Camp Albuquerque - History

History

Prisoners were transferred to Camp Albuquerque because it was closer to their work sites. These main and branch camps were part of a huge POW camp system spread across much of the United States. At its World War II peak, almost 426,000 prisoners - 371,683 German, 50,273 Italian, and 3,915 Japanese - were held in the United States. What began as a trickle with 1,881 POWs in the United States at the end of 1942, shot up to 172,879 by the end of 1943, and peaked at 425,871 on V-E Day.

From October 1943 Italian POWs were housed in Rio Grande Park in former Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) barracks that had been built in the 1930s. The site was located north of the present day Rio Grande Zoo, founded in 1927. The Italian POWs all left six months later and as suddenly and inexplicably as they had arrived.

From 25 July 1944 until March 1946 German POWs, most of them captured in the North Africa campaigns, were housed in these same barracks buildings. The barracks had been hastily moved to South 2nd Street and onto 8 acres (32,000 m2) at the north end of the Schwartzman property, and made ready for their arrival. Nervous Albuquerque citizens wanted them housed outside of the then city limits.

Shifting prisoner populations and sudden transfers were the norm. This was done to weed out pro-Nazi troublemakers, and to help break up escape attempts and their all important tunnel digging teams. In general, it kept the prisoners off balance. Still, three Germans did escape from Camp Albuquerque, but two were soon recaptured.

At peak occupancy, sometime in 1945, there were 171 German POWs in branch Camp Albuquerque. They worked on the various farms from Los Lunas to Corrales, helping in particular with the harvest in the fall. Presumably they also helped with the planting in the spring.