Volume 14 , Issue 17

NW Okie's Corner

A few weeks ago someone contacted us about a German/English booklet they had found at a secondhand store in Germany to see if we wanted it. It was interesting to this NW Okie because on the inside cover it had stamped on the upper-left corner, "Camp Alva 23.4.45." It has 100 brief English for export and Import.

On that same page in the center it was stamped with a German POW's name and POW number, stating "Prisoner of war camp, Camp Polk, LA, Personal property of Gerhard Widmann, 8WG-16811, By order of the stockade commander."

I am wondering which POW World War II camp came first: Camp Polk in Louisiana or Camp Alva (23.4.45) in Alva, Oklahoma. I would love to find out more about they Gerhard Widdmann and what happened to him and his family after World War II. Has anyone run onto any POW camp records in Louisiana and Oklahoma showing the time that POW's were listed?

I do know that in December, 1941, Uncle Bob McGill was leaving Leesville, Louisiana via train through New Mexico to San Francisco, before being deployed to Hawaii. As to NW Okie's Uncle Robert Lee McGill WWII timeline, Robert McGill was in training at Leesville, Louisiana around 1941. In a letter dated 19 December 1941 to his mother Constance Warwick McGill. Uncle Bob mentions that he was on a train from Leesville, Louisiana headed west towards San Francisco and passing through New Mexico. He gave is mother instructions as to car keys, insurance, etc. that he left in Leesville with a LT. Robert Kalbfell at 753 tk bn.

Tell the GOP, "Stop the War On Women, Senior Citizens & Poor!"
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