Cherry Blossoms Bloom, Planted by German POWs

DIAS CREEK – Japanese cherry blossoms were in profusion April 27 in Cape May County.
For those who might have missed the National Cherry Blossom Festival around the Tidal Basin by the Jefferson Memorial earlier in the month in Washington, D.C., more local delicate pink blooms put on a public display at the Cape May County Mosquito Department headquarters on Route 47 here.
There was no celebration, except for those who have often passed by and seen the small grove of pink cherry blossoms that ranged from deep pink to white.
Retired Cape May County Mosquito Commission director Judy Hansen is an annual admirer of those Japanese cherry blossoms.
“They were planted by German prisoners of war when it (the present department headquarters land) was a POW camp,” she said adding, “They were Japanese cherry trees planted by German prisoners of war,” Hansen said.
She said the Army had leased the property from Josephine Cook, and the trees were planted by the prisoners.
According to Jeffrey Dorwart’s history “Cape May County, New Jersey,” “Two hundred German prisoners of war arrived at the Dias Creek Civilian Conservation Corps camp from Fort DuPont in Delaware in May 1945. Guards put the prisoners to work digging mosquito control drainage ditches around the Naval Air Station, Wildwood.” Prisoners also tended crops.
“The Mosquito Commission (now department) moved there after the war and used the buildings,” said Hansen.
“We also kept those trees. We took good care of them. When I was there we replaced a couple that died,” she continued.
Some grew so large, when they died, they were not replaced, Hansen recalled.
Hansen said she often thought that the front part of the property would make a nice park. Due to security concerns, a high, chain-link fence has been erected to keep unauthorized persons from entering rear of the property where offices and a helicopter hangar are located.
Regardless of the fence, cherry trees could still be seen near the main office of the department.