Camp Stark is remembered

Saturday afternoon, March 27, the town of Stark held its fourth reunion between a former German prisoner of war, Albert Petermann from Brunsbuettel Germany, and two of his guards from Camp Stark, Francis Lang and Allen Gurney. The meeting began at the Stark Heritage Center where memorabilia of Camp Stark was displayed and where memories of the friendships that were made were reminisced in conversation. After the brief gathering, some pictures were taken in front of a replica of a US ...Saturday afternoon, March 27, the town of Stark held its fourth reunion between a former German prisoner of war, Albert Petermann from Brunsbuettel Germany, and two of his guards from Camp Stark, Francis Lang and Allen Gurney. The meeting began at the Stark Heritage Center where memorabilia of Camp Stark was displayed and where memories of the friendships that were made were reminisced in conversation. After the brief gathering, some pictures were taken in front of a replica of a US Military Jeep that was assigned to Sergeant Frank Chappell during the years of the camp. Then the group headed a mile south on Rt. 110 to the marked site of Camp Stark where only a small stone structure of the camp currently exists. Further conversations were held at the Northland Dairy Bar for a dinner.

Camp Stark was the only World War II German prisoner of war camp to ever exist in New Hampshire. It had been transformed from a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in 1944. The camp held about 250 German and Austrian soldiers who had been captured mostly in Normandy and North Africa during World War II. The prisoners worked in the surrounding area of the camp and cut wood for Berlin’s former pulp mill, Brown Paper Company. In 1946, the prisoners were released to go home.