German prisoners of war were held in a camp on this site from November 1943 to May 1946. One of 21 such camps in South Carolina, it was first a sub-camp of the POW camp at Camp Gordon, now Fort Gordon, in Augusta, Georgia, and later a sub-camp of Fort Jackson in Columbia. The first 250 prisoners held here had been captured in North Africa, and men captured in Italy and France in 1943-44 increased the total to 620 by January 1945. The prisoners lived in tents with wooden floors, with up to five men in each, and their mess hall was a large frame barracks. They worked eight to ten hours a day harvesting peanuts or peaches, cutting pulpwood or lumber, planting trees, or working in a fertilizer factory. They were paid 80 cents a day in credit at the camp store, and when not working often played soccer, put on plays and concerts, and took night classes.

Photo: Anonymous

Photo: Anonymous

Photo: Walter Hofmann

Photo: Mike Stroud

Photo: Mike Stroud

Photo: Mike Stroud

Aiken, South Carolina · USA