Kalamazoo County MI Archives Photo Place....."The Forgotten Twenty-Six" German Memorial April 2006
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
A. Srackangast naturesway5@sbcglobal.net April 4, 2006, 4:18 pm

Source:             Fort Custer National Cemetery
Photo can be seen at:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/kalamazoo/photos/theforgo41526gph.jpg
Image file size: 118.0 Kb

“From 1943 to 1946, Fort Custer housed several German Prisoner of War Camps.  
Many of the 4,000 prisoners worked on farms and in vineyards in the area.  In 
Sections B of Fort Custer National Cemetery, Once part of the Post Cemetery of 
fort Custer, there are 26 Berman graves.  Sixteen of the men were killed or 
died as a result of an accident on October 31, 1845 when a truck, returning 
German prisoners of War from a work detail to their POW Camp at Fort Custer, 
collided with a train at an unguarded railroad crossing at Blissfield, 
Michigan.  The other 10 died of natural causes while prisoners of war at Fort 
Custer.”  In 1953,the 26 German POW graves were included in the annual memorial 
service to honor those who died in defense of their county.  Currently an 
annual memorial service is held on the third Sunday in November, which 
coincides with Germany's "Volkstrauertag" or "Day of National Mourning."

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/kalamazoo/photos/theforgo41526gph.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mifiles/

File size: 1.7 Kb