Fort Lewis Prisoner of War Camp - Tacoma, WA
Posted by: 
Hikenutty
N 47° 06.059 W 122° 35.238
10T E 531316 N 5216468
Fort Lewis served as a POW camp to about 4,000 German prisoners between the years of 1942 and 1946.
Waymark Code: WM2FY0
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 10/27/2007
Views: 130
The following information is taken from Historylink.org, the online encyclopedia of Washington State history:
During World War II, Fort Lewis in Pierce County held about 4,000 German prisoners of war. The POWs were confined there between 1942 and 1946. A few died from illness or from their war wounds, but most enjoyed food and living conditions far better than they had in the deserts of North Africa or in the battlefields of Europe. International Red Cross inspectors judged their prison conditions strict but fair.
POWs first landed at Fort Lewis in Pierce County in early 1942 when four Japanese, two Italians, and one German arrived from far-flung battlefields. These men were quickly transferred to other POW camps and were replaced by an all-German clientele. Only a handful of records mention Fort Lewis as a POW facility that held as many as 4,500 Germans in five camps dotted around the base. Many of the POWs came from Germany’s famed armored Afrika Corps and were captured by the British, according to Fort Lewis Military Museum curator Alan Archambault. The museum has a roster of all the Germans held at the camps, thanks to a 1945 report listing the names and units of the German soldiers being held.
No photos are archived in the Fort Lewis Museum because photographing POWs was against the Geneva Convention pertaining to the treatment of prisoners. The photo ban prevented acts of retribution against families of POWs and limited the POWs value for use in propaganda films. Maps of the camps around the army base have also been lost to history -- they were classified to remove a potential tool of escape.
On Historylink.org's Webpage about the camp there is a very interesting interview with Wayne Shoemaker, a clerk at the POW camp. Be sure to check it out.
The coordinates given are for a location near the main gate of Fort Lewis that Wayne Shoemaker described as the site of the camp.