Camp San Augustine World War II P.O.W. Camp -- San Augustine TX
N 31° 32.094 W 094° 05.948
15R E 395657 N 3489408
The state historic marker at the county fairgrounds preserves the memory of the local POW camp at this site
Waymark Code: WMXGED
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/09/2018
Views: 1
This marker is located inside the city limits of San Augustine at the fair grounds, the former site of a POW camp for members of the German Afrika Korps.
The state historic marker reads as follows:
"Camp San Augustine
World War II P.O.W. Camp
During World War II, the U.S. military established multiple Prisoners of War (POW) Branch Camps at the request of East Texas communities seeking to boost federal economic investment and address local labor shortages. San Augustine, a branch of Camp Fannin (Smith Co.) was completed in March 1944. The first POWs, part of Germany's Afrika Korps, arrived here in April 1944, with a peak population of 331. POWs worked primarily on forestry projects. The camp remained open longer than any other branch camp in East Texas. After the war, several area branch camps closed and sent their POWs here, and later Camp Fannin, before repatriation to Europe. Camp San Augustine closed in April 1946.
Texas in World War II - 2009
Marker is property of the state of Texas"
For more on Camp San Augustine, see: (
visit link)
""When the Afrika Korps Came to Texas": World War II POWs in the Lone Star State
Arnold Krammer
March 2015
Arnold Krammer is professor of history at Texas A&M University, specializing in modern European and German history. He is the author of several books including Nazi Prisoners of War in America (New York: Stein & Day, 1979, Scarborough, 1983, 1996). His essay, "When the Afrika Korps Came to Texas" examines the history of the nearly eighty thousand German, Italian, and Japanese prisoners of war held in Texas during the Second World War. The essay, which is excerpted here, is included in the book Invisible Texans: Women and Minorities in Texas History (McGraw-Hill, 2005), a collection of eighteen essays exploring those who have been under-represented in previous writings about Texas history.
The full text of Arnold Krammer’s essay "When the Afrika Korps Came to Texas" is here (
visit link) available for download as a PDF.