Vanishing Ocean City With Bunk Mann – August 26, 2016

Vanishing Ocean City With Bunk Mann – August 26, 2016
08 26 Color Vanish WEB

In the latter part of World War II (1944-45), German prisoners from the Prisoner of War Detention Camp east of Berlin were used to do beach cleanup and road work in Ocean City as well as work on various Worcester County farms. Most of these German POWs (there were never any Japanese prisoners housed on the Eastern Shore) were young and glad to be out of combat. They were not SS troops or hardened veterans and there is no record of any aggressive acts attempted by them at any time during their imprisonment. Many of them were just teenagers.

The Detention Camp, known as Camp Decatur, was located east of the current Stephen Decatur Middle School complex and at its peak contained several hundred prisoners of war. Following the war, portions of the camp buildings were trucked across the Sinepuxent Bay and became part of the Driftwood Apartments on 2nd Street and St. Louis Avenue.

The Driftwood provided low-cost rooms for summer visitors as well as housing for seasonal workers. It was demolished in 2009. Today, nothing except memories remain of either the Driftwood Apartments or Camp Decatur.

Photo by Bunk Mann