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Show PRISONERS OF WAR AT THE DEPOT By: R. Todd Mcgee - Hub Staff The following material was compiled from various sources including DDOU's silver anniversary edition of the Hub, chapter one of the History of the Utah Army Depot and chapter. five of the History of the Prisoner of War Camp. Service, Forces World War II presented to the United States Armed forces a unique problem. It was housing, feeding and working thousands of prisoners of war. At the same time the monsterous workload at Utah Army Service Forces Depot was an equally distressing problem. As a partial solution to both problems, a prisoner of war camp was authorized to provide the Utah ASF Depot with unskilled labor on October 11, 1942. This provision for the use of prisoners of war was enacted July 27, 1929 as part of the Geneva Convention. It stipulated that enemy POWS' could be employed in labor if it did not involve the manufacture or transportation of materials to combatant units. One can imagine prisoners arrived by box defeated as Ogden made Italian POWS crowding supply effort. the apprehension on April 9, 1943 as the first 1,030 car at the Depot. Bitter stares must have met with a home for its enemy. Before March of 1944, their the compounds, but they would provide crucial aid Italian eyes worn and would be 4,657 to the Depot's In September of 1943, with Italy's unconditional surrender to the allies, the Italians became even more valuable to the Depot. Even thought they were still prisoners, the War Department's announcement of the policies regarding Italian prisoners of war made it so they were no longer enemy POWS and could help with the work shortage crisis now at its peak. : A directive from Maj. Gen. J.A. Ulio, the adjutant general, read, "In order to Utilize to the maximum the services of prisoners of war who are loyal to the cause of the United Nations, they will be organized under the United States Army table of organization and equipment into service units without arms."" When the Italian Service Units were suggested to the prisoners, some 2,700 initially signed agreements to work. They were organized into companies of 250, and placed under the command of Americ¢an officers. | The remainder opposed the idea, stoning and booing their own officers as they came to negotiate. The Italians were no longer prohibited from performing duties in direct cunioed of the war effort. Those who agreed to work were trained in everything from forklift operation to equipment repair. Many who were previously cooks, cobblers, barbers or who |