History prof looks at German POWS held in NC during WWII in Asheboro library talk

ASHEBORO – More than 10,000 German prisoners of war were interned in North Carolina during World War II, but few people were aware of their presence.

Wingate University history professor emeritus Dr. Robert Billinger will reveal startling facts about the prisoners in “Nazi POWs in the Tar Heel State during World War II,” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, September 14, at the Asheboro Public Library.

Billinger’s lively talk will include photos, maps and documents to recount the prisoners’ arrival, work, escapes, re-education and repatriation. The story also reveals the surprising diversity of the POWs: U-boat sailors captured off the North Carolina coast,  paratroopers captured in Europe and North Africa, Nazis, anti-Nazis, former concentration camp inmates, and a multitude of men captured in German uniforms who before the war had been Austrians, Belgians, Frenchmen and Soviets.

The talk, sponsored by the Randolph County Public Library’s Robert C. Taylor Jr. Memorial World War II Collection, is free and the public is invited.

The library is located at 201 Worth Street. Call 336-318-6806 for more information.