Clyde became the second village in Wayne County to house prisoners of war. The first group of Italian and German prisoners arrived on July 16th 1944. A high barbed wire fence surrounded the building with guard towers positioned at intervals. Search lights were in operation at night. The 24 guards were quartered on the first floor of the building they slept there and also ate their meals in a room on that floor. The prisoners dining room and sleeping quarters were on the 2nd floor. A mess sergeant was in charge of the kitchen. Although guards and prisoners ate separately, prisoners prepared all food. 

The prisoners working sometimes under the supervision of guards, were bused or truck to muck farms in Savannah, other farms in the area, canning factories and cold storage plants.

Robert Mead was 16 or 17 years old when he worked with prisoners at Savannah cold storage and also on his father's farm. One of the prisoners gave Robert a hat that he had made. The hat had a rather high crown and a peaked bill.

25 year old sergeant Gordon Hoffman came to Clyde as a guard in August of 1944. Born in Philadelphia and raised in Camden NJ, Hoffman was a professional ballplayer in New York prior to being drafted in the army. He recalls there were 200 to 220 prisoners in the camp at that time. All the Italian prisoners had been replaced by German prisoners possibly in anticipation of the peace treaty signing with Italy. For many days Hoffman and a second guard and 20 POWs were transported on a Bluebird bus to the railroad car shop in Rochester. After returning the guards and prisoners to the camp, the bus driver would spend the night at the Mineral Springs hotel located next to the village park.   

 Mr. Hoffman remembered 2 prisoners who escaped from the camp. They climbed over the fence walked a couple blocks to the village park and sat there a little while. They then walked back to camp and hollered for the guards to let them back in.

Rudolph Schumacher one of the prisoners at the Clyde camp recounted his experiences as a prisoner. He recalls people being very friendly and giving the prisoners news of the war. He said he did not have the feeling of being the enemy. Schumacher came to work with several the prisoners on the farm near Wolcott belonging to Andrew and Dorothy Wadsworth. The Wadsworths and their children treated the prisoners as friends. At the age of 12, Jane Wadsworth DeCracker would ride with her sister to Clyde to pick up the prisoners. No guard would ride back with them to the farm. Jane recalls that each prisoner had a very special talent. One was a dairy man and their cows had never been so babied. One was a Mason and helped her father build a processing place to kill and dress chickens. Another was an artist who made Jane’s brother a beautiful birthday card for his 21st birthday. Rudolph also worked as an interpreter at the Comstock Canning Factory, worked on the other farms, and at  Rotmann’s  Sauerkraut Factory.

The Clyde POW camp closed the week of April 4th 1946. At that time there were 100 prisoners living there. Some men were taken to the Newark camp and some of the to the Sodus Point Camp. The building later housed the laundromat owned by the Canalesiois. It was eventually torn down. A r senior citizen apartment complex is now located on the site of the former POW camp.