r
By Alex Minkin
Staff Writer
It was painted a deep army green with posters that out
lined the Geneva Convention barricading the windows.
There were barbed wire graphics surrounding a message
that read "Internment: it could happen to you." This was no
rubber-ducky yellow school bus. This was a "Bus-eum," that
housed stories of redemption and reckoning from the dark
est period of human history.
"Held on the Home Front" tells the unknown stories
of some 372,000 German prisoners of war (POWs) in the
United States from 1943-1946. The exhibit is held in a recon
structed school bus, outfitted with boards displaying photo
graphs and documents from the WWII era. It was parked
outside of Duke Hall on Sept. 8 and 9.
"I was fascinated by some of the information in the bus,"
said senior Matt Clausen. "The extent to which these prison
ers were involved in American's lives amazed me."
Irving Kellerman, the museum's traveling docent, was
happy to relay his knowledge of German prisoners in the
United States.
"Late in the war, appropriated ocean liners were sending
15,000 American soldiers to Europe and bringing just as
many German POWs back," Kellerman said. "Housing pris
oners in Britain was a threat because they could potentially
rise up and surround the island's capital. Sending the POWs
to America was the best way to prevent them from escaping
back to Europe."
Most of the prisoners, however, had no such plans of
escape. There were officers who clung to Nazi ideology, but
the vast majority of soldiers were young draftees.
"They were treated as friends," Kellerman said. "They
enjoyed working. Their jobs included harvesting crops, fall
ing trees, building roadways and constructing housing."
The United States not only met the regulations of the
Geneva Convention, it surpassed them. Many POWs formed
special relationships with their employers.
"The Quakers were known for
building relationships with the
POWs," Kellerman said. "They were
often invited to Sunday dinners and
meetings for worship. They also
made sure the POWs had plenty
of books, almost all of which were
banned in Germany."
"This is what made the POW situ
ation in the U.S. so significant," said
Philip Slaby, assistant professor of
history. "The U.S began to rebuild
two years before the war was over by
exposing these men to a democratic
way of life."
Other stories, however, under
scored the non-democratic race rela
tions within America.
"The Geneva Convention guaran
teed the rights of the German POWs,"
Slaby noted. "There were no such
guarantees for Japanese-Americans
during the internment of 1942."
There was a story in the museum
"Held on the Home Front ts a
"Bus-eum' that focuses on the
history of German prisoners
of war in ohe U.S. in the mid
1940s.The traveling exhibit, at
Guilford Sept. 8 and 9, housed
photographs, artifacts, videos
and orimary documents.
about a black military police unit that guarded POWs on a
train. When the train traveled through the South the prison
ers were allowed to sit, but the black military unit was not.
Greensboro had its own relationship with German POWs.
On Sept. 9, Director of the Friends Center Max Carter led
a group of students to the old Coble farm, which now sits on
the property of Friends Homes West.
"POWs would pile in Walter Coble's truck each day for
work," said Carter. "They reconstructed the foundation of a
barn that still stands today."
Friends Homes West will soon expand its housing and
unless the bam is put on a historical registry, it will be lost
forever.
"I was surprised to find such a significant piece of history
right across the street from Guilford," said sophomore Tim
Leisman. "It's very unfortunate that the bam will probably
be destroyed."
On the evening of Sept. 9, Kellerman and his "Bus-eum"
drove on to their next destination. During their visit, I
learned a little bit about humanity and that if I want to travel
to the past, all I have to do is cross the street or jump on a
bus.