James Company under the supervision of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on 770 acres (3.1 km2) about seven miles (11 km) west of Ruston, Louisiana in 1942.

It soon became evident that Camp Ruston's usage plan would change due to the unexpected number of POWs being housed in Europe needing to be transferred.

Because few German prisoners of war in the United States as yet existed, the camp served first as a training center for the Women's Army Corps.

By July 1943[2] the WAC training center was moved in order to make room for the expected large numbers of POW's captured in the European and Northern African Theaters.

The first 300 POWs, from Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's elite Afrika Korps, arrived at Camp Ruston in August 1943.

During the meeting at Yalta, Stalin specifically mentioned these Russian POWs held at Camp Ruston and requested their return to Russia.

During their incarceration in Camp Ruston, the prisoners benefited from food, medical care, and physical surroundings which were better than what their countrymen were experiencing at home.

One such case involved Hans Stollenwerk, an Afrika Corp lieutenant, who worked as an assistant to one of the camp's civilian accountants.

Contrary to several poorly researched books and videos made about Camp Ruston, the POW's did not wear their military uniforms during their internment.

Each POW was issued US surplus khaki uniforms with the letters "PW" painted on the back of each shirt and coats as well as the front pant legs of their trousers.

Born on Christmas Day in 1921, King, then 24 years old, spoke perfect German, English as well as Spanish and was said to be well educated, possibly an engineer or an architect.

Based on a Spione interview, the guard remembered that Charly had told him that he needed to return to Germany in order to take care of his mother, whom he feared would fall into Russian hands.

A small cemetery, located at the northeast tip of the property, near what now is the eastbound lane of Interstate 20, remained until all the buried POWs were exhumed and returned to their countries.

Pfaff, who was a trained engineer and spoke English, was able to help the Americans locate the Uranium which was hidden in a false wall surrounding the conning tower of the sub.

According to interviews conducted by Vincent Spione, Pfaff was allowed to stay in the US, gain citizenship and flourished in business until he died in the early 2000s.

After securing a job with a major US manufacturing firm, Pfaff recalls visiting the site of his former POW experience on several occasions.

From 1947 to 1958, the site of the camp served as a state tuberculosis sanatorium, and in 1959, it became the Ruston Developmental Center, a facility for the mentally disabled.

The remaining hospital compound barracks are located next to a student housing complex administered by Grambling State University.

His interviews and well as numerous artifacts given to him by the POW's now reside in the Louisiana Tech University archives for safekeeping and to be used by future scholars.

Over those years numerous documents, photographs, paintings, carvings, letters, oral histories, and many other artifacts were collected and kept at the center.

A major donation by Mark Scalia of all the National Archive records pertaining to Camp Ruston proved invaluable for researchers.

These included an archaeological survey of the Camp Ruston site, conducted by Mark Scalia a Tech graduate student.

Additional attention in the form of symposiums, talks to regional historical organizations and to schools, appearances on local and national television, exhibits, slide presentations, and provision of material for a taped segment on Camp Ruston for the LPB-TV program “Louisiana: The State We’re In.” added to the interests of Camp Ruston during that period.

This is true as the captured mariners were initially taken to Bermuda but for only a brief time when they were secretly moved and kept in the far eastern compound of Camp Ruston.

In September 2000, the Camp Ruston Foundation transferred all the remaining documents and artifacts from the Developmental Center to the archives at Louisiana Tech for safekeeping and future access by researchers.

The records and physical artifacts related to Camp Ruston continue to grow in the archives maintained by the Special Collections Department at Louisiana Tech University.

Many of the soldiers interned at Camp Ruston had occupations prior to the war such as doctors, engineers, professors, artist and famous writers.

Among those to achieve notoriety after the war were: Playing with the Enemy, published by Savas Beatie, is the story of Gene Moore, a young baseball prodigy drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers.

His career is interrupted by World War II and he is assigned to a U.S. Navy baseball team playing exhibition games to entertain the troops in North Africa.

Savas Beatie plans to publish a book on the U-505 crew's internment at Camp Ruston, coinciding with the release of the movie Playing with the Enemy.