, 1944 Eskridge Independent:

"Do you see Jim Busenbark? I saw a piece in the paper about him and what he thought of the prison camp at the Lake. I sure wish there were more men like him at home. He will stand up and say what he thinks. I sure hate to see those guys ruin our nice lake that way and I bet a lot of guys in the Army feel that same way. If you see Jim tell him thanks a lot from me."

Many people shared Ray Lovell’s concern that POWs would escape from the camp and commit sabotage in the area. Some even suggested that the wooded areas around Alma would make excellent hiding places for POWs. Mrs. Howard C. Myers recalled that many times a misunderstanding in language caused POWs to wander off in a different direction that the farmer intended. Farmers often panicked because they thought POWs were trying to escape and called the county agent. Usually by the time Myers arrived, the affair had been long settled and a trip had been made for nothing.

Some Americans reported that POWs were unwilling or unable to work. One POW at the Roland McKnight home not only refused to work, but discouraged his fellow prisoners from working. The POW spent the whole day at the McKnight farm, but he was hauled back to Fort Riley in the evening. Sherman Mertz, who was 70 years old and the second largest sheep raiser in Kansas in 1944, was uncomplimentary toward the POWs. He said about their labor: "Well... They don’t mind backing up a little." Mertz believed that prisoner labor was not as valuable as civilian labor because of "language and mechanical deficiencies." Mertz meant that the POWs’ unfamiliarity with the English language and American farm methods limited their value as laborers. H. R. Richter recollected that when POWs worked on the road construction project, signs were posted that read: "Slow--Men Working." Richter joked that the signs were accurate because the POWs were men who worked slow.

Americans occasionally knew a POW whom they disliked. One of the three POWs who worked on the J. O. Warren home in Eskridge was hostile toward Americans. He complained that prisoners did not receive their noon meal at the Warren home but ate at a cafe in Eskridge. The Warrens disapproved of his conversations with the other prisoners in German because they believed that he was threatening them against being too friendly to Americans.

Myrtle Thierer reported that one POW gave her the "creeps". She said that he followed her around with his eyes. This was understandable, because Mrs. Thierer was an attractive blonde teenager at the time. Another POW repelled her because he had the habit of pulling a piece of shrapnel out of his pocket and showing it to people to prove that he had been wounded. The Imthurn family of Maple Hill also had a negative experience with one POW. Mrs. Imthurn called him "a little monkey".

Americans often feared POWs because of all the propaganda they had heard about German atrocities. Charlotte Imthurn recalled she was apprehensive when she learned that POWs were going to work on the Imthurn farm. However, she remembered that once she got to know the POWs she realized that they were simply human beings caught in a bad situation. Imthurn explained that most of the POWs were good German boys who hadn’t volunteered for military service, but had been drafted just like many American youth. She commented that there had been atrocities, but "these boys" had not committed any.

Farm Labor

Farmers who used POW labor had to follow the conditions set up by the Wabaunsee County Grower’s Association. The cost for the use of POW labor was eventually set at $.40 per hour; $.05 was to reimburse the Association for any expended it might incur because of the POW program. The farmer was required to furnish a noon meal, for which he was reimbursed at the rate of $.25 per meal. The owner had to furnish his own transportation of the POWs , but he was reimbursed $.01 per man per mile up to 50 miles.

The county agent urged farmers to cooperate to make the program a success. Farmers had to give advance notice of at least 12 hours before a job was to start, as well as notice of at least a half day of the completion of a job. Farmers had to pay $4.00 per day before the work could start. Mrs. Howard Myers remembered that farmers often called at four o’clock in the morning to cancel an order for prisoner labor. These early morning calls were especially annoying because Howard Myers, unlike many other county agents, was not being paid for his work with the prisoner of war camp. According to Mrs. Myers, he considered his work on the prisoner of war camp to be his contribution to the war effort.

The American Army operated POW camps in accordance with the Geneva Convention of 1929. It stipulated POWs could be paid not less than $.80 per day. Maximum working hours were ten hours a day, including travel to and from a job. Employed POWs were to be allowed one 24-hour consecutive rest period each week. The convention required POWs, except for officers, to work for the benefit of their captors. However, the work would not be directly related to war operations, nor could it jeopardize the health and safety of prisoners. The prisoners were also supposedly required to have qualifications for aptitudes for the work they were assigned.

The Army also had many regulations in regard to POW use. As previously mentioned, farmers were not supposed to discuss the war or politics with them. POWs were not to be allowed to drive vehicles. Women were not permitted to drive POWs anywhere, even to camp. The Army strictly enforced its rule that POWs had to be returned at 5:00 pm. This rule created difficulties for several Americans. Esther McKnight recollected how she had worried when Figge, a neighbor, rushed to return the POWs on time, even on slippery roads.

