Last week, I went to the Clovis Carver Library and saw a flyer about a mobile museum coming to Clovis. I had never heard of a mobile museum and I read on. The name of the exhibit is ‘Held in the Heartland: German POW’s in the Midwest 1943-46’
During WW II the Midwest was home to approx. 250 prisoner of War camps. Tens of thousands of the 380,000 Germans imprisoned across the US during WWII were held in the Midwest, part of the millions of Axis and Allied prisoners held across the world.
When I entered the bus, the driver explained to me that Cannon Air Force Base was once a Prisoner Of War camp back in the 1940’s and that the prisoners worked in farms and fields around this area. I had never heard about this and Google didn’t bring up any results. If anyone out there knows about this, let Clovis Pulse know!
Inside the bus were smaller exhibits detailing life in Germany before the war, the start of the Nazi movement and how it infected German society and how the enemy soldiers were captured and imprisoned. The Geneva Conventions were on full display and it was explained that although the laws were newly established, the Unites States treated the German soldiers very well despite the atrocities that they had committed during the war.
This mobile museum exhibit represents only one of 26 other installations by the TRACES Center for History and Culture. Luckily, the Clovis Library sponsored this exhibit and made it possible for the one of the exhibits to make it’s way from St. Paul, Minnesota. Their purpose is to bring to light many of the stories that have been otherwise been forgotten or completely unknown to the general public.
For more information or to keep updated with future events, stop by the Clovis Carver Public Library site or the TRACES site.
