Qualla: Camp Ruston https://qualla.com/camp-ruston en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:04 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/y/1/camp-ruston-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Camp Ruston https://qualla.com/camp-ruston Camp Ruston: Introduction https://qualla.com/camp-ruston/ Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. Stalin brought them up by name. At the Yalta Conference in 1945, among all the grand questions of postwar Europe, the Soviet leader specifically mentioned a group of Russian prisoners held at a camp in north Louisiana and demanded their return. These men had fought for Germany against Russia, and they knew exactly what awaited them. When the Americans transferred them to Camp Dix in New Jersey for the trip home, the Russians rioted and set fire to their barracks. Two hanged themselves from the rafters rather than face their fate. After they left Camp Dix, the story of the Russian POWs from Camp Ruston simply ends. It is one of many extraordinary tales embedded in the red clay west of Ruston, Louisiana, where one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps in the United States once held 4,315 captives at its peak.

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Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/y/1/camp-ruston-wp/9vy1-camp-ruston-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Camp Ruston: Rommel's Men in the Louisiana Pine Woods https://qualla.com/camp-ruston/ Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. Built in 1942 by the T.L. James Company under U.S. Army Corps of Engineers supervision, Camp Ruston was originally meant to intern Japanese Americans. That plan was abandoned, and the camp briefly served as a training center for the Women's Army Corps, with approximately 2,000 WA...

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Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/y/1/camp-ruston-wp/9vy1-camp-ruston-rommels-men-in-the-louisiana-pine-woods.mp3 0:06 2 full Camp Ruston: The Secret Prisoners in the Northeast Corner https://qualla.com/camp-ruston/ Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. One group of captives was hidden from everyone, including the International Red Cross. In late July 1944, the 56 surviving officers and crew of the German submarine U-505 were brought to Camp Ruston and locked in an isolated compound in the northeast corner. Their capture had del...

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]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/y/1/camp-ruston-wp/9vy1-camp-ruston-the-secret-prisoners-in-the-northeast-corner.mp3 0:06 3 full Camp Ruston: Cotton Fields, Orchestras, and One Perfect Escape https://qualla.com/camp-ruston/ Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. Daily life at Camp Ruston was paradoxically decent. A Luftwaffe prisoner later said that compared to conditions in Germany, the camp was "like a vacation." Prisoners ate the same food as their guards, organized an orchestra, formed a theater troupe, built a library, and even broa...

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]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/y/1/camp-ruston-wp/9vy1-camp-ruston-cotton-fields-orchestras-and-one-perfect-escape.mp3 0:06 4 full Camp Ruston: Uranium, Reunions, and Fading Barracks https://qualla.com/camp-ruston/ Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. Perhaps the most remarkable individual story belongs to Ensign Karl Ernst Pfaff of U-boat 234, a submarine bound for Japan carrying rocket plans, a crated jet plane, and over 500 kilograms of uranium oxide. When U-234 surrendered seven days after Germany's capitulation, Pfaff hel...

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]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/y/1/camp-ruston-wp/9vy1-camp-ruston-uranium-reunions-and-fading-barracks.mp3 0:06 5 full