In the summer of 1944, the Stewartstown Fairgrounds was converted into a prisoner-of-war camp for German soldiers captured during World War II. One of 16 prisoner-of-war camps in Pennsylvania during the war, it served as Branch Camp #3 of the Indiantown Gap Base Camp in Lebanon County and operated seasonally to supply labor to local businesses facing wartime shortages. Activated on June 15, 1944, and ceasing to function on November 1, 1945, the camp held German soldiers, some as young as 17, under the guard of U.S. Army Military Police. U.S. government records show an average of 231 prisoners and 14 guards, and approximately 2,000 prisoners lived there over the two years it operated. The fairgrounds was transformed with four guard towers, a wire fence, and tents for prisoners, guards, enlisted men, and officers, while the prisoners lived inside the fenced area and were transported into Stewartstown and nearby communities to work in fields, orchards, and canneries.