This drawing gives an idea of the size and scope of Camp Stewartstown, the World War II German prisoner of war camp in southeastern York County, Pa. Now, the former camp is a park and baseball field next to the Presbyterian Church in Stewartstown. Background posts: 'Yesteryears' chock-full of southern York County, Pa., sites, York County has done its share of playing host to POWs and German prisoners from two wars came to York County.
The late Eugene Blevins, of Blevins Orchards, once recalled picking apples on his family's farm with a dozen German POWs from Stewartstown.
"They were ordinary guys," he said. "I liked them. But some of them cut swastikas in the apples. We just threw them away. No point in making a big deal about it."
That one story shows the ambivalence of those living in the area the POW camp filled with German prisoners in the summer of 1944-45.
Mike Argento told this story and others in capturing the Stewartstown scene those summers, in a well-written piece running in the York Sunday News April 14:
Continue reading Story revives memories of oft-forgotten York County POW camp.
