Why German POWs Refused To Leave America After WW2 Explore how ⚔️ a little-known chapter of World War II unfolded not on the battlefields, but on American soil. Between 1943 and 1946, more than 370,000 German prisoners of war were held in 511 camps across the United States. Far from home, these men became part of a remarkable social experiment—working in American agriculture and industry, harvesting nearly a billion pounds of crops, and contributing over $230 million in labor to a wartime econom