By Don Glynnglynnd@gnnewspaper.com Niagara Gazette
Some 200 people are registered to attend free programs Saturday focusing on the story of prisoners of war housed at Fort Niagara in the mid-1940s.
No additional registrations are being accepted.
The conference coordinated by the Axis Prisoner of War Coalition, which includes area historical groups, will begin at 10 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church with Arnold Krammer of Texas A&M University speaking on the history of POW camps throughout the U.S.
In the afternoon, Laurene Buckley, director of the Castellani Art Museum, will talk on the history of a mural painted by POW artist Ernst Wille.
Oral presentations from Western New York residents familiar with the camp story are scheduled from 1 to 3 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Main Street, adjacent to the Old Fort Inn-The Bistro.
Walking tours of the former camp site will be conducted from 3:15 to 5:15 p.m.
Gretchen Duling, vice president of the sponsoring coalition, is the program chairman for the conference.
The late Virginia Howard, a longtime Niagara Gazette correspondent who lived on River Road in the village, often recalled how the young German POWs were released for the day from camp to work on nearby farms.
“They were always industrious and took their work very seriously,” Howard wrote, “They relished the chance to get away from the barracks for a few hours to work in the fields.”
Military authorities at the time said there were never any problems with the POWs doing their chores and promptly returning to the camp in the southeast corner of what is now Fort Niagara State Park.
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