From 1942 to 1946 more than 400,000 German, Italian, and Japanese prisoners of war (PWs) were interned in the United States. Of that number, approximately 20,000 were held in camps in Mississippi. Located just south of the town of Clinton was one of these PW camps. Camp Clinton, as it was designated, became "home" to more than 3,000 German soldiers captured in World War II.
Camp Clinton is particularly significant compared to other PW camps in the country. First, the camp's prisoners provided the labor during the initial, and more tedious, phases of construction of the Mississippi River Basin Model. Their work, valued at several million dollars, allowed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to proceed with and complete their flood control project. In the decades after the Basin Model's completion, data collected during tests helped to save billions of dollars in property damage. Second, a special compound constructed at Camp Clinton was where all but a few of the German generals held in the United States were confined. Out of nearly forty generals in American captivity, thirty-five (and one admiral) were at one time or another at Camp Clinton. There was no other facility for German generals.
The last prisoners at Clinton were repatriated in March 1946. In October 1971, the site was declared surplus. In April 1973, the land was acquired by Mississippi College. Presently, much of the site is overgrown; and except for some of the old roads and a few foundations, there is little evidence that a 3,000-man prisoner of war camp ever existed.
I am a resident of Clinton, Mississippi. I received my MA degree in History from Mississippi College in Clinton, and my graduate thesis was on Camp Clinton. I am acquiring material related to the camp for use in developing his thesis into a book on Camp Clinton. This book will include original photography, maps, interviews with former German prisoners and American servicemen, and a brief account of the ex-prisoners visit to the camp site in April 1996 for a 50th anniversary reunion.
If you have information, photographs, documents, artifacts, or PW art that you would be willing to share, please contact me at my address below, or send an e-mail to me: allardma@netdoor.com Materials sought can be either German or American in nature if related to the camp. If you would like a copy of my current work or to find out more about the camp itself, write/call me.