Joseph Diehl of Alma also struggled with the Army’s regulation that POWs had to be back at Lake Wabaunsee by 5:00 pm. Diehl drove one of the county trucks that delivered and returned POWs from Lake Wabaunsee to the farms where they worked. A.L. Garanson was always late bringing his POWs to the location where Diehl picked them up. Diehl waited on Garanson, and he inevitable reached the camp at Lake Wabaunsee late. Army officials complained about Diehl’s habitual lateness, so he decided to leave without Garanson’s POWs if they were not at the rendezvous point on time. Predictably, the next day Garanson didn’t have his men there on time, and Diehl left without them. When he arrived at the camp, Diehl told officials that he would be short five men.

Diehl was certainly surprised when a camp official told him that his usual cargo of 40 men had unloaded out of the truck. He later found out that Garanson had arrived late, as usual, at the rendezvous point with his POWs. When Garanson found that Diehl had already left, he simply followed Diehl in his own vehicle, and Garanson had the POWs leap out of his vehicle and jump into the truck Diehl was driving when it stopped at a stop sign.

Some farmers were skilled at coping with the restrictions on POW use because they had prior experience using German war prisoners. According to the county agent reports, 35 farmers had obtained POWs from Camp Fremont near Council Grove, but all of these farmers were large operators and it made financial sense for them to drive up to 40 miles one way to get laborers. However, even the small operator could afford to drive five, ten, or twenty miles one way to Lake Wabaunsee to get laborers.

Many farmers decided against transporting POWs themselves and instead used various trucking services. Both the county and private individuals hauled POWs to the Alma community at the height of their use by farmers. Two of the trucks were privately owned and operated. These trucks were driven by Clarence "Buffalo" Frank and a man named Randall. Art Meseke filled in for the private truck drivers. Three of the trucks were owned by Wabaunsee County. Joseph Diehl recalled that Myers asked him to drive a truck for the county. He told Myers that he did not want to, but Myers coaxed him into driving the POWs by insisting that it helped farmers with large acreages of land and could not expend the concern over every bit of property.

Even after 40 years, many Wabaunsee County farmers remembered that POWs were "real industrious people". Steve Hund recalled that they were willing to work in blistering heat and blinding snowstorms. Vincent Glotzbach recollected that when he left the POWs without supervision, they didi not take advantage of an opportunity to be idle, but instead "worked their heads off".

The willingness of POWs to work made them in great demand as laborers. By July 24, 1944, 30 more POWs were sent to Lake Wabaunsee to meet the demands for labor. A total of 50 additional men were brought to Lake Wabaunsee in the summer of 1944. The county agent reported that during the harvest of 1944 all of the POWs were used and 20 or more could have been used if they had been available.

POWs’ compulsion to work sometimes endangered their health and even their lives. Myrtle Thierer retained the memory of her father ordering POWs to take it easy and not work so hard, because he felt that they were risking their health by their hard work. Some POWs in Eskridge worked so hard that they tore the skin off their hands. The most serious threat to the safety of POWs was unfamiliar farm work. Although some POWs at Lake Wabaunsee, including Heinrich Wolgast, Franz Scheider, and Werner Burow, had lived and worked on farms before the war, farm work was a new experience for many POWs. They boldly attempted any farm chores, even when they had no experience.

One POW, Wilfried Vogele, tragically lost his life in a farm accident at the Ed Tenbrink farm near Alma. Clarence Gnadt remembered that Vogele was killed while helping to put up silage. According to Gnadt, Vogele was getting on a wagon when the mules were startled by a train Whistle and started to run. He attempted to grab the reins, but the front end of the wagon broke off and he was run over by the wagon. Gnadt believed the POW was killed instantly. When Army officials learned of the accident, they sent out an ambulance to pick up Vogele. The ambulance took the body back to Fort Riley for Burial. Gnadt felt that the matter was "hushed up". No article about the accident appeared in any local newspaper.

Vogele was buried at Fort Riley alongside other Axis POWs who died in American internment camps. Of these 77 men, 62 were Germans. Even today the U.S.Army is reluctant to release information about POWs’ deaths in Kansas; according to the Wichita Eagle-Beacon the deaths were due to "natural causes". Obviously this is untrue. For example, Vogele did not die of natural causes. His death appears to have no scandal attached to it, but it still cannot be classified as a death of "natural causes".

The memory of the POWs buried at Fort Riley has been observed in several ways. Every POW’s final resting place has a white grave marker. Ceremonies have been held in honor of the dead POWs. Many relatives of dead POWs attended an especially memorable observance in November, 1976. The ceremony began with a benediction from an American chaplain. It continued with a gun salute by a seven-man color guard and the playing of ‘Taps". German, Japanese, and Italian officers, who were dressed in Would War II uniforms, saluted and laid wreaths on their countrymen’s graves at the end of the ceremony. Klaus Majer and Georg Stanglmaier visited the cemetery at Fort Riley when they came back to Kansas in 1980 and took photographs of Wilfried Vogele’s tombstone for his family back in Germany.