UNION, Maine — During the next Union Historical Society meeting in April, member Hank Lunn of Camden will give an illustrated talk on his boyhood experience with the German prisoners of war who worked on his family’s Aroostook County potato farm.
Lunn will talk about how toward the end of WWII about 2,000 German prisoners of war were housed at an Army base in Houlton.
During the months that they were there, many of the POWs picked potatoes for area farmers and cut wood at logging camps.
Lunn, who was 13 at the time, will describe how the experience of having German POW workers on a family farm changed his mind, and the minds of many others, about the definitions of “foe” and “friend.” Pictures, POW letters and news articles will be available for the audience to peruse.
The talk, titled “From Foe to Friend: 1944-46, Aroostook County,” is free and open to the public. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday April 4, at the Robbins House, 343 Common Road on Union Common.
For more information, call 785-5444 and leave a message, or visit www.unionhistoricalsociety.org.
Wondering if Mr Lunn might be interested in speaking in Aroostook County? There isn’t much left of the old camp just a cellar holes. You have to be very careful up in the old camp parts of it sit on the border of Canada and we tripped off the sensors. Border Patrol arrived very quickly, no harm done they said. A scary moment for us though.
My grampy Oley had German POW’s working on his farm also. I used to enjoy his stories about those times. Only wish that I had paid more attention.
I found out what the POWs in Houlton were fed for a diet. They ate better than my grandparents and mother did during the war.