Ike Worries About Wife Mamie's Safety During WWII
During WWII, General Eisenhower wrote over 300 letters to his wife,Mamie. In this letter he worries about Mamie's safety living at Fort Benning where Nazi war prisoners were being held and tells her he hopes the new Russian offensive against the Germans will be successful.
General Eisenhower was referring to the German POWs at Fort Benning, who ranged from private to lieutenant general. They were among nearly 500,000 German prisoners shipped to the United States during the war. With many able-bodied Americans fighting the war, the German POWs helped relieve a labor shortage by working on farms and elsewhere. About 860 of them are buried at 43 sites across the United States, according to the German War Graves Commission. Most died from accidents or natural causes. German POW Branch Camps in Georgia were comprised of the following: Moody Field (Valdosta); Fargo; Spence Field (Moultrie); Fort Benning (Columbus); Axson; Turner Field (Albany); Atlanta; Americus; Fort Gordon ( Augusta); Bainbridge; Brunswick; Reedsville; Finney Hospital ( Thomasville); Tifton; Waycross; Chatham Field, Hunter Field (Savannah); Waynesboro.
German P.O.W.s attending a class at Fort Benning, Georgia, 1944