Volume 11 , Issue 26

WWII - POW CAMPS IN OKLAHOMA

There were a few artists & sculptors among the POWs in the Alva Camp that used their artistic talents to pass the days until the end of the war. They made their own paint, created pictures and sculptures of medieval castles and other memories back home in Germany.

This is a model of a German church castle crafted from scrap woods by German POWs and designed after a castle in his hometown.

It is preserved at the Cherokee Strip Museum in Alva, Oklahoma as one of many memories that is left to remind Alva of it's POW Camp for the captured Nazi Officers & sympathizers.

A hand-carved, six-foot wooden eagle & Nazi insignia that was carved from pieces of packing crates by German POWs. It also resides at the "Cherokee Strip Museum", Alva, Oklahoma.

Also at the Cherokee Strip Museum you will find two handkerchiefs that had maps of the southwest United States painted on them by a German POW who attempted to escape from the Alva Camp.

This Hand-painted SW US Map is just one of those maps and was donated to the museum by Wilbur Province. This is some Information and List of POW camps across Oklahoma during WWII. We took some photos around October, 1999 of the Alva camp. This is another link showing Basic Info and Facilities of US POW camps.

This is an aerial view and a map of the layout of the buildings of the Alva camp.

Did you know that in January of 1945, WWII - the "Battle of Alva (Oklahoma)," 64 Guards were faced with rebellion by 1000 or so Nazi Prisoners of War. You can read more about this "Battle of Alva" at our "WWII OkieLegacy" website in the "Woods County" section.

This is a pencil sketch of the POW water tower that stood out at the Alva Camp during WWII and it was drawn by a German prisoner of war.

Except for a scattered few in the north part of the state, most of the POW Camps in Oklahoma were down in "Little Dixie" and across "Central Oklahoma" and NOT widely known back then during the war by the public sector.

As to POW Camps in Oklahoma ... A friend proclaims, "It is evident that Ardmore was a likely location. I do remember that the powers that be picked some of the most beautiful Washita bottom, timbered, ranch & farm land that they could find, to convert into a landing field. Perhaps a major factor was the fact that the Arbuckle Mountains sheltered the area from the heavy winds. At the beginning, the location was chosen to be used as a glider pilot training school. It also became a B-26 Bomber Pilot Training School and ultimately it became a B-17 Bomber Pilot Training School."

The consensus of the former POWs many years later when they came back to visit American was that they were treated well by the guards at the Alva Camp and other camps across Oklahoma.

One POW said, "Back then the Americans carried rifles on their shoulders. We prayed to our God for Germany to win the war and they prayed to their God for Americans to win the war.
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