Prisoners of War in New Mexico Agriculture
Abstract of Interview
CONSULTANT:
Emmett Knight Patterson
TAPE NUMBER: RG2000-117
DATE
OF BIRTH: Born November 3, 1908 – Died December 15, 2000
SEX:
Male
DATE(S)
OF INTERVIEW: September 27, 2000
LOCATION
OF INTERVIEW: La Villa (nursing
home), Roswell, New Mexico
INTERVIEWER:
Marcie Palmer
SOURCE
OF INTERVIEW: NMF&RHM __x__
OTHER____
TRANSCRIBED:
YES__x_ NO_______
NUMBER
OF TAPES: One
ABSTRACTOR:
Marcie Palmer
DATE
ABSTRACTED: January 3, 2001
QUALITY
OF RECORDING (SPECIFY): Good
SCOPE
AND CONTENT NOTE: Mr. Patterson
was a farmer/rancher and a bank employee at Roswell, New Mexico, during World
War II. He employed German prisoners of war to plant and pick onions on his
farmland southeast of Roswell. The prisoners and guards came from Orchard Park
POW camp near Roswell. Mr.
Patterson describes rationing during World War II and discusses various
sources of farm labor.
ABSTRACT
(IMPORTANT TOPICS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE):
TAPE
ONE, SIDE A:
Emmett
Patterson said he farmed, ranched and worked at the First National Bank in
Roswell during World War II. He briefly employed German prisoners of war on his
farmland. The POWs and their guards were housed at the Orchard Park prisoner of
war camp at Roswell and probably had to be furnished with transportation to the
farm, Mr. Patterson said.
His
farm/ranch was six miles southeast of Roswell in the area of the LFD Ranch, and
the consultant grew cotton, alfalfa and onions. The POWs planted and later
picked onions.
Mr.
Patterson describes war-time rationing: shoes (two per year), tires and
gasoline. He said farm labor was also in short supply during the war years. He
employed local people to pick cotton and said their grown children would help
them but he did not use student labor during the school year.
One
day the consultant showed a Life
magazine, picturing war damage in Germany, to the German POWs. He said they did
not believe what they saw, saying it was “all propaganda.”
Mr.
Patterson thinks the guards and prisoners had to be picked up at the POW camp in
Orchard Park and brought to the farm. The prisoners were good workers and
usually did not cause trouble, he said. The
guards did see tumbleweeds moving across the land one day and discovered
prisoners using them as shields. Mr. Patterson said they were trying to walk to
Dexter, New Mexico.
The
consultant is a friend of Hans Rudolph Poethig, a former German prisoner of war
who came back to settle in Roswell after the war. Mr. Patterson said he met Mr.
Poethig’s mother when he visited Germany and stayed in her home.
Return to list of oral history consultants
Please
send questions or comments to: archives@lib.nmsu.edu
Rio Grande Historical Collections * New Mexico State University Library MSC 3475
* P.O. Box 30006 * Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003-3006 ** Telephone: 505-646-3839
FAX: 505-646-7477