Prisoners of War in New Mexico Agriculture
Abstract of Interview
CONSULTANT:
Connie Saucedo
TAPE NUMBER: RG2001-129
DATE
OF BIRTH: Not given
SEX:
Female
DATE(S)
OF INTERVIEW: August 7, 2001
LOCATION
OF INTERVIEW: Saucedo residence, Lordsburg, New Mexico
INTERVIEWER:
Mollie Pressler
SOURCE
OF INTERVIEW: NMF&RHM___x __OTHER__________
TRANSCRIBED: YES__x_ ____
NO_______
NUMBER
OF TAPES: One
ABSTRACTOR:
Jane O’Cain
DATE
ABSTRACTED: March 6, 2002
QUALITY
OF RECORDING (SPECIFY): Good.
SCOPE
AND CONTENT NOTE: A civilian
employee of World War II-era prisoner of war camp in Lordsburg.
DATE
RANGE: 1942-1945
ABSTRACT (IMPORTANT TOPICS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE):
TAPE
ONE, SIDE A:
The
consultant learned that an internment camp was to be located in Lordsburg from
the local newspaper. It was a
fearful time, not knowing what to expect from the prisoners of war, as well as
not knowing if the young Lordsburg men leaving to serve in the war “would ever
come back.”
After
attending business college she took a job with M. M. Sundt and White
Construction Company. The company
had the contract to build the internment camp.
After the camp was completed, Saucedo took a secretarial position at the
camp. She worked there until the camp closed.
She was a civil service employee.
The consultant had contact with the POWs, but was not frightened of them, as army personnel guarded them. She could communicate in Spanish with some of the Italian POWs. She discusses an Italian POW, an accomplished artist.
Saucedo
remarks that the Japanese Americans, who were initially interned at Camp
Lordsburg, established a very productive vegetable garden.
She describes activities at the recreational hall where the civilian workers spent part of their lunch hour. They could play Ping-Pong, shuffleboard, or card games with the US Army personnel.
The
consultant was not aware of any escapes with the exception of the Japanese
American man who was shot and killed near Camp Lordsburg.
Saucedo
doesn’t remember much changing at the camp when German POWs replaced the
Italian POWs except they were a little “harder to
understand…language-wise.”
She
describes town dances in Lordsburg attended by the American G.I.s.
She did not keep in contact with the Italian POWs (of whom she has
photographs taken at the camp) after the war’s end. She discusses where she was and what she felt on V-J Day in
August 1945.
Saucedo
states that her job was interesting because she worked for many of the “top
brass” at the camp. She heard
“confidential” information, and realized the importance of not divulging any
of it. Colonels Lee, Lundy, and Churchill are mentioned.
Return to list of oral history consultants
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