During World War II, the United States interned German, Italian, and Japanese prisoners of war (POWs) in the US. Thousands of German prisoners of war came through Camp Houlton in Maine between July 1944 to May 1946. This POW worked on the Leslie and Ellen Rhoda farm in Hodgdon.

The Geneva Convention permitted prisoners to work on area farms, administered through the Farm Bureau Labor Association. Prisoner activities were closely monitored. The work program was a great help to the farmers at harvest because of the severe labor shortage due to the war.

This POW became friendly with the Rhoda family and was very fond of their young son Richard. The prisoner had a son the same age in Germany that he missed terribly. The POW was an attorney before he was forced to join the German Army. As a coincidence, Richard Rhoda became an attorney.