The camp was used primarily for German Army prisoners during World War II who had been captured in battles that took place in Africa.

Uniquely it had a self initiated reeducation program, the Prisoner of War University, later supported by the German prisoners of war in the United States#Special Projects Division Few structures remained, which form the core of a museum, opened in 2015.

(see German prisoners of war in the United States#Special Projects Division) On December 2, 1944, Captain Carl.

C. Teufel arrived at Camp Concordia as designated Assistant to find that the German POW s had already self-initiated post- secondary school and that Anti-Nazis were highly educated, lawyers, teachers, ministers, teaching about 300 subjects, including English, twelve additional languages, electronics, theology, history, geography, government, engineering, medicine, arts, sciences, and vocational subjects.

[2] Authorities believed the soldiers could provide useful labor for agriculture, and, almost immediately, some started working with local farmers.

[4] According to Lowell May, president of the camp's preservation society, "Difficulties between POWs and local residents were few, and in fact friendships formed","Only a handful of escape attempts occurred, none successful.

"[citation needed] Life at the camp was easy compared with the war in Europe: Prisoners played outdoor sports, listened to band performances and took courses offered by the University of Kansas.

In October 1947, the City of Concordia purchased 166.7 acres of camp acreage, including buildings, with the intent of establishing a park and re-locating the Cloud County fairgrounds to the site.

T-9 was subsequently used as a skating rink, hog farm, canoe factory, and during the 1960s, as storage for a horse racetrack called Thundercloud Park located on the camp property.

[4] Several structures of the camp remain, including a prison warehouse used for storage, an officers club, and a restored guard tower.