Did you know that during World War II, there was a prisoner of war camp in Ouachita Parish? It sat where the West Monroe Convention Center is now. The facility housed around 200 of Erwin Rommel’s Africa Korp that had been captured by American forces. The men were sent to work on local cotton farms to pick cotton. Each man had to pick 100 pounds and were paid a small amount, which they used to buy personal items. I remember the reporter Ken Booth telling me that when he was a little boy during WWII, his father was an overseer of Gov. James A. Noe’s plantation. The prisoners worked on the farm and one of his fondest memories was of being carried around on the men’s shoulders! On weekends, the locals would come to the camp to watch the prisoners play soccer. It was quite an event! The men also entertained themselves by using scraps they found around the camp to build a model of a European castle! Unfortunately, the camp and the castle were demolished shortly after the war.
German Prisoner of War Camp in West Monroe
Published
Ouachita Parish History Tidbits 
I also was a small child living on a cotton farm during WWII. My dad was overseer on a farm near Sterlington, known as Phillips Plantation belonging to J Hunter Thatcher, who was an executive at Louisiana Power and Light. Anna Gray Noe and her daughter Linda were frequent visitors when the Thatchers were in residence at the “Big House”. Most of the time they were in Monroe in their home just around the corner from the Beidenharn home. I was frequently fetched to play with Linda. The housekeeper’s son Charlie who was our age (around 6) was often included in our games.
I recall several times that the prisoners were brought to the farm packed (standing I believe) in the back of large trucks with high wooden panels around the bed. There would be two, maybe 3 or four guards with rifles with the prisoners. I only saw one of them at each field I went to with my mother. she was assigned to instruct and supervise the ones working in early summer when the plants were just starting to grow and “chopping cotton” was in progress (using a hoe to remove the weeds from around the small cotton plants). I remember her being agitated because they could not comprehend “the difference between cotton and a cockle bur”. The prisoners found out one day that it was the birthday of one of the guards who was very young and must have been very kind to them. They slipped out of the field and begged some zinnias from Josephine, one of the row house occupants, and took them to the guard. I heard that another prisoner who was a cook in the kitchen at the camp made a cake for him.
It is very distressing to me that the beautiful home, the beautiful, tranquil Phillips family cemetery, the old church and even the row houses where many of the farm workers lived are gone. I have sweet memories of Josephine who watched out for me and the children of the workers while they were out in the fields.
LikeLike