German Prisoners of War in Maine: From Foe to Friend A First Person presentation by Hank Lunn
“From Foe to Friend” is Hank Lunn’s personal story of what the experience was like to have German soldiers working on his family farm in Littleton, Aroostook County, Maine. In 1944, the U.S. Army Air Base in Houlton, Maine became the site of a Prisoner of War (POW) internment camp for German soldiers captured in North Africa and France. The POW’s could not be forced to work, but could volunteer. Those who wanted to work helped the local farmers harvest peas, pick potatoes and cut wood in the forest during winter. The prisoners were paid a dollar a day in scrip that they could spend at their post exchange for toiletries, tobacco, chocolate, even beer.