Event will explore history of Peabody POW camp
Staff writer
Author and Olpe native Daniel Markowitz will speak Sept. 7 about his novel “The Spoils Of Victory,” published this June.
The novel is historical fiction in which a German soldier is captured in Tunisia and sent to a POW camp in Peabody.
There, he meets a Mennonite family living next to Doyle Creek and falls in love with the family’s eldest daughter.
The book is based on Peabody’s real history housing a handful of Nazi prisoners during World War II.
“There are many stories shared by farmers that happened… in the book,” historical society president Marcia Sebree said.
Prisoners stayed in the Eyestone Building on 122 W. 2nd St. and worked on local farms.
“There were people in town that totally opposed them being here,” Sebree said. “They said, ‘With that many prisoners here, if they could escape, they could kill us all!’”
Some of the German POWs had been drafted into a war they did not want to fight, but many were strict Nazis, she said.
“They believed all the stuff we were telling them was propaganda, and Hitler was going to be conquering the United States,” Sebree said.
Peabody Historical Society will show off POW memorabilia at the event.
“We’ve got jet fighters that were carved by prisoners, paintings that were done by prisoners,” Sebree said.
Others are invited to bring their own POW memorabilia.
“There are a few people that were small children who remember these prisoners on their farms,” Sebree said.
Ninety-four-year-old Herschel Stroud is one such person.
Stroud grew up in Peabody during the war and cleaned out the Eyestone Building before the prisoners arrived, Sebree said.
Stroud may travel from Kansas City to attend.
The event will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. in the basement of the Peabody Township Library.
Refreshments will be offered.
After Markowitz’s presentation, Colton Glenn has invited attendees to tour the Eyestone Building to get a better sense of where the POWs lived.