Arkansas took in around twenty-three thousand German and Italian prisoners of war during World War II and one of the branch POW camps was established at Lake Catherine State Park. Dubbed Camp Hot Springs, the site was opened on March 15, 1945, and would hold as many as two hundred thirteen POWs.
The prisoners would work at hotels designated as rest and relaxation sites for returning American soldiers, as well as at area restaurants, maintaining lawns in Hot Springs National Park, serving at the Army and Navy Hospital, and maintaining roads in Hot Spring County. Other German POWs were assigned under contract to work at the Acme Brick Factory at Malvern, fifteen miles from the camp, while others were loaned out to local farmers suffering from wartime manpower shortages.
One former POW later said no one tried to escape, saying “We were not crazy!” Camp Hot Spring closed in the summer of 1946 when the last of the German prisoners were sent home.
To learn more, visit encyclopediaofarkansas.net.
You can read the entire Encyclopedia entry at Camp Hot Springs - Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
