Speaker to discuss POW interrogation center in Maryland
A
National Park Service representative will discuss “Uncovering the secret history of
P.O. Box 1142” at a program Nov. 1 at Shippensburg University.
The
program, free and open to the public, is at 8 p.m. in Dauphin Humanities Center
Room 151.
Vincent
L. Santucci, senior geologist — Washington liaison, of the National Park
Service will give the presentation sponsored by the university’s Department of
History/Philosophy.
P.O.
Box 1142 was the code name for a top-secret military intelligence and prisoner
of war interrogation center operated at Fort Hunt, Md., by the American
Military Intelligence Service during World War II. The camp’s primary function
was to interview German officers and scientists who had information of
strategic importance to the Allied war effort. Notable prisoners included German
rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, German spymaster Reinhard Gehlen, and U-Boat
commander Werner Henke.
After
the war, most of the camp’s grounds were bulldozed, and the individuals who
worked at the camp remained silent about their secret wartime efforts.
Santucci
will describe the National Park Service’s remarkable efforts to track down the
surviving intelligence officers who worked P.O. Box 1142, to capture their
stories, and to recognize them for their wartime service more than sixty years
after the end of World War II.
For more information, contact Dr. Steven Burg at sbburg@ship.edu.
10.26.12