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"They were educated in another time period, with another political guideline. In their opinion, they also fought for freedom, liberty and for their fatherland. That's why these people gave all they had -- their own lives."

Gee, you could say the same thing about terrorists.

Jews were openly persecuted, arrested and deported in Germany from 1933 until the end of the war. Hitler and his henchmen frequently and loudly proclaimed their virulent hatred and intentions to act on their hatred from well before 1933 until the very end in 1945. Hitler quite clearly spells out what he was going to do in "Mein Kampf" (which outsold all other books in Germany for years) including extermination of the Jews and the conquest and enslaving of other nations. Millions of people from the occupied countries were moved into Germany and used as slave labor throughout the war. And if you think the regular army had clean hands in respect to atrocities committed in the occupied countries take a look at any of the books written about the Nuremburg trials.

These men may have fought "bravely" and so what? They fought for one of the most vicious, evil regimes in human history and they did it knowing plenty about what that regime represented and the actions it committed in its drive to dominate Europe. They may deserve a grudging respect for being good fighters but they earned no "honor" and do not deserve any at this late date.

There is a great book by a German prisoner who escaped and blended into American society.

Incredibly, the FBI pursued him for twenty years after WWII ended, but he managed to evade them while running a business in California. It was only in the 70s that he was able to straighten things out.

Does anyone remember the man's name and the title of his book?

I read a little about these camps a few years ago. TX and AZ had their share of these camps as well as GA.

SS soldiers and party members were segregated from other prisoners- their life was not so swell here at times. The general population were often conscripts, and by the time they were showing up in large numbers, toward the end of the war, they were in rough shape.

Some of the more imaginitive ones plotted elaborate escape schemes on the boat ride over. But after a week on trains going west, many just gave up. Few had any idea how enormous the United States is.

The military put them to work in agriculture and such, but were allowed all sorts of diversions. Orchestras, theater, and if memory serves even a radio station at one TX camp. Many prisoners remarked that they had never eaten so well in their lives outside of major holidays, and not at all in recent years.

One of my German professors had been captured and sent to one of these camps. He told me once that there were many shocks and surprises in the trip from battlefield to CONUS. But what really stuck in his mind was the train...they had so much space inside, he couldn't believe he and his comrades could each take up 2-3 seats if they wanted to. But he didn't, because he didn't want to put his feet on the seat opposite his own and get it dirty.

S'funny the stuff that sticks in your mind.

There are some German Army prisoners buried at Finn's Point National Cemetery in New Jersey. There were several POW camps in southern New Jersey later in WW2 and some of the prisoners were hired out to work on local farms.

I don't know if it is true but I was told that some of the Finn's Point burials were of anti-Communist Ukranians who were serving in the German Army when captured and that they committed suicide when they learned that they were to be returned to Russia (where they probably would have been tortured and then executed anyway).

I once met a black American who served in the U. S. Army in WWII as a guard for a POW camp in Louisiana. He told me that the German prisoners were friendly to him, and seemed very happy to be out of the war. There were no escapes, because the camp was surrounded by inhospitable swamps full of alligators.
His attitude toward the Germans was quite positive.