PITTSFIELD — The program “German Prisoners of War in Maine: From Foe to Friend” is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8, at the Pittsfield Public Library,

Hank Lunn, of Camden, will present the talk, he will share his personal story of what it was like for him as a boy to have German soldiers working on his family farm in Littleton in Aroostook County during World War II, according to a news release from the library.

In 1944, the U.S. Army Air Base in Houlton became the site of a prisoner of war internment camp for German soldiers captured in North Africa and France. The prisoners could not be forced to work, but could volunteer.

Those who wanted to work helped the local farmers harvest peas, pick potatoes and cut wood in the forest during winter. The prisoners were paid a dollar a day in scrip that they could spend at their post exchange for toiletries, tobacco, chocolate and beer. College courses were offered to those who wished to study.

In the fall of 1945 Lunn’s father decided to request prisoners to help with the potato harvest because the people he usually hired were not available due to the war. “As a 13-year-old boy,” said Lunn, according to the release “the arrival of German soldiers, who may have killed some of our neighbors, was fearsome. My young mind was not too sure it was a good idea to have the ‘enemy’ right here on our farm”.

This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Pittsfield Public Library.

For more information, call the library at 487-5880.

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