Hi Pat, Funny you should bring this question up. I just bought a copy of "Stalag Wisconsin - Inside WWII Prisoner of War Camps" by Betty Cowley. I've read through the chapters explaining where the PWs (as she called them) were from, the work they did when here in Wisconsin, camp life, and repatriation. Then she breaks down the rest of the book into the various camps (there were 38 camps throughout the state). The camp in Barron Co., the City of Barron more specifically, was naturally called "Camp Barron." While she states in the intro of the book that there were indeed Italians amongst the PWs, she does not mention any of them coming to Camp Barron. From what I read, the Germans were the ones that were basically used for help with bringing in the crops and helping with the canning of the peas and corn that were picked. The first year that the camp was in Barron (1944), it was located where Jeromes now is, right on Highway 8. There were about 200 prisoners and they lived in tents. This area was surrounded by barbed wire fencing and was guarded. The PWs were trucked to area farms, vineries and canning factories. In 1944 they worked mainly in the Barron and Rice Lake area. At the end of the harvesting season, these PWs were shipped back to Camp McCoy for the winter. When the 1945 season started another group of PWs was sent to the area. This time they numbered 422 PWs and the camp was moved to the north edge of town, east of Highway 25 where the county highway shops are now located. For the 1945 season, there were 100 PWs that worked at the J. B. Inderrieden plant in Barron, 125 at the Rice Lake Inderrieden plant (these are the plants that also utilized the PW labor in 1944), but additional places started requesting help, like Stokely Foods in Cumberland, who received 100 PWs. There were also 25 who went to Clear Lake, 50 to Ladysmith and 22 to Chetek. But again, these were all Germans from the sound of it. She does give reference to the local newspaper, the Rice Lake Chronotype, as having articles encouraging farmers to hire the prisoners. One in particular that she refers to is the 11 Jul 1945 issue where an article stated "the War prisoners are being made available to agriculture" and there was a listing of contacts for the area farmers who were looking for such help. The book also said that of all the camps, Camp Barron was the only one who opened the camp to the press in 1944. They were officially invited to come to the camp and take a tour but were not allowed to bring in cameras and photograph anything as "under international laws, photos could be construed as using the PWs for propaganda purposes." So there may be some articles in the area newspapers from that time that would give you more information. There was also a camp located at Milltown in Polk Co. (Camp Milltown). The prisoners there were all German also and worked in New Richmond, Frederic, Milltown, Amery and Centuria in the various canning factories. One thing that I learned from this book is that many of the German PWs liked the area and were hoping they could just stay here in Wisconsin once the war was over. Although they were required to go through the repatriation process and go back to Germany, many came back and became US citizens. Sorry I can't help you with the Italian PWs. I haven't found them anywhere else in the book, except in the introduction. But if I run across something on them, I'll let you know. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Nance PS. "Mrs. Cowley" was my Civics teacher when I was a freshman in high school. She'd probably be shocked to know that I actually *like* Wisconsin history now! I sure wish I would've listened better back then! Pat Ricci wrote: > Were there Italian Prisoners of war in Wisconsin especially Barron > County, Cumberland area? >