During World War II, the Kenedy Alien Detention Camp was located near the outskirts of the town, on a former Civilian Conservation Corps site. Though it later served as a prisoner of war camp, it started as an internment camp for people of German, Italian and Japanese ancestry deported from Latin America, as well as some who were long-term residents of the U.S. The camp opened in April 1942, when the first group of Latin American deportees arrived: 456 Germans, 156 Japanese and 14 Italians. Despite State Department prisoner exchanges, in which German and Japanese Latin Americans were "repatriated" and traded for U.S. citizens in Axis custody, Kenedy's population swelled to 2,007 by October 1943: 1,168 Germans, 705 Japanese, 72 Italians, and 62 "miscellaneous". The 705 of Japanese descent included U.S. civilians. In 1944, the remaining internees were transferred to other facilities, and by September it had been converted to a German POW camp; beginning in July 1945, the camp was also used to house Japanese POWs. The camp was closed at the end of the war, in September 1945.