Atlanta Prisoner-of-War Camp

Residents were first told it would be a "Conchie Camp" for conscientious objectors; by November 1943 they knew better. The first 250 prisoners arrived that December and 830 more on a Saturday morning in early February 1944. The camp had a chapel, theater, hospital, bakery and laundry, and the guards' drum and bugle corps marched in Holdrege's 1944 Memorial Day parade. After repatriation began in 1946 the buildings were stripped and auctioned, and by 1947 only slabs and floors remained. A water tower and two chimneys survive, and at least two former prisoners applied for American citizenship.

What the plaque says

Atlanta Prisoner-of-War Camp During World War II, a prisoner-of-war internment camp was located directly north of here. The camp had its beginning in a request by the Holdrege New Industries Committee for a federal conscientious- objector camp to help relieve the severe war-time farm labor shortage. Instead, a prisoner-of-war camp was built. Planning for the camp began in June, 1943. By November, construction had been completed on approximately seventy buildings and seven miles of concrete road. Guard personnel were awaiting the arrival of prisoners. The camp contained three prison compounds, which held a total of 3,000 men. The Atlanta camp also administered smaller branch internment camps in Nebraska. The prisoners at Atlanta were German soldiers captured in the North Africa and Italian campaigns. Some 600 military and 130 civilian personnel provided security and maintenance. One prisoner reportedly escaped but returned to the camp voluntarily. The prisoners-of-war were a valuable source of farm labor in the area until the camp was phased out in 1945-46. Material removed from the site provided lumber for postwar construction and con- crete rip-rap for Tri-County irrigation ditches. Holdrege Area Chamber of Commerce Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Harlan County Lake — 26 mi
  Nebraska's second-largest lake, held behind an Army Corps dam on the Republican between Alma and Republican City, built after the flood of 1935 ran bluff to bluff.
• Fort Kearny State Historical Park — 30 mi
  The 1848 army post on the Platte, built on a strip of Pawnee land bought for $2,000 in goods, where emigrant wagons passed by the thousand and only the cottonwoods outlasted the fort.

More markers nearby

• Phelps County — 6.4 mi
• Holdrege Silt Loam: The Nebraska State Soil — 7.2 mi
• Pioneer Crossing — 7.8 mi
• First Site of Bethel Lutheran Church and Cemetery — 9.6 mi