By Jack M. Willis
Journal Correspondent

Very few residents of LaSalle Parish and even Central Louisiana today know that the decades old crossroads of history known as Whitehall east of Jena was host to a German prisoner-of-war camp during the last stages of World War II.

Many people are under the assumption that this operation lasted much longer, but in reality German POW's occupied the camp for only about five months from January until May of 1945, with actual construction of the camp beginning in December of 1944.

A still-visible silent reminder of the little-known facility, and still reminding local residents of what once was, is the outline of the camp's water tank, which is still standing after some 60 years, south of US 84, and across La. Hwy 460 from the Whitehall Mall Before she passed on, I was able to contact Ms. Margie Davis Joy, who was the daughter of the gentleman who owned the land the camp occupied for an interview. Her father, Joe B. Davis and his partner had a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to obtain German prisoners for use in their timber harvesting operation.

The inmates would be German prisoners who had been captured in North Africa in late 1943 during Rommel's defeat by the British and American forces. These prisoners were the cream of the German race, crack Afrika Korps Panzer veterans; most bearing the classic Nordic Aryan features of blonde hair and intense blue eyes. When asked how armies led by Lord Viscount Sir Bernard Law Montgomery and General George S. Patton, Jr. were able to defeat and ultimately capture them, some of the new Whitehall residents shrugged and replied, ôNix Petrol or No Gasolene.ö  The interpretive meaning was that their war machine had literally run out of gasolene. The first such consignment of German POW's was interred at Camp Claiborne in southern Rapides Parish, in an American version of the German ôstalag.ö The proper definition of the German word ôstammlagerö means base camp, with the word stalag being a derivative of that root term. Usually when one usually hears the word ôstalagö, instant memories are evoked of a motion picture Stalag 17 released in 1953, which served as a vehicle to earn an Oscar for William Holden. Or one might even recall Bob Crane as Col. Hogan in Hogan's Heroes, where the plots and TV cast portrayed concentration camp life as humorous and comedic, which real veteran POWÆs vehemently declare was just the opposite.

During most of the duration of World War II, German prisoners were shipped to the U.S. to be housed at U.S. Basic Training facilities.

Arrangements had been made to house them in barracks adjacent to various to all-weather training facilities, and usually becoming military bases, which had hurriedly been constructed all across the southern U.S. prior and during World War II. But towards the middle of the conflict, the U.S. Defense Department had a problem on their hands in that they were playing host to a bunch of restless, bored POW's, resulting in the ôconfinersö looking for almost any kind of work details for the ôconfineesö to vent their pent up energies upon.

Meanwhile, in the Whitehall community, Mr. E.B. Smith and Mr. J.B. Davis had decided in 1944 to partner up in a business venture, forming the Smith and Davis Pulpwood Company, which was a gutsy undertaking considering that  most of the available manpower was already in military service.

Through negotiations with the proper Defense Dept. officials, arrangements were finalized to obtain a work force of 100 German POW's from Camp Claiborne to harvest pulpwood for the new company. A parcel of land was secured at the Whitehall intersection of US 84 and LA Hwy. 8, featuring a multi-tiered fence topped with multiple strands of gleaming barbed wire surrounding the enclosure. Four barracks were erected inside the compound to house the new ôpulpwoodersö in December of 1944, with the POW's taking up residency during the first week of January 1945.

Smith and Davis had five one-ton trucks, which would haul 20 men each to the harvest sites, with the men working in pairs and utilizing bucksaws and axes to accomplish their assignments. The morning, noon, and evening meals the contractors furnished the laboring force were funded by the U.S. Defense Department.

The two-man teams were required to cut and stack 10 pins of wood per day, with a pin consisting of a stack of wood in alternate layers that was four feet square and five feet high, with ten pins of wood equaling two cords of pulpwood.

The men loaded on the five company trucks, which would haul 20 men each, for the first time on the morning of January 9, 1945 to begin their timber harvesting operation. In summation, the venture was a tremendous success, because the POW's helped supply a valuable labor resource of manpower which was in very short supply because of the demands of war, and was kept busy, rather than languishing around the compound at Camp Claiborne.

Ms. Margie Davis Joy and her husband Dave also recanted one debilitating incident happening to the prisoners relating to the former Panzer veterans first encounter with the native poison ivy and poison oak. Because of their fair Aryan complexion and skin they were fair game for the toxic juices of the noxious poison oak and poison ivy vines, and exposure resulted in the scratching and clawing prisoners being unable to work for several days while the itching effects ran their course.

One diversion for entertainment, which gave the German prisoners a chance to become more understanding of American culture, was the practice of showing motion pictures at the compound on Friday and Saturday nights. Camp security guards would suspend a large white sheet on the piping that supported the aforementioned water tank, and the prisoners and security staff would view the latest cinematic offerings from Hollywood. Local resident's children, upon seeing the flickering light of the projector, would materialize from every quadrant of the community to hang on the fence and watch free movies.

Almost immediately after their tenure in Whitehall was ended, and the prisoners were transferred back to Camp Claiborne, as the second worst flood of the 20th Century occurred from Whitehall eastward towards Natchez, Ms.

The empty barracks located on high ground were quickly commandeered by the local citizenry for housing accommodations, and a tent city utilizing old WWI tents, was set up in a vacant field across US 84 from the former POW site.

In later years, Dave Joy would utilize the barracks as a storage area for hay and cow feed, but the barracks are long gone now, and as mentioned before, all that remains to evoke stalag memories is the stark image of the water tower.

The wood-cutting excursions continued until May 31, 1945, at which time Germany had surrendered; WWII was winding down, and it was time for the prisoners to be repatriated to their homeland.

During the brief stint the POW's were housed there, there never were any helmeted armed guards with dogs on leashes, and electrified fences, because the prisoners obviously relished the break in penal monotony, and liked what they were doing. One prisoner, who at the end of one workday had felt a call from Mother Nature, was overlooked in the loading process to back to the barracks, and was left at the harvest site. He managed to make his way out to a well-traveled road; somehow made himself understood in broken English to a passing motorist he hailed down, and hitchhiked back to the compound. When he walked into the barracks he was smiling from ear to ear, obviously glad to be back at this Central Louisiana substitution for the Fatherland.

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