During World War II, more than 400,000 German and Italian prisoners of war were held in camps across the United States, where many helped meet labor shortages in production and agriculture while living in small camp communities with canteens, sports, plays, concerts, and English courses. Most German prisoners were not ardent Nazis, and some came to value the kindness shown to them in the U.S., carrying ideas of democracy and American life back to postwar Germany. At Walterboro Army Air Field, 150 German prisoners were housed in barracks required by the Geneva Convention to be as favorable as those used by U.S. soldiers, and local demand for labor led to the establishment of a camp for 250 German prisoners there in December 1944. Prisoners were paid for their labor, with part of the money reserved until release and part available for purchases at the camp canteen. Some worked for local employers, including at a nursery run by W.R. and Alta Marvin, where Helmut Ulbricht and nine other prisoners dug ditches, did irrigation work, and cut trees, and where Alta Marvin provided home-cooked meals. Friendly relationships developed between some prisoners and local supervisors, and at least two former Walterboro prisoners later wrote from Germany about their good treatment and memories of their time there; Fritz Mohme wrote to Marion Sams, who sent him a pair of shoes he had requested, and Helmut Ulbricht later wrote to the Marvin family and returned with his wife to visit Walterboro in 1994. Walterboro Army Air Field was also home to one of the largest camouflage schools in the United States during World War II, when camouflage was just beginning to develop as a military art, and soldiers there may have trained to conceal themselves if downed in enemy territory.