Camp Algona: Iowa Time Machine February 14, 1946

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On February 14, 1946, the gates of Camp Algona closed, marking the end of an extraordinary chapter when northwest Iowa became home to 10,000 German soldiers who had once fought for Hitler's Reich. The last prisoners shipped out that month, and within months the 287-acre facility vanished, dismantled and sold piece by piece to locals who repurposed barracks into barns and guard towers into lumber.

World War II forced America to confront an unprecedented challenge: what to do with hundreds of thousands of captured enemy soldiers. Over 400 POW camps operated across the United States, designed to house Axis combatants in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. The conventions required that prisoners receive treatment comparable to American soldiers, including adequate housing, food, healthcare, and recreational opportunities. Camp Algona opened in April 1944 as one of two major POW facilities in Iowa, situated on farmland near this small town in Kossuth County. The camp served as a base facility supervising 34 branch camps spread across Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

America desperately needed labor with so many men overseas fighting, and German prisoners filled that gap by working in agriculture, lumber camps, and canning factories across the Upper Midwest. The final months of Camp Algona's operation saw a steady exodus of prisoners returning to a shattered Germany. The camp reached its peak population of 5,452 captives in September 1945, but by November, 2,000 prisoners shipped out, followed by several hundred at a time through the winter.

After the February 1946 closure, the camp was dismantled in a matter of months, and the land was ceded to the city of Algona (Basketball-Reference.com). Buildings were sold at public auctions for incredibly low prices, often just hundreds of dollars, and were repurposed into barns, sheds, and even private residences across Kossuth County. One barracks, now at Heritage Park in Forest City, was moved to Waldorf College's campus to serve as a classroom for decades. The Camp Algona POW Museum was established in 2004, 58 years after the last prisoners left, preserving the stories and artifacts from this unique period. The museum has conducted interviews with 60 former POWs and 30 Americans who worked at the camp. #Iowa #OTD #History #Military #Learning