I am a retired teacher of German and have studied German-related topics for
40 years. I don't, however, have any firsthand knowledge of the POW camp in
your question.
Even so, I did think of three things you may have already know about or have
already done:
1) Get in touch with the nearest German Consulate (Chicago?) and ask for
their information office people. I'm sure the German government keeps very
careful records of former veterans. If they are still alive, they are undoubtedly
receiving pensions from the German government. Even for those who chose to
stay in/return to the U.S., that would be the case. I know of several former
German civil servants who lived here but received their pension from the German
government. Even if the German veteran is not still living, the death
records, etc may be of help in locating surviving spouses, children, etc. for their
memories.
2) The History Channel recently ran a full-length program about all the
camps for Germans during WWII. I watched it and learned a lot from it. There
were interviews with survivors of some camps, but I don't know if the program
included the camp you are researching. If you get in touch with their customer
service people, they can tell you how to buy a copy of the videotape I would
think. There are also geneology books about working with the federal German
government (BRD--Bundesrepublik Deutschland) or Germany's 16 state governments
(Bavaria, Hesse, Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony, etc.). Don't forget that some
German soldiers were from what is now Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Poland.
I'm not sure if that is relevant to finding surviving POW's or not.
3) If for no other reason than an enjoyable break for you, but also for a
close look inside an Arizona POW camp for Germans, find the novel The Eagle and
the Iron Cross by Glendon Swarthout (New American Library, 1966)!!!
According to his foreward, there were more than 300,000 German POW'S in the U.S. by
the end of the war. He mentions that the Geneva Convention allowed that POW's
be kept until the "conclusion of peace," and, since we like them as a free
labor force, we kept some of them until 1946. One of my favorite books, this
novel tells its story from the point of view of two young friends in the Arizona
camp who escape to join the American Indians they have so romanticized since
their youth. (Compare a young American's view of Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassidy, the
Lone Ranger, for ex.)
Good Hunting!
(Mona) Kay Gasaway, Wichita, KS