FYI – WWII POWs in Santa Barbara: A Compelling Read

In my latest travel book, Santa Barbara Know It All, I ask in a quiz at the end of the book if World War II prisoners held in POW camps here in Santa Barbara were used in harvesting local grapes, and other crops. It’s not a trick question, because it’s actually true. Then, I heard about this book German Prisoners of War at Camp Cooke, California and its very detailed account of the exact POW camp I referenced - Camp Cooke, located in Lompoc, and now part of Vandenberg Air Force Base.

June 16, 1944

The first train load of WWII German prisoners arrived at

Camp Cooke in Santa Barbara.

The interesting and unexpected approach to this book is that it is written in firsthand accounts of 14 German soldiers captured at various places and points during World War II. Author Jeffery Geiger opens up each chapter with his own writing, then lets the German POWs reflect upon their own experiences. Geiger is well versed in this material, as he is the retired chief civilian historian of Vandenberg Air Force Base. Many of the POWs discuss their capture and their subsequent removal from Europe and transfer to America specifically California, but to other states as well. As POW Alfred Schmucker writes: "The greatest day for some of us was when a convoy of American army trucks moved in and picked up about 80% of the German POWs on July 9, 1944. Contrary to what we endured while under French jurisdiction… for the first time in 14 months we could take a shower, receive good food, and were treated like human beings."

After the men reached various camps across the US they were processed, given new clothes and then put to work in the fields picking everything from sugar beets, cotton, to tomatoes, grapes, etc.  As POW Adolf Kelmer mentions, "It was surprising to me that we were paid for our labor. The money had a significant buying power in the camp at canteen. We bought cigarettes, sweets, toilet articles and many other things that for a long time had been unavailable to us in the German army. "

What probably most people don't realize was that these POW camps, including Camp Cooke, were small cities. They had barbers, tailors, even makeshift orchestras. According to Herbert Schaffrath, "In the camp we had both an orchestra and an amateur theatrical group. The song 'Don't Fence Me In' was a popular melody among the POWs in 1945." He goes on to say, “Having a pet dog or cat in our barrack gave each of us a wonderful feeling of homeliness. When we returned from work in the evenings the little dog was always waiting at the door to greet us eagerly." Ultimately though, these were still prisoners. "Despite all the pleasant activities available to us at Camp Cooke, we all had days when our only thoughts were to be reunited with our loved ones back home," wrote one German POW.

This book chronicles 14 people - not necessarily prisoners, not even Germans - but human beings like you and me. It follows the ups and downs, the tedium of prison life, the private dreams and hopes of men living in a confined environment, and the aftermath of the war that placed them there. Werner Blanck summed it up best after Camp Cooke closed and he was released. "If I could have stayed in California when Camp Cooke was closing in 1946 I would have done so. I liked the country and the people. Looking back on my military service and my time as a prisoner of war in America, I learned that there could be no justification to use force against another. I see no reason why disagreements between nations cannot be settled peacefully."

A read of this book will restore your faith in humanity, and given our current global conflicts, we all need to know that throughout history there are good people, quietly making the world a little better; be they prisoners, guards, or simply people caught up in a global conflict not of their own making.

German Prisoners of War at Camp Cooke, California
Jeffrey E. Geiger
272 pages
$19.95
Sunbury Press