Camp Greeley Memories, Greeley, Weld County, Colorado Donated by Pauli Smith Date: Wednesday, September 01, 1999 1:14 PM by Richard Berg, Nov. 25, 1997 An excerpt from a letter for a family history album. Memories "After the Allies defeated the Germans in North Africa in 1943, they found themselves with several hundred thousand German war prisoners. Many of them were shipped to the States to work as farm laborers. A large POW camp was built on the north side of Highway 34 near the Windsor turnoff to house and control some of the thousands of prisoners. The local farmers could contract with the camp to use the POWs in the fields. I can remember going with Dad to the camp in our truck, a 1943 GMC. A row of benches was placed on each side of the truck's bed, and I suppose fifteen or thirty prsoners sat on the benches while a guard accompianed us home in the cab. The guards were usually men who had injuries or illnesses such as malaria that didn't incapaciate them, but rendered them unfit for combat. The prisoners were in most cases still wearing most of their military uniforms. Any soldiers that had belonged to SS units were kept in higher secuurity camps somewhere else. The Germans had been captured early in the war and were young and in excellent physical condition. They were friendly, hard workers, and didn't have any intention of escaping or harming anyone. The guards were armed with M1 carbines, but could have been easily overpowered. One of the guards was suffering from the symptoms of malaria and spent most of the day in the house shivering with malaria tremors. The prisoners were used to thin beets, hoe weeds, harvest potatoes, sugar beets, onions, cabbage etc, and I'm sure to do other physical labor. On warm days the prisoners sometimes removed their shirts. You could often see the marks of war on their bodies where old bullet or shrapnet scars were evident. They received some portion of the funds paid by the farmers so that they could buy cigarettes, candy, and other nonessential items not furnished by the camp. Some of the farmer's wives would take coffee, cocoa, and other treats to these men which they of course greatly appreciated. " =================================================== Contributed for use by the USGenWeb Archive Project (http://www.usgenweb.org) and by the COGenWeb Archive Project USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access.