Fort Benjamin Harrison - Camp Edwin F. Glenn - Indianapolis
Posted by: 
Rupert2
N 39° 51.580 W 086° 01.294
16S E 583689 N 4412640
The POW camp is located within Fort Benjamin Harrison State Park ($7 entry fee for Indiana residents; $9 for nonresidents). The camp is on Glenn Road. The existing Natural Resource Education Center was one of the original prisoners' barracks.
Waymark Code: WM28AC
Location: Indiana, United States
Date Posted: 09/21/2007
Views: 218
From the Fort Benjamin Harrison Historical Society:
"The POW camp was located in the Camp Glenn area. The interpretive center building was used as a barracks. The compound was encircled by a double fence topped with barbed wire. Trucks entered from the north on Glenn road, passing through two sets of gates to make deliveries to the canteen and mess hall."
"In January of 1944, 250 Italians from Camp Atterbury moved to Fort Harrison. The Camp Edwin F. Glenn site, used for the Citizens' Military Training Camp in the 1930s, was fenced off and converted into a compound for POWs. originally, two of the three mess halls were turned into living quarters for the prisoners, and the third became their mess hall. After September of 1943, the Italians switched sides and became our allies, so by the time they came to Fort Harrison; Italian soldiers were already reclassified as "co-belligerents." This made their internment somewhat paradoxical, since they were enemies when captured, but remained prisoners even after these circumstances changed.
The Italians performed post maintenance, clean-up, and made improvements to the prison compound. They were at Fort Harrison only four months when they were transferred to Fort Hays, Ohio.
In May of 1944, 300 German prisoners from Rommel's elite "Afrika Korps" moved into the camp. The Germans were extremely proud and patriotic. They arrived still wearing their worn and faded German military uniforms. They left a lasting impression with people who witnessed them goose-stepping in formation to their work site.
One story tells of the Germans assigned to put a new roof on the canteen. They carefully divided two shades of shingles and placed them to form a large swastika on the roof. The staff did not discover their handiwork for several days, after which time the job had to be re-done.
German prisoners were responsible for much of the work on the new Officers Club, now the Garrison Restaurant. They also maintained and repaired other post buildings, performed road work and assisted the quartermaster with laundry, equipment and motor pool duties. Some even waited tables at the Officers Club.
Fort Harrison later became a site for an Army Disciplinary Barracks, a prison compound for American servicemen convicted of offenses by the military court system. Because Army regulations did not allow POW camps in the same military installation that housed disciplinary barracks, Fort Harrison’s POW camp was closed in February of 1945 and the German prisoners moved to Fort Knox, Kentucky."
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