There are few people left in LaSalle Parish who remember or know that during WWII a Prisoner of War (POW) Camp was stationed in the piney woods of nearby Whitehall. With the exception of an elder or two, the stories of the camp are long forgotten and have ceased to be told.
The year was 1945 and local LaSalle landowner, Joe B. Davis, and his partner, like other business residents located in Louisiana, secured a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to obtain and house German prisoners. The LaSalle site was located in the Whitehall area, and the POWs were to provide a labor force in Davis’s and his business partner’s timber business.
The Whitehall POW Camp or ‘Stalag Whitehall” was built in 1944 to house German prisoners captured in North Africa in late 1943 in a battle between American and British troops with the Germans in which the America and Britian defeated the impending Germany troops. The German term for base camp was “stammlager” and evolved into the word “stalag” which was later coined in reference to the camp and other camps like it. It was built on a standardized design used to build similar barracks across Louisiana and other states.
Late LaSalle Parish historian, Jack Willis, described the German prisoners held in the Whitehall facility as ‘the cream of the German race, most bearing the classic Nordic Aryan features of blonde hair and intense blue eyes.’ When the prisoners were reportedly interviewed and asked how they were defeated by the American troops and their British allies, they were said to have simply shrugged and replied, “Nix Petrol!”, meaning their war machinery had run completely out of fuel.
Specifically, the Whitehall POW Camp housed German prisoners of war and endured for a period of five months from January until May of 1945. Initially the site was surrounded by a multi-tiered fence that was topped with numerous strands of barbed wire to secure it. The compound housed four barracks for the prisoners who were to work as ‘pulp wooders’ harvesting lumber from the area. The prisoners worked in two men teams to cut and stack ten pins of wood per day. A pin consisted of a stack of wood in a foot square being four to five feet high. Two pins of wood equaled two cords of pulpwood. They provided a much needed and valuable labor source as many area men were serving in the war effort.
Stories handed down by locals from the time recounted the German prisoners first interaction encountered poison ivy and poison oak vines that grew freely in the wooded areas in which they were working. Their fair complexions soon became victim to the plants which put the prisoners out of commission for several days until they recovered.
Entertainment was kindly provided for the imprisoned men in the form of motion pictures in an effort to acquaint them with American culture. The movies or pictures were shown every Friday or Saturday night on a large white sheet attached to piping which the prison security guards would erect. Whitehall’s resident children would also enjoy the films as the projected movies could be seen flickering across the ‘screen’ far and wide. There was no electricity in the area until post WWII, so the large water tower was heated for designated bath times by stacking firewood around the metal structure and setting it afire to heat the water.
During the occupancy of the camp, there were never any attempts of prisoners trying to escape the confinement. No armed guards or patrol animals were required because the German prisoners were treated humanely during their internment. POW letters, diaries and postwar interviews support that most POW prisoners in the US were satisfied during their confinements as housing was adequate and they were well off and safe.
Such POW camps were common during WWII and resulted from efforts of the U.S. Defenses Department to place restless German POWs in areas wherein they could participate and supply much needed labor. The camps also provided an outlet for the confined Germans and circumvented potential problems that could occur from the vast numbers of captured enemy troops. Most were built in the South due to the higher expense of heating the barracks in colder areas.
The German prisoners housed at Whitehall continued working until May 31, 1945, when the German armies surrendered to America and her allies. After the war ended, the camp ceased to serve as a POW and the prisoners were sent home to Germany.
The present location of the old camp can be found south on Highway 84 across from LA Highway 460 by the current Whitehall Mall. Few remains are left from this venture in history, except for a few pieces of metal remnants, that are lying hidden beneath the carpet of pine straw and brush that now command the area.
The historical accounts of the Whitehall POW Camp and others like it stand in danger of being lost to time, but are nonetheless important to preserve and remember. It’s a piece of history that is unique and contributes to the community that stands today.
