Werner Meinel spent time in both Camp Algona and the Owatonna, Minnesota Branch Camp.He was one of the few prisoners to escape Camp Algona, spending the evening with a local girl and her brother before returning to the camp voluntarily.

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Following the war he returned to Germany, reuniting with his family in West Germany, but conditions there forced him to flee again to the United States in 1963, and took up residence in Plymouth, Massachusetts. There he worked as a freelance photographer. He returned to Algona several times, and remembered fondly the time he spent there.

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Below are several personal accounts by Meinel of the escape and his connections with Algona, printed in local papers.