German P.O.W. Camp

Not every prisoner here came from the desert war. Otto Eichentopf, photographed about 1944 in a German naval uniform, was held at Fort Robinson in 1945, and a fellow prisoner who signed himself Carl, of Cologne, drew their quarters: Barracks 349, three cots with a bag tied to each, lettered Eichentopf, Schuhnlenz and Schwerdt. Eichentopf's family found the drawing and gave it to History Nebraska in 2011. The same artist sketched the camp's yellow barracks against rock formations, noting Sand Hills and Rocky Mountains in English. Only one prisoner ever escaped, and he was caught at York.

What the plaque says

German P.O.W. Camp This camp, constructed to house three thousand men, received the first German prisoners of war in June 1943. Most of the soldiers were members of the Afrika Korps. The prisoners were allowed to work on farms and ranches in the area and received a wage guaranteed by the Geneva Convention. Their labor was a boon to Nebraska's war-depleted agricultural work force. This camp closed in September 1945, but some former prisoners found sponsors among their captors and returned to become U. S. citizens. Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Robinson State Park — 1.6 mi
  The army post beside the Red Cloud Agency where Crazy Horse was bayoneted in 1877 and Morning Star's Northern Cheyenne broke out into the January cold of 1879.
• Toadstool Geologic Park — 15 mi
  A pocket of badlands in the Oglala National Grassland where sandstone caps balance on clay stems, ancient tracks cross the rock, and a trail leads on to a 10,000-year-old bison bone bed.
• Agate Fossil Beds National Monument — 22 mi
  A fossil quarry on the Niobrara that also keeps the gifts Red Cloud and other Lakota and Cheyenne visitors gave the ranching family who were their friends for thirty-five years.

More markers nearby

• Red Cloud Agency — 0.4 mi
• Fort Robinson and the Railroad — 1.1 mi
• K-9 Training Area — 1.3 mi
• Sea Level Bench Mark — 1.3 mi