At 11:49 AM 2/13/99 +0100, Karl T. and Wendy Mayfield wrote:
>Hello Rooters,
>
>It seems that I have 2 very odd questions for those who have the
>knowlege.
>
>1.  During WW2, I have been told that there was a Prisoner or War
>Detention Camp somewhere in South Carolina.  This camp would have been
>for anyone captured overseas.  To include German's Austrians, and
>others.  I am trying to locate anyone having knowledge of this Camp, or
>Sinclair John LEWIS, of Vienna (Weine) Austria.  He was interred in this
>camp after escaping from Vienna over the mountians, by Skii.  After his
>capture, he is purported to have become well respected among the camp
>officers, and was allowed to debrief prisoners, (as he spoke fluent
>german).
>
>Sinclair later lived in N. Augusta SC, and Married Frances Lucille
>Frain.  He is burried there also, but I find no Gravestones.

Anyone have any ideas??
>
>Wendy Mayfield
>Rheinland Pfalz Germany (living not researching here)


Wendy,
Yes, I know a little about the POW camp!  It was in Charleston, SC, in an
area called West of the Ashley, that is, west of the Ashley River.  All
that remains of the site is part of a chimney from one of the barrack halls
on an empty lot in the neighborhood that is now built on the site.  My
now-deceased great-aunt, Augusta Holling Wolff, was a Red Cross nurse, and
worked with the prisoners in the camp. She spoke and wrote fluent German,
as her father was an immigrant from Donnern, Kingdom of  Hannover.  It was
one of the larger POW camps in the United States, and there were German and
Italian soldiers held there.  I'm afraid that I don't know anything
specific about Sinclair LEWIS, but I do know that several newspaper
articles from the 1940's that are about the POW camp are filed at the local
library.  There was also a recent article in the local newspaper about a
graduate student at the University of South Carolina doing a thesis paper
or a dissertation about the POW camp, and she had found some original
records in her research.  I can't remember more details about these
records, but if you would like me to, I could make copies of the articles
and send them to you.  You might be able to find out from the History
Department of the University of South Carolina where these records are
kept, and someone there might be able to do some searching for you.  If you
are interested in getting copies of the newspaper articles, email me and we
will talk about how to get them to you.  

:)
Hope this helps,
Amanda Holling
[email protected]

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