Camden resident Hank Lunn will be the guest presenter at the next Chats with Champions on Tuesday, May 30, at 10 a.m. in Skidompha Library's Porter Meeting Hall. Please allow time for parking.

Lunn’s talk, “German Prisoners of War in Maine: From Foe to Friend, A First Person Presentation” will describe how, in 1944, the U.S. Army Air Base in Houlton, Maine became the site of a Prisoner of War (POW) camp for German soldiers captured in North Africa and France. The POW’s could not be forced to work, but could volunteer. Those who wanted to work helped the local farmers harvest peas, pick potatoes and cut wood in the forest during winter. The prisoners were paid a dollar a day in scrip that they could spend at their post exchange for toiletries, tobacco, chocolate, even beer! College courses were offered to those who wish to study, too.

In the fall of 1945, Lunn’s father requested prisoners to help with the potato harvest on his family’s farm in Littleton, Aroostook County, because the people usually hired were not available due of the war. Another very compelling reason for asking for help was that the Germans cost the farmers very little.

“As a 13-year-old boy,” says Lunn, “the arrival of German soldiers, who may have killed some of our neighbors, was fearsome. My young mind was not too sure it was a good idea to have the ‘enemy’ right here on our farm.”

Chats with Champions is a free community offering from your national award winning Skidompha Library and is sponsored by Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shop. For more information call 563-5513.