Many were allowed to leave the bases during the day to get small wages by assisting farmers with crops and animals. This was a benefit to the POW's and the farmers who had husbands and sons in the military. For obvious reasons, no one was a German P.O.W in the U.S. for more than 11 months.
One of the P.O.W.'s was stationed at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa. He either stayed in the U.S. or retuned to the U.S. after the war. He then became a teacher in New Providence, N.J. where we were both history teachers.
He was Austrian and was conscripted into Hitler's army. The only "action" he saw was at the Battle of the Bulge. His Austrian unit was commanded by a German officer. When it was clear that their unit was going to be killed, the members wanted to surrender. His German officer wanted to continue fighting. The officer was threatened and the white flag went up. He organized the surrender since his command of English was good.
I recall, sometime in the 80's, N.B.C. was heavily promoting their Sunday night broadcast of the film, "Battle of the Bulge." He couldn't wait to see it. Monday morning, "How was the movie?"
"I couldn't watch it. When I saw the part with the American tanks coming over the hill ---- I had to turn the tv off.
Another story... this one I heard on a public radio program. A group of German P.O.W.'s were imprisoned in a camp in Arizona. Their captain had seen a map of the area and wanted to escape to Mexico. The map showed the Gila River and it flowed into Mexico. The plan was to gather scrap wood, make a raft and take it to the river. From there, they would float to Mexico.
The raft was build, the couple of escapees left the fort and took their raft to the banks of the river - but the riverbed was dry. They were soon recaptured.
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