Minnesota POW camps

What was it like as a prisoner of war in Minnesota during World War 2?

Overview: In this lesson, students will be analyzing a set of documents and sources to discover
what life was like for German POWs who were sent to POW camps in Minnesota during World
War 2. Students will read and analyze these documents/sources, and report their findings in a
graphic organizer and/or written essay.
Grade Level: 6th grade
Time: 1-2 class periods
Materials:

Anticipatory Set: Anti-German WW2 propaganda

Document A: POWs in our backyard
Document B: During WWII, POWs were put to work
Document C: German POWs at the New Ulm camp
Document D: Letter from Alois Sauer to Henry Peterson in Moorhead, Minnesota
Graphic Organizer
Essay Rubric

Objectives:

Students will read and analyze documents and sources to determine what life was like for
POWs who were sent to Minnesota during World War 2 (how they were treated, what
they had to do, what was done to them, etc.)
Students will discover how the German prisoners responded to the way that they were
treated.
Students will write an essay in response to the investigative question, and provide
evidence from the sources to support their response.

Minnesota Social Studies Benchmarks

6.4.4.21.4- Identify contributions of Minnesota and its people to World War II; describe
the impact of the war on the home front and Minnesota society after the war. (The Great
Depression and World War II: 1920-1945)
9.4.1.2.1- Students will use historical inquiry to analyze multiple sources, use evidence to
draw conclusions, and present supported findings.
9.4.1.2.2- Students will evaluate alternative interpretations of historical events and use
historical evidence to support or refute those interpretations.

Common Core Standards

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.1- Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of

primary and secondary sources.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.2- Determine the central ideas or information of a primary

or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior
knowledge or opinions.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.6- Compare the point of view of two or more authors for
how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and
emphasize in their respective accounts.

C3 Framework for Social Studies Standards

D2.His.1.9-12- Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique
circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts.
D2.His.5.9-12- Analyze how historical contexts shaped and continue to shape peoples
perspectives.
D2.His.11.9-12- Critique the usefulness of historical sources for a specific historical
inquiry based on their maker, date, place of origin, intended audience, and purpose.
D2.His.14.9-12- Analyze multiple and complex causes and effects of events in the past.
D2.His.16.9-12- Integrate evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and
interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past.
D4.2.9-12- Construct explanations using sound reasoning, correct sequence (linear and
non-linear), examples, and details with significant and pertinent information and data,
while acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses of the explanation given its purpose.

Evaluation: Students will write an essay in which they use evidence from the documents and
primary sources to create and support a thesis and answer the central question. Use the Essay
Rubric at the end of the lesson to grade the essays.
Plan of Instruction
1. Anticipatory Set- Introduce the images to the class. Explain what these images are, and
how they were used during World War 2. Have students split into small groups of about
four students per group, and give them this discussion question: How would you react to
these posters if you were a citizen during World War 2? Leave the images in view for the
students to reference back to while discussing. Students will have 3 minutes to discuss
how they would react to these images. After this time, have the students come back
together and discuss as a large group what their reactions to these posters were. The large
group discussion will take about 2 minutes. The instructor will write down the reactions
that students had to these posters as they discuss them in the large group.
2. Introduction- Provide students with a brief background lecture about World War 2, and
Minnesotas involvement in the war effort. Topics covered by the lecture will include
POW camps, economic impact (lumber, iron, factories, etc.), women in the work force,
soldiers, rationing, etc. For consistency with the activity, an emphasis should be put on
the POW camps. Briefly explain what POWs are if students are confused. Information for
the lecture will come from the Northern Lights textbook from page 341 to page 357.
3. Instruct students about their job for the day. Students will act as historical investigators
and study and analyze the documents in their groups. Their task for the day will be to

4.

5.
6.

7.

determine what life was like for German POWs in Minnesota. Their central investigative
question is What was it like as a prisoner of war in Minnesota during World War 2?
Inform students that they will investigate 4 sources, and once theyve completed the
activity, they are to write an essay regarding what they discovered through the sources.
This essay should also answer the investigative question.
Distribute documents and guiding questions. Explain to students that you are there to help
if there is something that they dont understand.
Divide students into small groups to investigate the documents. After 20-25 minutes,
have the class come together as a large group and discuss their discoveries from their
small groups. Review the answers from the group discussions.
Reintroduce the central question, What was it like as a prisoner of war in Minnesota
during World War 2? The class will brainstorm 2 or 3 possible broad categories that
could answer this question. Allow the remainder of the class time for the students to
begin working on their essays.

