P Places                       Wars                                          Princeton

World War II POW Camp - Princeton

SITE OF WORLD WAR II PRISONER OF WAR CAMP

Here in 1941, with the Hon. Sam
Rayburn, Speaker of the U. S. House
of Representatives, in attendance,
a migratory labor camp was
dedicated. With the coming of
World War II later in the decade,
however, federal officials con-
verted the site for use as a
camp to hold German Prisoners
of War. While here, the German
soldiers worked on Princeton
area farms, providing valuable
labor assistance. For many years
following the prisoners' release
in 1946, the site again served as
a camp for migrant workers. 
Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1996

The migrant workers camp was converted to a POW camp late in WWII—February 1945. The Princeton camp housed POWs for less than a year. The farmers would come to the camp in trucks and take the prisoners to their fields just as they had the migrant workers. Under the Geneva Convention, the farmers were to pay the prisoners two dollars a day for their work. The farmers did not have enough labor or farm since all the boys were away at war. Not only did the prisoners work in the fields, but they also did stonemasonry work in downtown Princeton. Others helped construct a park in Princeton built in memory of the men who served in the armed forces during WWII and a shrine to perpetuate the memory of those who lost their lives in the war. The war was over in August of 1945, but the prisoners were not released until the following January.
Collin County Historical Marker 2005