All that remains of Camp Chireno, a WWII POW camp for German Army Afrika Korps soldiers, is a historical marker at what is now known as Veteran's park near downtown.
The marker reads as follows:
"CAMP CHIRENO
WORLD WAR II P.O.W. CAMP
During World War II, the Frost Lumber Co. (Nacogdoches) and the Angelina Lumber Co. (Lufkin) requested that the War Manpower Commission (WMC) establish Camp Chireno as a "permanent" branch of Camp Fannin (Smith County). The WMC leased private land and built the 30-acre compount west of here along Camp Road. Located in an area devastated by the January 1944 ice storm, this camp benefited from Chireno's established railorad facilities. The site first received prisoners of war (POWs) in May 1944. The camp's 300 POWs spent their time cutting and salvaging timber and pulpwood. The camp closed in March 1945, near the end of the war.
Texas in World War II-2008
marker is property of the State of Texas"
More on the experience at Camp Chireno can be found in this paper from the East Texas Historical Journal by Daniel Williams, titled "Early Times in Chireno": (
visit link)
"[page 59] POWs
On the Chireno-Etoile road there was a World War II prisoner-of-war camp. It was located on the AJ. Waters place four miles southwest of Chireno. Some POWs worked for the Sutton sawmill that was near the camp. The German POWs were in Chireno from 1943 to 1946. The POW camp at Chireno was one of twelve camps in the Piney woods.
The site in Chireno was chosen for many reasons. It was on an excellent transportation route, the Angelina and Neches River Railroad, and was located in the thick forest surrounding Chireno that the lumber companies owned.
[page 60] The POW Camp was built in March of 1943 and the first German prisoners came in May. The camp covered thirty acres. with the central compound sitting on five acres. There were 250 German prisoners at the camp. Some worked for the Frost Lumber Company or Sutton's Mill, and some might have been from General Rommel's Africa Corps. The POW's who did work for the lumber companies were in groups of twelve and were looked after by an American truck driver, a labor pusher, and a U.S. Army soldier.
In his book about German POW camps in East Texas, historian Mark Choate said "the Germans worked the forests for two years and were a valuable asset to the timber industry." The number of prisoners decreased between the last months of 1945 and the early part of 1946. The camp then closed in March of 1946.
A bad tornado swept through Chireno on January 6, 1946, and some of the German prisoners-of-war helped in the cleanup. The people of Chireno then saw that the POWs were just boys who were lonely and no different from their own young friends and family.
American armed guards at Camp Chireno would leave the camp headquarters at night to visit young women in Nacogdoches at the Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College WAC School. Some of the prisoners liked East Texas so much that after the war they decided to stay here."