WW11 POW Cemetery At Fort Gordon, GA

One little known fact is that almost every fort and camp in the United States had Prisoners of War assigned to them. 

There were about 700 POW camps with about 425,000 prisoners in total.  Most prisoners were German.

Camp Gordon, Georgia was no exception. Look at this tape HERE 

Between 2,000 and 4,000 prisoners were assigned to each camp or fort and they worked in the fields, highways, county roads and beautification of the grounds.

After the war, most POWs were reunified with their countries.  Surprisingly, thousands of Germans, once repatriated, made requests to return to the U.S. in order to start a new life.  

Being in the United States as a POW was far more livable than those who became POWs of the Russians.  About 3.5 million Germans became prisoners of the Russians and, of those, about 381,000 died.  

List from globalsecurity.org/military/facility

 Photo courtesy of chronicle.augusta.com  

Every year, around November, tribute is paid to the 22  WW2 Prisoners of War who are buried just inside Gate 2 at Fort Gordon.  

Not every soldier buried there died at Camp Gordon.  The list of all of these soldiers is at the bottom of this post. 

 Photo courtesy of chronicle.augusta.com  

Civilian and military representatives pay their respects.

Photo courtesy of chronicle.augusta.com   

Wreaths are laid at the graves by military and civilian representatives from the Augusta area.

 Photo courtesy of chronicle.augusta.com   

This is the grave site of the only Italian POW in the cemetery.

 Photo courtesy of chronicle.augusta.com  

The white chains and posts enclose the burial grounds of the 21 German Prisoners of War. 

 Photo courtesy of chronicle.augusta.com  

These wreaths and headstones are reminders of the unfortunate young men who died so far away from their native country.

 List from history.army.mil 

Photo from chronicle.augusta.com

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