An Ex-POW Meets a Missionary from America
August 24th, 2007 by John Mansfield
Early in the winter, twenty years ago in a small living room on the Argentine Pampa, a family I don’t remember had another guest that evening besides myself and my missionary companion. The old man, upon learning that I was an American, was thrilled to meet me. He had been a soldier in the Italian army in the Second World War and had been captured and interred in Texas as a prisoner. “It was great there,” he effused. “I would go back in a second if I could. As a prisoner again if I had to.” Never before did I so swell with pride for my nation.
Arizona used to have POW camps for German prisoners. A group of POW’s escaped on one occasion, and were quickly re-captured. Hopefully the Arizona POW camps were air conditioned.
Interesting story. I am pleased to hear the man was well treated as a POW.
Was it America he liked or Texas?
America or Texas? Good question. In his dealing with me, I would say America since he was delighted to meet a non-Texan American and tell me his story.
Here’s a URL about the POW prisoners in Texas. It says one reason so many prisoners went to Texas is that the Geneva Convention required them to be held somewhere with a climate similar to where they had been captured, and they had been captured in North Africa. That would explain camps in Arizona too.
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/GG/qug1.html
My (Jewish, New York born) grandfather was a POW in Franco’s Spain in 1937, and he loved the people and the place and went back in the 1970s. Hated Franco, though; he waited till the General died to go back. About half the songs on his album (PDF) were done in Spanish.