Camp Marion, World War II Prisoners of War

Camp Marion, World War II Prisoners of War. This site was once a twenty-four acre camp for Prisoners of War established on the grounds of the Marion Engineer Depot. The Depot was a major supply and logistics site of the U.S. Army Engineers during World War II. The first contingent of POWs arrived in December 1944, consisting of two hundred and fifty men, many of them Germans who had served in the Afrika Korps Panzer Division. POWs served in many capacities during their time at Camp Marion. Some worked in construction, others cooked, cleaned, and performed maintenance and office tasks around the depot. Many worked on local farms, where farmers provided food to supplement their sometimes inadequate rations so that they would have energy to be able to work a full day. By 1946 five hundred Prisoners of War could be held at Camp Marion., Camp Marion included housing, recreational areas, a canteen, and a small store where the POWs could buy items with coupons they received for their pay of eighty cents a day. They also had soccer teams, the POWs favorite sport. An arts and crafts center was provided for their use and some POWs made gifts for locals including oil paintings and jewelry boxes. The cultural exchanges that occurred were a positive experience for the Marion area. Regardless of rules against fraternizing, friendships were established with the POWs that continued into the 1990s. By March 1946, Camp Marion had closed and in 1960 the Marion Engineer Depot closed. In 1989 the site was purchased from the United States government and developed as the Marion Industrial Center.