US War Prison Barracks No. 2
During World War 1, Fort Oglethorpe was the largest German internment camp in the US. Its official title was the US War Prison Barracks No. 2 (WPB2). The German prisoner experience provides us with important lessons about ourselves as free Americans. For three years (1917-1920), the US held about 3,600 prisoners that were mostly German nationals who had been living and working in the US prior to the war. They were held behind barbed wire with no rights, no sentence, no trials, and few freedoms. This controversial practice of jailing "dangerous enemy aliens" or "terror suspects" during wartime in the name of national security would play out several more times over the next century. The Fort Oglethorpe experience was really the first test of our nation's values as a free democratic republic.
Below is a wartime propaganda film with footage of the Fort Oglethorpe War Prison Barracks No. 2. It opens with footage of War Prison Barracks No. 1 (Fort McPherson, Atlanta, GA). The Fort Oglethorpe segment begins with the American sentry in the guard tower and ends with Germans digging in their gardens. The reader will know the Fort Oglethorpe segment has ended when they see the scene of civilians loading onto a ship in Charleston SC. This was a large deportation of German prisoners after their release. The film ends with Americans inspecting a trophy German submarine (U-117) after the war was over. Film courtesy of the National Archives.
The German prisoner experience during World War 1 at Fort Oglethorpe is vast. To keep things simple, the author has broken this experience into the following subchapters. At this time, only the German Navy sailors subchapter is more fully developed:
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Pre-Hot Springs civilians - May 1917 - August 1918
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Hot Springs civilian transfers - August 1918 - June 1919
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Post-Treaty of Versailles release - June 1919 - April 1920
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It is important to note that the battlefield combat of WW1 ceased with the Armistice on November 11, 1918, and the official end of WW1 was the Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28, 1919, yet prisoners continued to be held for ten months after the official end of the war.
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The below timeline was created to illustrate key local and world events, escape attempts, the camp census over time, and who the camp commandant was. ​
Resources
The Alien Enemies Act, Explained - Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
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The War Department: Keeper of Our Nation's Enemy Aliens during World War I
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The Alien Enemy Index, 1917-1919, is Now Digitized! - Genealogy Blog - Genealogy - History Hub
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Alien Registration Files • FamilySearch
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Trading with the Enemy Act, 1917
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Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Supplement 2, The World War
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​Home - German American Internee Coalition
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