By Reggie Owens
Special to The Journal

This was his third visit to Ruston into the past. The first was in 1996 when he was traveling to Baton Rouge and New Orleans with his brother from Germany and other family members.

"We were so close (to Ruston while traveling in Mississippi). I wanted to see what was left of it," said Horst Blumenberg, recalling his time at Camp Ruston as a prisoner of war from October 1944 to January 1946.

"We decided to make a right turn and go to Ruston," Blumenberg, 83, said.

Monday, he came to Ruston bearing gifts for Louisiana Tech--World War II memorabilia for Prescott Library's department of special collections, manuscripts and archives that houses the Camp Ruston Collection.

"One of the reasons I was so excited about this acquisition is because there was a missing link. We have filled in a gap," Tech archives director Peggy Carter said of Blumenberg's donation, which included video and audio tapes, photo scrapbooks, his submarine badge and his 2nd class German Iron Cross medal among other items.

Tech is the official repository of documents and other memorabilia from this former 770-acre prisoner of war camp that was located in Lincoln Parish near Grambling. For a short period before it housed war prisoners, it was temporarily a branch of the 5th Women's Army Auxiliary Corps Training Center. The Ruston Development Center now occupies the site.

Following his presentation in the university library, Blumenberg told the group of students, media, university personnel and community residents about his time in North Louisiana during the war--and of life since then.

This is one experience you went through that will never leave your brain," he said when asked why he returned to Ruston. He also visited in 1997.

Blumenberg's memories of his time at Camp Ruston were not all bad. Then, as now, he said he was treated well by the citizens of North Louisiana.

He talked about his first trip to Ruston and the police escort he received to the site of the former camp--"with flashing lights and all." He laughed. His brother visiting from Germany at the time later told him, "You tell somebody in Germany (about the police escort), they would think you were nuts."

Later during that 1996 trip, then-Mayor Hilda Perritt presented him the key to the city. This time, current Mayor Dan Hollingsworth also presented him the key to the city.

Although the treatment at Camp Ruston was good and the food OK, Blumenberg said he escaped three times because of boredom during his five years as a POW in the U.S. and Europe. He recalled one escape--"for the fun of it"--from the Barksdale branch of Camp Ruston where he was temporarily assigned.

"We got recaptured in Logansport about 3 o'clock in the morning," he said. "We were trying to get to Mexico." Sunday, he had dinner with the deputy who captured him. The former deputy, Glenn Price of Logansport, is now retired.

During World War II, Camp Ruston was one of the largest prisoner of war camps in the United States. At its peak in October 1943, the camp held 4,315 prisoners. One of the remaining two buildings from the camp is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

From June 1943 to June 1946, the camp served as one of more than 500 prisoner of war camps in the United States. During 1944, French, Austrian, Italian, Czech, Polish, Yugoslav, Romanian and Russian prisoners were also housed in the camp.

In September 1947, Blumenberg finally made it back home in Potsdam, seven years after going off to war. He said during his time as a POW, he had no contact with his family. They didn't know if he was dead or alive.

In 1954, as a resident of Communist East Germany, "I decided to make one more escape--to West Germany," he said with a broad smile. "I had to leave my wife and children, but I got them out eight months later."

He made his way to Montreal, Canada, in 1956 and eventually to Chicago in 1960, where he worked for Motorola. In his 31 years in Canada and the United States, he was an engineer and a vice president of engineering for several firms.

He retired in 1987 to Owensboro, Ky., where he now lives.

He said one of his proudest moments was in 1965 when he became a U.S. citizen. "I am not German," he declared.

"Even if I've got a hell of an accent, I strictly consider myself an American."

Other materials in the Camp Ruston Collection include: copies of National Archives records; maps and aerial surveys of the area; contemporary snapshots of the camp; artwork crafted by the prisoners; items unearthed during Tech's archaeology survey of the site; camp scrip; Christmas cards; dinner menus and dinnerware; letters from former prisoners; taped oral history interviews of former prisoners and staff; and articles, theses and books relating to Camp Ruston.

For more information on the camp including photos, go to the special collections Web site: http://www.latech.edu/specialcollections

Back