Dade City's POW Camp: Camp Blanding
During 1944 to 1946 over 200 German POW’s worked and stayed in Dade City. The prisoners were German soldiers who were in Rommel’s Afrika Korps and were captured in North Africa. They lived in a small tent area near downtown Dade City.
The prisoners were brought here to work at the plant of the Pasco Packing association and the mill at Lacoochee, operated by Cummer Sons Cypress Co. The Cummer Sons Cypress Company had many operations out in the Green Swamp.
The prisoners were brought here to work at the plant of the Pasco Packing association and the mill at Lacoochee, operated by Cummer Sons Cypress Co. The Cummer Sons Cypress Company had many operations out in the Green Swamp.
On April 14, 1944 the Florida Times Union reported: “A unit of 250 German prisoners arrived on a special train this week from a camp in Augusta, Ga. And have been moved into the camp on the eastern edge of Dade City. Buildings to house the prisoners and the force of sixty military police have been built under the direction of Army engineers. The military personnel of the camp are permitted to live off the reservation when not on duty and many of them have been joined here by their families and have taken apartments in Dade City.”
Camp Blanding, near Starke, was headquarters for the 22 camps in Florida, with the Dade City camp being designated Branch Camp No. 7, according to the marker.
Camp Blanding, near Starke, was headquarters for the 22 camps in Florida, with the Dade City camp being designated Branch Camp No. 7, according to the marker.
The site of WW II Prisoner of War Camp Historical Marker has been erected on Martin Luther King Blvd in Dade City 0.1 miles east of U.S. 98, an area now known as Naomi Jones Pyracantha Park. Which, for those who are local is basically between Tin Can Pams, James Irvin Civic Center, and the Pasco County East Courthouse. The Prisoner of War camp was behind where Waynes Auto Parts was. Dollar General is there now across from Auto Zone. Corner of White House and Oak St.
Treatment of local POWs was better than what was mandated in the Geneva Convention, signed in 1929 by 47 countries, including Germany and the United States. Several former POWs imprisoned in Dade City returned after the war to find those who had treated them kindly. The prisoners’ spiritual needs were attended to by a minister of the Zion Lutheran Church of Tampa and by priests from nearby Saint Leo Abbey.
Fivay.org. (n.d.). Home. Retrieved 2023, from https://fivay.org/
Treatment of local POWs was better than what was mandated in the Geneva Convention, signed in 1929 by 47 countries, including Germany and the United States. Several former POWs imprisoned in Dade City returned after the war to find those who had treated them kindly. The prisoners’ spiritual needs were attended to by a minister of the Zion Lutheran Church of Tampa and by priests from nearby Saint Leo Abbey.
Fivay.org. (n.d.). Home. Retrieved 2023, from https://fivay.org/