World War 2 Timeline

1924- Joseph Stalin comes into power in the Soviet Union, marking the beginning of his
decades long dictatorship
1933- Adolf Hitler is appointed chancellor of Germany, and the National Socialist (Nazi)
Party comes into power in Germany.
1936- Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected to his second of four terms.
1937- The Hormel meat-processing company from Austin, Minnesota, develops SPAM
meat
1939- World War 2 begins in Europe when Germany invades Poland.
1941- Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, causing the US to enter World War 2.
1943- Minnesota farmers begin using prisoners of war to work in their fields.
1944- Allies invade German held France on D-Day
1945- President Roosevelt dies; World War 2 ends when the US drops two atomic bombs
on Japan.

Timeline from Northern Lights textbook pages 340-341

Anticipatory Set: Anti-German Propaganda

Bibliography

Anticipatory Set images- King, Mike. "Americas Disgusting & Idiotic Propaganda Posters of
World War II." Daily Stormer. Daily Stormer, 8 Oct. 2013. Web. 4 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.dailystormer.com/americas-disgusting-idiotic-propaganda-posters-of-world-warii/>.
Hubbuch, Chris. "POWs in Our Backyard." Winona Daily News. Winona Daily News, 20 Mar.
2005. Web. 4 Apr. 2016. <http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/pows-in-our-backyard/article_8a973c42-8a30-55a0-adb9-14229b1d6c2d.html>.
Tibbits, Mickey. "During WWII, POWs Were Put to Work." Mankato Free Press. Mankato Free
Press, 4 Oct. 2008. Web. 4 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.mankatofreepress.com/news/local_news/during-wwii-pows-were-put-towork/article_aa5a174f-6c69-5943-bb38-3666f65c7522.html>.
Sauer, Alois. "Letter from Alois Sauer to Henry Peterson in Moorhead, Minnesota." Letter to
Henry Peterson. 1 Sept. 1948. Minnesota Reflections. Minnesota Digital Library, 2014.
Web. 5 Apr. 2016.
<http://reflections.mndigital.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/mhd/id/285/rec/47>
Kenney, Dave, Hillary Wackman, and Nancy O'Brien Wagner. Northern Lights: The Stories of
Minnesota's past. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society, 2003. 340-57. Print.

Document A- POWs in our backyard

Note to Students- This is a secondary source. This article comes from the Winona Daily News,
and was published in 2005. While a secondary source, they do get a first-hand account from a
German POW (Prisoner of War) named John Hagemeyer, who was sent to work in both the
Winona and Rochester areas during his stay as a POW in the United States.
While there, Hagemeyer and his fellow POWs filled in the war-time labor shortage. He worked
mostly in a canning factory in Rochester but also spent a few days on a farm in Winona and
remembers a "beautiful lunch" that the farmer's wife prepared. (Employers were not supposed to
feed the POWs but historical accounts suggest they often did.)
Hagemeyer was trying to pull together the few words of English he had learned in the camp to
thank the farmer's wife when she spoke to him in the low German dialect of his native region.
"It was like speaking to a neighbor," he says.
But it wasn't only the farmers who treated the prisoners well.
Work at the canning factory was rough, Hagemeyer says, and the dry bread and baloney
sandwiches in the prisoners' sack lunches didn't provide enough fuel. One day the regular
workers at the canning factory staged a sit-down strike until they were assured that the POWs
would get better food.
"I'll never forget that," Hagemeyer says, "those people sticking up for us."
Vocab:
Low- German dialect that closely relates to Dutch and English dialects
Dialect- a particular form of a language that is peculiar to a specific region or social group.

