Print this page. Home / Browse / Time Period / World War II
through the Faubus Era (1941 - 1967) / World War II Prisoner of
War Camps During World War II, the United States established
many prisoner of war (POW) camps on its soil for the first time
since the Civil War. By 1943, Arkansas had received the first of
23,000 German and Italian prisoners of war, who would live and
work at military installations and branch camps throughout the
state. The presence of POW camps in the United States was due in
part to a British request to alleviate the POW housing problems
in Great Britain. Initially, the U.S. government resisted the
idea of POW camps on its soil. The huge numbers of German and
Italian POWs expected to occupy the camps created many problems
for the federal government and the military. The military did
not have the experience or manpower to maintain camps with large
POW populations. Most of the skilled military personnel fluent
in German and Italian were fighting overseas. Government
officials feared tha