Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection open for research.

Use Restrictions

No physical characteristics affect use of this material.

Preferred Citation

Leesburg German Prisoners of War Research , 2017- (SC 0125), Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA.

Acquisition Information

Charles J. Bugajsky, Ashburn, VA

Alternative Form Available

None

Accruals

2005.0059, 2007.0035

Processing Information

Processed by Laura Christiansen, 2017

Historical Information

In August 1942, in order to preserve badly needed supplies and manpower on the European front, the United States War Department began to move all Axis prisoners of war [POW] to camps within the United States. Camps operated according to 1929 Geneva Convention rules, providing health care, housing, and food comparable to those received by American soldiers. Camps were largely constructed in southern states where mild winters limited heating costs, Virginia alone hosted camps with more than 17,000 German POWs during World War II.

In 1944, the War Department selected a rural location near Leesburg for a temporary camp. One of seven branch camps under the jurisdiction of a base camp in Front Royal, it was joined by camps in Winchester, Fairfax, Timberville, Lyndhurst, White Hall, and Flintstone, Maryland. The Leesburg camp, located on farmland owned by the Moss Family, housed between 150-200 POWs in 1944 and 1945. POWs helped to alleviate wartime labor shortages by providing additional agricultural labor for local farms. Prisoners were contracted to local farm and orchard owners who paid 40 cents per hour for their labor. Picked up each morning and returned each evening to the camp, prisoners did not receive any payment for their labor, but were issued coupons that could be used only at an exchange in the camp. Loudoun County farmers found the POW labor to be satisfactory, and in July 1945 sent protests on the prisoners' behalf to US Army authorities and Senator Harry F. Byrd (1887-1966) requesting improved rations. On 4 October 1945, the Loudoun-Times Mirror reported that the camp would soon close, with repatriation of all prisoners expected to be completed no later than March 1946.

Scope and Content

This collection consists of research materials related to the Leesburg Prisoner of War branch camp, the Front Royal base camp, and other prisoner of war camps in Virginia during World War II that were collected by military historian Charles J. Bugajsky. Included are property records and tax maps plotting the location of the camp near Leesburg, War Department reports copied from the National Archives and Records Administration relating to the Front Royal base camp and its branches, transcribed newspaper articles from the Loudoun Times-Mirror and Warren Report and other newspapers from 1944-1945, and photocopied secondary source information about US prisoner of war camps in general.

Related Material

Winslow Williams Photograph Collection (VC 0003), 1925-1980, Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA. Fishback, Mary. Loudoun County, 250 Years of Towns and Villages, Hamilton, VA, 1999 (V REF 975.528 FIS).Grove, Noel & Poland, Charles P. Jr. The Lure of Loudoun: Centuries of Change in Virginia's Emerald County, Virginia Beach, VA, 2007 (V REF 975.528 GRO). Mills, Charles A. Hidden History of Northern Virginia, Charleston, SC, 2010 (V REF 975.52 MIL). Raflo, Frank. 1988. Within the Iron Gates: a Collection of Stories about Loudoun as Remembered After Rereading the Loudoun Times-Mirror for the Years 1925-1975. Leesburg, VA: Printed by Loudoun Times-Mirror (V REF 975.528 RAF)

Adjunct Descriptive Data

Bibliography

Leesburg German Prisoners of War Research, 1944-2000 (SC 0125), Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA.

Other Finding Aid

None

Technical Requirements

None