Descriptions of the physical characteristics of Camp Alva are contained in several sources, and they are generally the same. The camp was divided into four compounds, three used to house non-commissioned officers and enlisted men, and the fourth set aside for officers. The compounds for non-coms and enlisted men each contained thirty-two single-story, wood-frame buildings covered with sheet rock and tar paper. Each of the 20x100 foot barracks was designed with bunks for 50 enlisted men. The officers’ compound contained 150 buildings which were divided into small two-room apartments. The compounds of the officers and enlisted men were separated by barbed wire.
There were 13 guard towers arranged along the fences. The compounds extended 700 feet to the west and 1100 feet to the east and 700 feet to the south of the concrete water tower.
The capacity of the camp was around 6000, but the prison population at its maximum was a bit less than 5000. One source lists the maximum at 4850.
Each compound contained four buildings for showers, toilets and basins, four building for kitchens and mess halls, one building for a canteen, one for an infirmary, and one building for a recreation hall. The City of Alva provided water and also took care of the camp’s sewage. The hospital stood just north of the prisoner compounds and west of Washington Avenue with service and supply areas between it and the Section Line Road. The water tower, a brick chimney, and the VFW building are all that remain of the camp today.
Back when the stock car races were being held in that area during the early 1950s, I remember that there were three or four of the brick chimneys still standing and a few others that were toppled to the ground.
Deaths and escapes at the camp
Five POWs died during the time the camp was in operation.
One of these, Emil Minotti, was shot in the left chest and died from shock and hemorrhage during an escape attempt.
Klaus Eberhard Bork was sent to the Borden General Hospital at Chickasha for an appendectomy and died there from peritonitis. Englebert Mayer died from an occlusion of the coronary artery, and two prisoners (Erwin Grams and Eric Schindler) hanged themselves. Some sources say the hangings were suspicious, implying that they may have been killed by other prisoners.
Some of these men were buried temporarily in a small plot on the post, but all were eventually moved to the cemetery at Fort Reno in Canadian Co., Oklahoma.
Twenty-one escapes were reported from this camp, but all were caught and returned. Two prisoners, Max Wolff and Karl Heinz Zigann, escaped twice. Other escapees as listed in Alva Review Courier and Woods County Enterprise newspapers of the time, included Heinz Aulenbacher, Werner Wolf, Heinz Roth, Franz Holm, Bergmann von Schweinicher, Hienz Homme, Eberland Wilms, Pauul Zahn, Heinz Shulz, Fritz Puescha, Anton Sheffer, and Erich Wulf.
Hardened Nazis?
Many earlier articles have described the Alva Camp as a “Nazilager,” and a place where trouble-makers from other POW camps were sent. When reading through accounts at the camp, there seems to have been only minor trouble, if any, and things generally ran rather smoothly. The major exception, of course, was the “Battle of Alva” that occurred in 1945 and was discussed in the last installment of Then & Now. I also read an old Courier newspaper account at the Alva City Library that described a visit to Alva by former prisoners who denied that the prisoners were Nazi die-hards.
On the other hand, there are accounts written in several sources that I found on the internet that would seem to support the “hardened Nazi” claim. Consider this passage authored by Chris Lewis while preparing a lesson plan for the New Hampshire Historical Society’s New Hampshire History Summer Institute:
“In many camps Nazi and anti-Nazi groups battled each other despite efforts to separate them. The real hard-core Nazis were weeded out and sent west to a camp in Alva, Oklahoma”
Another report from an Alabama source made approximately the same claim, and I noted allusions to this in several other sources as well.
The camp was declared “surplus” by the government on September 25, 1945, and the camp was closed on November 15, 1945 after all the prisoners were processed out. The buildings and other movable property were offered for sale on January 16, 1946, at which time some were purchased and moved to Alva to become houses and apartments, some were used by businesses, and some were moved to farms and nearby communities, the most famous in this area being the large community building in Kiowa. Some of these buildings still remain in Alva, those that were not sold initially remained in place in one compound and became apartments for returning vets going to Northwestern on the GI bill. All were eventually sold and moved.
