When the McDonough County Retired Teachers met Friday, May 8, 2026, at Trinity Lutheran Church to install officers for the next school year and to award a scholarship to a future teacher, they didn't expect to enter a fascinating period in our area's history.
Guest speaker was Julie Terstriep, who has documented the brief life of Camp Ellis between Table Grove and Ipava in the Community News Brief and in other public venues.
For her presentation to the retired teachers, she shared basic information about the origins of the camp, the land acquisitions (still a sore point for those affected), its mission, and its impact on the surrounding area.
She focused on one smaller function of the camp — as a prisoner of war facility, specifically, on the stories of two prisoners, one who escaped and managed to evade capture for many years and one who returned to America after the war.
Reinhold Pabel was wounded and captured in Italy in 1943 and eventually transported to Camp Ellis.
