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Paintings illustrate unique chapter in Nebraska history
by Betty Sayers

Although WWII was not fought on American soil, by some estimates more than 400,000 German and Italian soldiers, merchant marines and others spent at least part of the war in more than 500 Prisoner of War (POW) camps in North America.

One of these, Camp Atlanta, was built near the Phelps County town of Atlanta in south central Nebraska.

A few years before the barracks and barbed-wire went up on the high plains, a German family name Naegele had fled to England ahead of the Nazis. After the war began, the son of this family, Thomas F. Naegele, made his way to the United States where his fluency in both German and English and his knowledge of both cultures were employed in the war effort.

Naegele joined the U.S. Army and was assigned to a project to produce course-material and a German-language newspaper for distribution in all the camps to acquaint prisoners with Democracy and the American culture — something they had been given a distorted impression of by their military leaders. Naegele was sent to Nebraska, first to Camp Indianola, 30 miles west, and then to Camp Atlanta.

“(We) were not afraid to talk with the prisoners about life in America,” Naegele wrote, “tantalizing them with stories of life beyond the fence.”

At Camp Atlanta, Naegele told the prisoners about life in America and began to use his training and talent as an artist to document his experience in his spare time.

Prisoners at Camp Atlanta were employed doing farm work and as labor on irrigation projects, and through this experience came to realize the United States was not as they’d been told. The prisoners were treated with dignity and concern for their health and care, Naegele wrote in , Love Thine Enemies, Images of a Little Known Chapter in German-American History, which also contains a collection of his paintings from the era.

And what paintings they are! Vibrant, colorful, accurate, although many have a hint of humor and an appealing style somewhere between cartoons, impressionism and realism.

You can see an entire gallery of Naegele’s paintings and illustrations along with other memorabilia from Camp Atlanta at the Nebraska Prairie Museum in Holdrege. The gallery and interpretive center was built to house the materials in 1996 after they had made a tour of Germany and hung in the Museum of Nebraska Art as part of the UNK World Peace Conference.

Naegele’s paintings are just one of the treasures at the Nebraska Prairie Museum, and the Nebraska Prairie Museum is just one of many community institutions filled with fascinating artifacts and stories from our rich heritage and history.

There’s a lot to discover. Visit a Nebraska museum today.

Nebraska Prairie Museum
U.S. Highway 183, just north of Holdrege
Tel.  308-995-5015
www.nebraskaprairie.org
Hours:
May-October: Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
November-April: Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.,
Weekends: 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Betty Sayers is a co-founder of Nebraska Rural Living. She lives in Holdrege, NE. Read more about her on the 'About Us' page.

To learn more about how you can be a writer for Nebraska Rural Living, and have your essays posted on this site, visit our 'Writers Wanted' page.

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