PACAMERO-L Archives
Archiver > PACAMERO > 2000-08 > 0967127054
From:
Subject: Re: [PA-CAMERON] A New Look for the Site!
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 10:24:14 EDT
There is a topic, not pertinent only to Cameron Co., that has gotten my interest at various times over the last 50 or so years.
I can remember that, around 1944-5, there were some German war prisoners living in a boxcar at the railroad siding below the Presbyterian Church for a short time. I never knew what happened to these men. I can remember riding my bicycle down there (not alone, I might add), to look at them. I do NOT remember my parents or anyone else talking about them.
Several years ago I came across a very short article, probably in the Sunday paper, about a book written on the subject by a Professor Klammer, I think from a Texas university.
Since I have gotten into the cyber age, when I came across that same article a couple of weeks ago, I decided to see if I could find the book listed on Amazon.com. (By the way, this is NOT an advertisement.) I did find the book available on that site and ordered it. I think it only cost about $15 in a large paperback edition.
This is a very cut and dried book - no dialogue, no lead characters. It is also full of tons of information about the WWII years. I have enjoyed it immensely, which is something coming from someone who is not a history scholar. Even Emporium's own General McNarney is mentioned towards the end. He was apparently commander of the Mediterranean forces. (But as I get older, history becomes more interesting to me. Too bad we didn't have some whiz-bang history teachers at CCHS.)
I never knew what happened to those men. My guess is that they were shipped to a camp in Ohio or around Erie. I don't even know how long they were in Emporium. My guess is they weren't there very long - public sentiment and all considered. However, I didn't consider them as the enemy, but only as a curiosity.
Does anyone else on this list remember them?
Mary Ellen Overmier Smith
This thread: