Prisoners of war
A small group of prisoners of war worked briefly at the university during World War II. Camp Butner, located in Granville County about thirty miles northeast of Chapel Hill, began receiving German prisoners of war in the spring of 1944. By the summer some of the prisoners were working as dining hall attendants on campus. They worked in Lenoir Hall, which was used exclusively by the U.S. Navy cadets for the navy pre-flight school located on campus. It is not clear how long the prisoners were on campus or how many there were, but occasional mentions of them in the Daily Tar Heel from August 1944 show that students were aware of the prisoners and were in occasional contact with them.