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Camp Wildflecken - The Place |
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The camp is located above the village of Wildflecken which had about 350 inhabitants in 1938. Wildflecken belongs to the state of Bavaria in the south of Germany, near the border to Hesse.
In 1951, when the last of the "displaced persons" had left Wildflecken, the US Army occupied the camp and former military training area and due to the outbreak of the "Cold War" used it as military base and training area for all NATO-partners. Even Elvis Presley during his military service spent time in Wildflecken.
Camp Wildflecken is now partially used as a military base of the German Army. Unfortunately a lot of the buildings are not used any more. Maybe in a few years time, due to the reduction of german forces Wildflecken will not be a military community anymore.
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Camp
Wildflecken was build as a training-center for the German Army (Wehrmacht)
from 1937-1939. It was intended as a training-site for armor and artillery
units.
In
march 1945, the regular german troops left Camp Wildflecken. When US
troops during their advance through Germany at the end of WWII arrived
in Wildflecken on april 7, they found only wounded german soldiers,
and russian, french and Polish prisoners of war, who had been put to
work on the training area. there was only a short fight with withdrawing
germans as the US Army entered the village of Wildflecken. Only days
later the war ended and the US Army used Camp Wildflecken as a temporary
home for "displaced persons", meaning 
people,
mostly from Poland who had been deported by the germans. This people
had been used as workers on farms, in the forrest and the german industry
to substitute those german workers who had been drafted to the german
armed forces during the war. At the war's end those in the south of
germany had been assembled in Wildflecken, to allow them to return to
their homes. 
In
1994, when the "Cold War" was gone, the americans left Wildflecken.
Those, who came as occupants in 1945, left as friends in 1994. 
What
then will happen to the vast military city "up on the hill".........nobody
knows.