- Military - Janesville Sesquicentennial
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- Prisoners created curiosity
- Although there was much anti-German sentiment running through
communities during World War
- II, Janesville accepted its German prisoner of war camp more
with curiosity than animosity.
- Art LEVZOW was a Janesville mailman during World War
II, and remembers Camp Janesville
- well.
- "I'd drive by and see them playing soccer," LEVZOW
said. "They were the happiest bunch of
- kids you would ever want to see."
- LEVZOW remembers the prisoners being taken to the
factories and fields to work. "They were
- taken to the canning factories and fields on flatbed trucks,"
he said.
- "When they came back into town after work, they would
stop at a grocery store and buy some
- candy and cigarettes with the money they had earned,"
LEVZOW said.
- Doris WATERS, Janesville, a teenager during the war,
recalled living down the road from the
- camp.
- The army guards from the camp would come to WATERS'
home where her mother would make
- coffee for them. The main problem the guards always talked
about, she recalls, was girls.
- "There were girls going up there (to the camp) all the
time," WATERS said. "The girls would
- stand by the fence and some tried crawling under the wire."
- Once a guard pulled a girl out who was trying to crawl under
a prisoner's tent, WATERS said.
- LEVZOW agreed that girls were a constant problem.
"I think the fence was put up to not to keep
- the prisoners in, but to keep the girls out," he said.
- Even though the army had prohibited visitors to the camp,
there were cars continually going up to
- see the Germans. "There was no problem with the prisoners,
but rather with traffic jams," WATERS said.
- WATERS and her family were given a special privilege
- a tour inside the camp.
- She said the Germans did not appear any different from other
soldiers upon close inspection.
- "They were sitting in their tents in shorts; they looked
very normal," she said.
- WATERS recalls how beautifully the prisoners sang
and marched. "Every Sunday the prisoners
- would march by our house in unison," WATERS said.
- The prisoners would march to Monterey Stadium every Sunday
where they would exercise and
- sing. Often the prisoners would put on impromptu concerts
for residents.
- "I still get goosebumps thinking of their singing and
marching," WATERS said.
- Janesville residents were also involved in various operations
of the camp.
- The Rev. Joseph STRANGE was associate pastor at St.
Patrick's Catholic Church in Janesville
- and took part in Sunday Mass at the camp.
- "We usually had 25 to 30 boys attending the mass,"
said STRANGE, who is now pastor at St.
- William in Janesville.
- He was surprised at how the young prisoners were - some no
older than 18. STRANGE feels
- their ages may have made local residents look at them in
a different way.
- "People realized that these were just boys - soldiers
like our who were just doing what they had
- to do," he said.
- Often STRANGE and his fellow priests would bring snacks
out to the prisoners. "We would load
- up the car with candy and candy bars. The boys would help
us unload things from the car and they would get the candy. That
made the boys smile," he said.
- STRANGE heard few complaints from the prisoners. "The
boys always seemed comfortable," he
- said.
- Dr. Erland OTTERHOLT, Janesville, served as the Contract
Surgeon at Camp Janesville during
- the summer of 1945.
- OTTERHOLT went to the camp three times a week to take
care of any minor injuries or
- illnesses.
- OTTERHOLT said the prisoners were very interested
in the war in the Pacific with the Japanese.
- "They knew they would not be released until that war
was over," OTTERHOLT said. "They were ecstatic
when the Japanese surrendered."
- For the most part, OTTERHOLT said, the prisoners were
very well disciplined - to the point
- where there was little guard on them. "It would have
been possible for the whole camp to walk off," he said.
- There was only one major accident that OTTERHOLT could
remember. An army truck carrying
- a load of prisoners to work rolled over. No one was seriously
injured.
- The prisoners of Camp Janesville seemed to be content with
being in a prison camp.
- OTTERHOLT said some of the prisoners had fought on
the Eastern front and were happy to have been captured by American
troops rather than Russians, who had a reputation for mistreatment
of POWs.
- Art LEVZOW may have hit the real reason they did not
mind being in prison camps.
- "I think they were just happy not to have anyone shooting
machine guns at them anymore," he said.
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