WORLD HISTORY AND FACTS

World War II Prisoner of War Camps–world history and facts AKA: Prisoner of War Camps (World War II) AKA: POW Camps (World War II) During World War II, the United States established many prisoner of war (POW) camps on its soil for the first time since the Civil War. By 1943, Arkansas had received the first of 23,000 German and Italian prisoners of war, who would live and work at military installations and branch camps throughout the state. The presence of POW camps in the United States was due in part to a British request to alleviate the POW housing problems in Great Britain. Initially, the U.S. government resisted the idea of POW camps on its soil.  The huge numbers of German and Italian POWs expected to occupy the camps created many problems for the federal government and the military. The military did not have the experience or manpower to maintain camps with large POW populations.  Most of the skilled military personnel fluent in German and Italian were fig...