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Five miles west of Paul, there are still some traces left of Camp Rupert, a World War II German prisoner of war camp that held up to 3,300 POWs and administrated a network of satellite camps stretching from Sidney, Mont., to Wilder. But not just any prisoners of war wound up at Rupert. According to Tomas Jaehn, curator of the Chavez Library at the Palace of Governors historical museum in Santa Fe, N.M., the 300-acre Minidoka County compound was home to captured members of elite SS divisions/Steve Crump, Twin Falls Times-News. More here.
Question: Did you know this piece of Idaho history?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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moscow_minidoka on December 04 at 1:36 p.m.
I believe there were several POW camps around Rupert, not to mention the Japanese internment camp between Rupert and Hazelton). I know from my grandparents that many of the POWs were used as farm labor during the war.
I had no idea that the Waffen-SS POWs were housed there. Wow.
Really, I don't think the people in Minidoka County really know much about their own history, which is really too bad. But I guess that's applicable everywhere.
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Herb Huseland on December 04 at 1:38 p.m.
A large number of German POW's were also held at Farragut during the war.
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Herb Huseland on December 04 at 1:41 p.m.
I'm not sure that the SS were Waffen. There were three different types of SS. The bad guys that staffed death camps, and there were actual divisions of infantry and armor that were SS that were pretty much the same as regular army and didn't take part in atrocities.
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Fixer on December 04 at 1:55 p.m.
An interesting bit of obscure Idaho history. Nicely done.
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JeanC on December 04 at 2:02 p.m.
I knew about the Idaho Japanese Internment camps. When I was in college I knew a lady who was in one. I did not know there were German POWs in Idaho. Learn something new every day.
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mike_s on December 04 at 5:21 p.m.
Most residents of Rupert probably have probably felt like prisoners at one time or another.
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