German POWs Expected Brutal American Captors. Then They Reached a Camp in New Hampshire.

In the spring of 1943, German soldiers were warned that surrendering to the Americans could mean brutality, cruelty, and death. A year later, around one hundred German and Austrian prisoners boarded a train at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, and traveled north into the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Their destination was Camp Stark, a small prison camp surrounded by forests, guarded by American soldiers, and far from the battlefields they had left behind. Many of the prisoners had already been treated as outsiders by Nazi Germany. Some belonged to the 999th Division, a unit that included men the regime considered politically unreliable. At Camp Stark, they were put to work cutting pulpwood for the Brown Company, learning difficult forestry skills from a civilian foreman named Albert Lang. What happened in those woods did not fit the picture either side had been taught to believe. American guards sometimes helped the prisoners meet their work quotas. A German camp doctor treated local residents. One guard left his crew fishing rods and trusted the men to stay by the river. Over time, prisoners and local residents formed friendships that would survive long after the camp closed. But Camp Stark was not without tension. Some prisoners attempted to escape, including Franz Bacher, who disappeared into the forest for more than a month. Others tried to dig a tunnel. The camp eventually closed in 1946, yet letters continued between former prisoners and the people they had known in New Hampshire. In 1986, former prisoners and American guards returned to Stark for a reunion. Historian Allen V. Koop described Camp Stark as an “island of decency in a world at war.” This is the story of a small POW camp where daily work, mutual trust, and decades of correspondence challenged the assumptions that had shaped both sides of the war. **Chapters** 0:00 The Warning Against Surrender 0:41 Then Came the Train 1:13 The Train Stops at Stark 2:00 The Propaganda About American Captors 2:57 The Men of the 999th Division 4:52 Albert Lang and the Logging Camp 6:33 When the Guards Began to See Them Differently 8:24 Fishing Rods by the River 9:31 The Escape from Camp Stark 10:36 Going Home After the War 12:10 The 1986 Reunion 13:32 An Island of Decency **SOURCES** Allen V. Koop, *Stark Decency: German Prisoners of War in a New England Village* (University Press of New England, 1988). A central historical account of Camp Stark, the prisoners, their work, relationships with local residents, escapes, and postwar reunions. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/S/bo44892767.html New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources, *New Hampshire Historical Highway Markers*, Marker No. 150: Camp Stark German Prisoner of War Camp. Official information on the camp's location, wartime purpose, forestry work, closure, and 1986 reunion. https://mm.nh.gov/files/uploads/dhr/documents/highway-markers-by-number.pdf Adolphe V. Bernotas, Associated Press, “Wartime Internment Camp Binds German POWs, American Guards,” *Los Angeles Times*, July 3, 1994. Reporting on Camp Stark and the reunion between former prisoners and American guards. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-07-03-mn-11474-story.html New England Historical Society, “A German POW Escapes the WWII Prison Camp in Stark, N.H.” Additional historical background on Franz Bacher's escape and the camp's later history. https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/a-german-pow-escapes-wwii-prison-camp-in-stark-n-h/ Vermont Public, “Blinkhorn: Camp Stark.” A radio feature on the German POW camp in New Hampshire and its place in the history of the town. https://www.vermontpublic.org/programs/2015-12-03/blinkhorn-camp-stark **Sources & Archives** U.S. National Archives Internet Archive Wikimedia Commons Periscope Film **Archival Footage** Archival footage: U.S. National Archives, Prelinger Archives, Ford Motor Company collection, Die Deutsche Wochenschau; some scenes use illustrative footage of the period not the people named. **How This Episode Was Made** Original research and script by WWII Desk. Archival film, photographs, documents and other historical material from historical collections are re-edited to match the narration and combined with our own maps, document reconstructions and graphics. Some scenes use illustrative footage of the period to represent locations, events, equipment and environments described in the narration and are not necessarily footage of the specific people named. Sources are listed above. If someone in your family was stationed at a POW camp, lived near one, or has a story about the German prisoners who came through their town, tell us in the comments. And if you want the next story when it is published, subscribe to WWII Desk.