Lager Fackel: Camp Butner’s German-language POW Newsletter

By Matthew M. Peek, Military Collection Archivist, State Archives of North Carolina

The U.S. Army installation of Camp Butner, composed of approximately 40,300 acres of agricultural land within southern Granville County, North Carolina, was purchased through eminent domain by the Federal Government from individual land owners and farmers. Camp Butner had had 1,800 buildings, 65 miles of paved streets, 111 miles of water and sewer mains, a water and filtration plant, and a sewer and disposal plant, all constructed in the span of four and a half months. Base civilian construction contractor Hal S. Crain of Durham, N.C., noted that at the height of construction of the base, the construction crews were completing one building every 15 minutes.

What was initially called “Camp Butner Reservation” was established on August 4, 1942. Camp Butner was established for the training of U.S. Army infantry divisions, and various artillery and engineer units within the Fourth Services Command, Army Ground Forces. Units of the 35th, 78th, and 89th Divisions were also trained there. During 1942 to 1945, Camp Butner’s primary mission was to train combat troops for deployment and redeployment to the European and Pacific theaters. The Camp contained rifle ranges, artillery ranges, a prisoner of war compound for Italian and German prisoners of war, barracks, and support services for approximately 40,000 American troops.

Some of the first prisoners to arrive in the United States were Italians. By the end of 1943, nearly 50,000 Italian POWs were held in 27 camps in 23 states, including North Carolina. Camp Butner was one of the major barbed-wire-encircled camps, with about 3,000 Italian POWs. After the collapse of Mussolini’s regime in September 1943, the new Italian government had allied itself with the United States. In March 1944, the U.S. Army created Italian Service Units (ISUs) of approximately 30,000 Italian POWs, who were willing to take an oath of allegiance to the new Italian government and serve as noncombatant auxiliaries to American forces.

German POWs would come to Camp Butner by the fall of 1943 after Rommel’s defeat in North Africa created a large number of German war prisoners. Camp Butner’s “nationalities” compound at one point held “332 Czechs, 150 Poles, 147 Dutchmen, 117 Frenchmen, 34 Austrians, 11 Luxembourgers, and 1 Lithuanian — men captured wearing German uniforms, but forced to fight by German oppressors” [Source 3]. Many of the POWs worked in small satellite camps throughout central North Carolina, being contracted out to farmers and other businesses for home front work. The POWs at Camp Butner built various structures, including a church, and had their own camp newsletter in German entitled Lager Fackel.

First page of a letter written by German POW Heinz Borski from Camp Butner, N.C., on April 2, 1945 [from Camp Butner POW Correspondence Collection, WWII 102, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.].

The Lager Fackel newsletter (or “Camp Torch” in English) was subtitled in German “Wochenzeitung der deutschen Kriegsgefangenen des Lagers Butner und seiner Nebenlager,” translated as “Weekly newspaper of German prisoners of war Camp Butner and its subcamps.” The newsletter had such columns (loosely translated into English) as “From the Historical Consciousness,” “Press Review,” “Reconstruction in Germany,” “Free Time Design,” “The Green Light,” Sports at Camp Butner,” Letter Cold [?],” and “Riddle Corner.” The newsletter was published from 1945 to 1946. There are few surviving issues of Lager Fackel in the United States. The largest number of these issues are in a bound volume available at the University of North Carolina’s Wilson Library.

However, the State Archives of North Carolina’s Military Collection has been privileged to receive an original issue of Lager Fackel from the daughter of one of the German POWs, named Ernst Lüers, who was incarcerated at Camp Butner.

Cover of Ernst Lüers’ February 1946 issue of Lager Fackel [from 1946 Camp Butner Lager Fackel POW Newsletter Issue, WWII 108, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.].

The 20-page issue — which is Volume 2, Issue 9 —is dated February 1946, at the end of the period of German POWs being housed at the camp at the end of WWII. This issue is one of the only-known existing copies of the Camp Butner German-language newsletter that can be tied to the ownership of a particular prisoner within a public archives or museum. What follows are digitized pages from sections of the newsletter, which has rarely if every had any of its pages published online. We hope you enjoy social-distancing perusal of this rare historic item.

Section of Lager Fackel entitled “Vom Geschichtsbewusstein,” loosely translated to English as “From Historical Awareness.”

Section of Lager Fackel entitled “Pressespiegel,” loosely translated to English as “Press Review.”

Section of Lager Fackel entitled “Wiederaufbau in Deutschland,” loosely translated to English as “Reconstruction in Germany.” This section covered news of the post-WWII rebuilding by the Allies of the economy, government, society, and legal system in Germany.

Section of Lager Fackel entitled “Ereizeit Gestartung,” loosely translated to English as “Start Time.”

Section of Lager Fackel entitled “Das Grune Licht,” loosely translated to English as “The Green Light.”

Section of Lager Fackel whose title does not need translation from German to English — it is on “Sport in Camp Butner.”

Section of Lager Fackel entitled “Ratsel Ecke,” loosely translated to English as “Puzzle Corner.”

Torn back cover of the February 1946 issue of Lager Fackel, with the table of contents listed.

Resources

1. 1946 Camp Butner Lager Fackel POW Newsletter Issue, WWII 108, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.
2. Lager Fackel [serial], Call No. C970.99 B98L, North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina Libraries, Chapel Hill, N.C.
3. “Prisoners of War in North Carolina” by Dr. Robert D. Billinger Jr., reprinted from Tar Heel Junior Historian, Spring 2008, viewed on NCPedia.org