Today, we carry on with World War II visiting Florida. Especially, the clear presence of German prisoner-of-war camps and also the profusion of rumors and legends that are urban sprang up throughout the war. Welcome to Florida Time, a regular line about Florida history.
A lot more than 9,000 German POWs decided to go to 22 Florida camps, including facilities in Belle Glade and Clewiston. They decided to go to work with areas close to the camp before 8 a.m. and had been straight right straight back around 3 p.m.
Some prisoners bolted for freedom, but Florida had not been a place that is easy be regarding the lam, and additionally they had been caught. These people weren’t penalized for wanting to escape. The army charged farmers the rate that is going work, but could actually show a revenue by spending prisoners 80 cents each day in coupons they traded for products such as for example cigarettes and alcohol. Nearly instantly, Germans place small Belle Glade, in the south end of Lake Okeechobee, in the map that is national they held a two-day attack over a cut in tobacco cigarette rations. The public that is american press and politicians angrily painted term photos of coddled Germans whining over cigarettes at the same time when GIs had been stumbling across Nazi concentration camps.
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On the list of metropolitan legends, the many persistent is German subs supposedly delivered parties ashore to purchase materials or get items from “nests” of sympathizers. It absolutely was rumored that queries of captured boats had revealed cigarettes that are american a Holsum bakery wrapper and seats for western Palm Beach’s Florida Theatre. ( This legend that is urban the tradition of these that surface in various towns. Continue reading “Florida History: World War II proceeded; German POWs and Urban Legends”