Document B- During WWII, POWs were put to work

Note to Students- This is another secondary source. This source was written about 60 years after
the end of the war. While there is no additional first-hand account that goes with this newspaper
article, it still gives a good idea about the relationship between the residents of southern
Minnesota and the German and Italian POWs who had been brought there.
Prisoners were housed in the Fairmont 4-H building on the fairgrounds. After the local paper
reported two local women sneaked under the camp fence to be with the prisoners, the
commanding officer declared, It just isnt policy for anything in skirts. ... to come waggling
feminine figures around here. Such incidents angered local residents and soldiers fighting
overseas. J.A. Marxhausen, a Courtland German-speaking pastor, asked local residents to treat
the prisoners the same as they would want captured U.S. soldiers to be treated.
Two family members from New Ulm, with a large German population, drove to the POW camp
and took a prisoner they knew home with them. He stayed with the family overnight and
attended church the next morning before returning to camp. The two were arrested and fined
$300 each. Interestingly, their trial testimony stated that when they honked the cars horn, several
other prisoners came out thinking it was their ride.
Plans to establish a Blue Earth POW camp were abandoned when labor from Mexico filled the
void. A primitive Wells camp was set up to house first German, then Italian POWs to work in the
towns canning and poultry processing factories.
At the wars end many of the German prisoners sent back were forced to work in English and
French coal mines for as long as two years before they were returned home. Other prisoners
being repatriated asked to be released in areas of Germany held by the Allies and not in Russian
sectors. About 5,000 former POW Germans later came back to the U.S. and became citizens.
Vocab:
Primitive Wells camp- Basic housing (to the best of my knowledge)

Document C: German POWs at the New Ulm camp

Note to Students- When looking at this photo, think about a few things. If you didnt know they
were prisoners, could you tell that these men were POWs? Do these men look well cared for?
Expand on these ideas as you look at and analyze this photo.

Document D: Letter from Alois Sauer to Henry Peterson in Moorhead,

Minnesota

Note to Students: This primary source is a letter written by a former German POW named Alois
Sauer to his former employer, a farmer named Henry Peterson who used the POW as
replacement labor for the men who had gone off to war. This letter was written in the years
following World War 2, after Mr. Sauer had been released back to Germany.
Dear Mr. Peterson, Surely you will be surprised to get suddenly a letter from someone you have
perhaps already forgotten. Well, I hope you will remember me. I was one of the German
prisoners of war working on your farmWell, I am now at home and am in good health too. But
the time I lived in America, especially on your farm, was the best of my life. I learnt this, when I
came as a prisoner from the U.S. to France. What a contrast! In the U.S. we had plenty to eat and
the people were so good to us, and there in France we met only hunger and hate. And when I
returned at home the conditions were not much better. Our food-rations were and are still today
terrible small, and I often wanted to have only a small amount of the foods I got in the U. S.A.
But we can only wait and hope that things will become better soon. Yes, - and so I write today to
you, for I want to express in these few words my heartiest thanks for everything you did for my
comrades and myself when we were still prisoners. You was indeed a true friend and a good
master to us, and you will be kept all times in my remembrance.
Vocab:
Learnt- Learned
Heartiest- Expressed warmly, exuberantly, and unrestrainedly

Graphic Organizer for Documents

Documents

What is the purpose

What does this

What evidence do

of this source?

document tell you

about what life was
like for German
POWs?

you have to support

this?

Document A

Document B

Document C

Document D

Based on your investigation, describe three things that German POWs experienced while in
Minnesota.
1.
2.
3.

Essay Rubric

4 Essay= A
o Introductory paragraph has background information, a thesis, and a roadmap that
introduces the analytical categories to be developed.
o Body paragraphs are clearly organized an arranged in the order of the thesis
roadmap.
o Body paragraphs contain topic sentences, transitional sentences, and conclusion
sentences.
o Uses information from all of the sources reviewed in class
o Includes citations when using evidence from sources.
o Evidence and analysis are used in each body paragraph that supports the thesis
o Demonstrates an analysis of close detail, synthesis and contextualization
o Essay is well written with few or no errors in sentence structure, spelling,
punctuation, and capitalization.
3 Essay= B
o Same as 4, except
o Essay uses a majority of the sources, but is unable to use all.
o Central argument or analysis is missing from one of the body paragraphs.
o Essay does not have the in-depth analysis required for a 4; some nuances, details,
contexts or syntheses were left unexplored in the argument.
o Is well written but includes some errors in grammar and spelling.
2 Essay= C
o Addresses the question but lacks some focus.
o Introductory paragraph is functional. Thesis statement is recognizable.
o Main ideas are divided into body paragraphs.
o References some of the documents, but there could easily be more.
o Does not clearly explain how evidence answers the question.
o Is generally written with complete sentences, but contains too many errors in verb
tense, agreement, punctuation, spelling, and capitalization.
1 Essay= D
o Unable to address the question.
o Lacks a clear thesis.
o Organization is unclear. Body paragraphs are not organized around a set of main
ideas.
o Makes references to few documents. Documents are often misunderstood.
o Contains serious errors in sentence structure and mechanics.