
During World War II Italian and German Prisoners of War were “leased” out to farmers, food processors and the lumber industry to work. Since many American men were fighting overseas, there was a labor shortage in America. The use of POWs was one approach to solving the labor shortage. This was the gist of my presentation to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Raleigh earlier this week. In North Carolina we had 18 POW camps and there was some conflict between farmers and the pulpwood industry about the use of the POWs. The demand for labor was greater than the supply. The audience was a little surprise to learn that 118 POWs were employed at Duke and the University of North Carolina as “mess attendants.”