From 1942 to 1946 more than 400,000 German, Italian, and Japanese prisoners of war (PWs) were interned in the United States. Of that number, approximately 20,000 were held in camps in Mississippi. Located just south of the town of Clinton was one of these PW camps. Camp Clinton, as it was designated, became "home" to more than 3,000 German soldiers captured in World War II.
Camp Clinton is particularly significant compared to other PW camps in the country. First, the camp's prisoners provided the labor during the initial, and more tedious, phases of construction of the one-square-mile model of the Mississippi River Basin. Their work, valued at several million dollars, allowed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to proceed with and complete their flood control project. In the decades after the Basin Model's completion, data collected during tests helped to save billions of dollars in property damage. Second, a special compound constructed at Camp Clinton was where all but a few of the German generals held in the United States were confined. Out of nearly forty generals in American captivity, thirty-five (and one admiral) were at Camp Clinton. There was no other facility for German generals.
The high ranking generals had special housing. Lower ranking officers had to content themselves with small apartments. General Von Arnim, Rommel's replacement, lived in a house and was furnished a car and driver. Some people swore that General Von Arnim attended movies in Jackson because the movie theater was the only air-conditioned place in town.
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