Old Dodge School - World War II POW Branch Camp

Grand Island took in prisoners because its farms had run out of hands. History Nebraska's summary of Edith Robbins's 2021 Nebraska History article traces the steps: an Extension survey of labor needs in April 1944, a county labor association that brought in men from Jamaica and Mexico after residents refused workers of Japanese descent, then an inquiry to Camp Atlanta. Twenty-eight German prisoners renovated the school that July. Farmers picked up work details by truck, and the German-speaking Quandt family employed prisoners in both the 1944 and 1945 seasons. The camp closed in November 1945.

What the plaque says

Old Dodge School World War II POW Branch Camp Old Dodge School served as one of two branch camps in Hall County housing German prisoners of war. On July 9, 1944, Leo B. Stuhr, president of the county Non-Stock Labor Association, announced plans to use the school for this purpose. About one hundred German POWs lived at this site while working in construction and agriculture. The POWs were repatriated to Germany in 1946, and the school briefly served as Grand Island YMCA headquarters before it was demolished in 1948. Hall County Historical Society Credit Management Nebraska State Historical Society, 2011

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer — 3.3 mi
  Edward Durell Stone's island pavilion in Grand Island and an 1890s railroad town of moved buildings, among them the cottage where Henry Fonda was born in 1905.

More markers nearby

• Hall County Courthouse — steps away
• Pioneer Park — steps away
• The Lincoln Memorial Highway — 0.2 mi
• The Seedling Mile — 1.1 mi