The Last Word

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The Last Word sprang to life after I ran across an article about World War II POW camps in North Carolina. Stunned to learn that Germans, Italians, Poles, Czechs, Dutchmen, Austrians, and men from several other nations had been held prisoner in camps throughout the Tar Heel State, I began to research the subject in earnest.

From New Bern to Butner to Greensboro, North Carolina became home to thousands of POWs, including Nazis. What I found amazing is how quickly some of these men, foreigners to our land, adopted the American way of life. I was also awed by how well they were treated. Not only did these men work the vacant jobs at area farms and mills, but they also attended baseball games, went to the movies, and even dined out at local restaurants. And yet these camps were so secretive that the average North Carolinian had no idea that the men harvesting their peanut crops, for example, were prisoners of war.

As mentioned in The Last Word, many POWs were taught the principles of capitalism and democracy and were encouraged to produce their own wares with which they could barter with the guards or townsfolk. One of my primary sources was a book called Nazi POWs in the Tar Heel State by Dr. Robert D. Billinger Jr. While reading this book I came across a photograph of a German POW painting a landscape. It was from this single image that the central mystery of The Last Word was born.

Some of the dates and details have been altered in the name of good storytelling, but most of the Bayside Book Writers’ discoveries about the POW camp in New Bern could have taken place.