Unbelievable Past You Never Knew About Tipton, Oklahoma

I stumbled upon the movie "The Keeper" last night; although the first half met my search for "love movies," I didn't expect it to make such a thought-provoking turn. The movie is telling the story of a released Nazi Prisoner of War, trying to live again in England after the war.

After chatting about it with a friend, he mentioned that a similar Prisoner of War story had occurred in Tipton, Oklahoma when it was used as a POW camp during the second World War.

Never had I ever heard that Tipton had such a history. It was known for the historical boys home, for the football team and for being hardly known at all. But it turns out that Tipton's small size and location in the middle of darn-near nowhere was perfect for incarcerating prisoners of war.

The camp was located just outside of the town, originally known as "Farmersville" (I'm sure you can guess why). Specifically, it was on what used to be the "Gulf Oil Company Camp" and was "located north of the railroad tracks between 2nd and 3rd streets on the southeast side of Tipton on a four acre tract."

According to Stillwater News Press, Tipton's camp was used for the "die-hard Nazis" and the ill-mannered trouble makers from the camp in Fort Sill. The camp could only hold up to 250 prisoners and over its history, they only saw four men escape. "Where would we go," one prisoner said. "Sitting in Oklahoma was far better than sitting on the Russian front."

According to the Oklahoman, "the camp operated from October 1944 to November 1945." During this time, there were both true cold-blooded killers who truly supported Adolf Hitler and those who had no choice in serving the German military.

Apparently, there were even people from Chickasha, Oklahoma who had purposely moved to Germany to serve the other side, according to George Natividad, who worked at the camp in Tipton. "They weren't ashamed of it," Natividad said.

The German prisoners had the luxury of powdered eggs, occasional steak and coffee, but bread and water when they behaved badly. They even had their own cooks in the camps, as well. Natividad remembers that they would come to their senses "after two or three days of bread and water."

While in the camp, they were also responsible for filling the roles of the United State's soldiers who, instead of being out in the fields working on crops, were serving the war. So, Nazis were reponsible for picking the cotton, working the fields and "working hard," as Natividad put it. They were even paid 80 cents a day for their labor, which honestly blows my mind.

The kindness was intentional, thanks to President Roosevelt, who wanted the Germans to remember the respect they were given by the United States when they returned home. The idea was to "make allies with our enemies," and to some, we did.

My lesson of the day, however, is that I need to be more accurate with my movie searches and that if hard labor can change a Nazi, it can absolutely change a spoiled-rotten teenager in need of an attitude adjustment. And now, we know just the community to send them to.

Oh, the movie was great, by the way. Very depressing at the end, but still really good.