WWII German POW's in Some Camps Lived Better Than US Citizens

History Channel | 29January, 2002 | History Channel

[Intolerant in NJ]

The History Channel carried an interesting program over the weekend on WWII German POW's who had been held in this country. Apparently the Geneva Conventions require that POW's must be detained under conditions equivalent to those provided the troops of their captors. In Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi, where the Germans were sent in the US, this meant barracks, PX availability, and even their own theatres and bands. POW's received fresh vegetables and meat daily, when US citizens were still under wartime rationing and often couldn't get these items themselves. In one location, prisoners had a daily beer ration, although the camp was actually located in the middle of a "dry" county. When POW's arrived at one camp where their barracks were not yet completed they had to live in tents temporarily; US troops assigned to guard them were required to live in tents themselves until the construction of the POW barracks was finished and the prisoners could move in. One official who had been involved in the program admitted that pehaps it was "naive" in some instances, but the American government had hoped that by treating the German POW's well we would help obtain better treatment for our own troops held by the Germans.

[JG52blackman]

The slave labor camps and death camps were run by the SS, which was commanded by and composed mainly of Nazi fanatics. The regular POW camps were run by the Wehrmacht (army & Luftwaffe) or Kreigsmarine (navy). These military organizations were much less heavily politicized and therefore behaved in a much more professional and less "Nazi-fied" way.

The Al-Qaeda fighters, in their mission to kill civilians, are not protected by Geneva Convention rules. An interesting example of this situation is discussed in the story of Luftwaffe interrogator Hans Scharff. Some captured American P38 pilots were going to be charged with war crimes for machine-gunning civilians. This action would have exempted them from Geneva Convention protection and subjected them to a likely execution. Scharff got them to relate every detail of their last missions from take-off to capture in an effort to collect enough corroborating evidence to exonerate them. Fortunately for the accused pilots, another wrecked P38 was found with the (dead) pilot still in the cockpit. The Germans developed the gun-camera film and found their war criminal. The accused pilots were then sent to regular POW camp for the remainder of the war.

Scharff was one of the most successful interrogators of the war as far as the amount and quality of information he was able to get from prisoners. He did it by talking with prisoners in a way that was friendly and disarming. They would let down their guard and often reveal useful information without actually realizing it. He was subpoenaed to the US in 1948 to testify in a trial and some of his former interrogatees actually sponsored him to immigrate. He became a mosaic artist and among other things, created the beautiful mosaics on the wall of the main hall in Cinderella's castle in Disney's Magic Kingdom in Orlando FL.

[Ada Coddington]

Geneva convention says that POWs must be issued the same rations as the, uh, host's front line troops get. If our front line troops were getting fresh vegetables, then the POWs got the same.

[a history buff]

I knew an Royal Navy sailor who was captured off of the Canary Islands soon after Suez closed, and spent the war in Germany. The Germans treated their POWs according to how captured Germans were being treated by the other countries. Her Majesty's Subjects and the GIs were treated quite well, the French less so, and the Poles and Russians came at the bottom, the Western POWs would smuggle smokes and food to them to keep them going. Prisoners were allowed to write home and speak about the quality of their care, thanks to the ICRC.

The camp commandants were required to interrogate the prisoners, but the soldiers on both sides looked at it as more of a game that had to be done for those above than as a serious undertaking, and thus the man I knew would tell of the cabbage patches that members of the Home Guard were obliged to tend. Honestly, the man was almost wistful, and certainly not competely traumatised by his time there, even though he managed 2 escapes.

The only part of world war 2 that was run according to virtually all the rules of law was the fighting in North Africa; Allied POWs would stand to attention and salute Rommel when he walked passed, in that theater both sides understood themselves as professionals involved in a professional disagreement, and, unlike what you saw in Eastern Europe, in a race to the bottom to dispense with as many conventions of human society as possible.

I think our government is to be praised for doing everything to help the POWs, and, I hope that this lesson of world war 2 has not been forgotten in our newest war. This war is as much a war for hearts and minds as it is to rid us of malefactors,

[Nakota]

I had an opportunity to talk to an American POW who was captured during the Battle of the Bulge. He said that once they were out of the hands of the SS unit that captured them and held by the regular German Army, he felt that their conditions were about as good as could be expected given the condition of Germany that late in the war. He said that a German NCO, in the turrt of a tank, actually saved him by pointing his machine gun at an SS officer who was making moves to shoot the captives. This is not to say that conditions were not harsh, but he did not believe that the German Army went out of their way to make conditions more difficult for the POW's. First time I had ever seen a POW medal too.

[connectthedots]

So, did you discuss tanks or tankards?

[Fred Mertz]

I brought a fifth of Jim Beam as a gift to the host family. It probably cost me 4 or 5 bucks at the Class VI store, but to them it was an expensive offering. I think we had a few shots that night.

[Leto]

Read a book written by a German Major during WW2. He described the Slavs as subhuman (the book was written during 42), they were planning to get rid of the Slavs after the Gypsies and Jews.

[reed_inthe_wind]

It’s been a while and I may not be able to find the source, however; I once read that the Red Army liberated some American POWs held by Germany. However, the POWs with Slavic names were detained by the Red Army and were ultimately abandoned by the U.S. Has any one else read or heard of such a thing?

[Intolerant in NJ]

Wasn't that a great show!...yep - some interesting and thought-provoking posts on this thread, too...

[Intolerant in NJ]

So you are against our government's efforts during WWII to obtain the best treatment possible for American POW's?...of course not, but there are efforts and then there are efforts, and some of these seem to give preferential treatment to the POW's - especially making our own troops sleep in tents because the prisoners had to temporarily...that seems to be taking the strategy too far.....

[SWake]

During WWII, there was a POW camp north of the town I grew up in. It was used primarily for Italian soldiers. When I was growing up in the '60s and '70s, occasionally, one of the POWs would come through with his family and get his picture and story in the local weekly paper. I don't remember any of them saying they were mistreated.

I guess the most telling statement of their treatment was the number that emigrated to the US after the war.

[okie01]

"And as another poster pointed out, Soviet POWs who did manage to survive German POW camps went straight to Stalin's gulags after the war (if they even made it that far)."

I know one who didn't. Vladimir was a Soviet soldier from the Crimea, was captured at Kiev and became a German POW in Austria. Happily, I might add -- he claims he had no respect for the Soviet regime.

Further, he noted he was treated very well by the Austrians who manned his camp. An ethnic Ukrainian, he liked them better than Russians.

But, as the war wound down, with the Germans obviously being defeated on all fronts, he knew he would be repatriated to the Soviet Union when the time came. He volunteered for the Russian army that was being raised from the camps to go fight for the Germans against the Soviets on the Eastern Front. All of them knew what awaited them as POWs once they were turned over to the Red Army: Siberia. Or worse. They might as well fight for themselves, they thought.

Then, he deserted. And ran like hell, across Germany to the West -- eventually managing to get himself "captured" by the Americans. He passed himself off as a Serbian partisan and managed to gain passage to the US.

He became a citizen in 1952 and, when I left the area eight years ago, Vladimir was still the best machinist in Montgomery, Alabama. Could make any part for any piece of farm equipment...

Now, instead of a farmer, I'm a writer...more or less. And I didn't think to interview him and develop one of the best human interest adventure stories that I've ever encountered.

[connectthedots]

It probably cost me 4 or 5 bucks at the Class VI store, but to them it was an expensive offering.

Probably would have cost them $40-50 if they had purchased it in a civilian store.

[a history buff]

Not much love lost between Germans and Slavs, for hundreds of years.