The Forgotten Camp: The Reedsburg Prisoner of War Camp

Abstract

During World War II the United States housed over 400,000 Prisoners of War across the United States. Wisconsin was struggling to meet the needs of their farming industry and needed to find other sources of labor. Reedsburg, Wisconsin was chosen as one of the branch camp locations to hold some of the German prisoners. The prisoners while staying in Reedsburg were used throughout the area in order to help with the labor shortage that was prevalent throughout Wisconsin and Reedsburg. Local area farms and canning factories took advantage of this.