In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

The Journal of Military History 68.2 (2004) 636-637



[Access article in PDF]
The Enemy Among Us: POWs in Missouri during World War II. By David Fiedler. Saint Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, 2003. ISBN 1-883982-49-9. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xiv, 466. Distributed by University of Missouri Press. $29.95.

A large part of American research on enemy prisoners of war (POWs) in the United States during World War II has come in the form of regional or local studies. Many authors have chosen a single state as the framework of their research, although POW administration was organized by service commands that encompassed several federal states. David Fiedler now adds Missouri, which held some 15,000 enemy POWs in approximately thirty camps, to the list. Because Missouri had Italian as well as German prisoners of war and was home to Camp Clark, a facility for uncooperative German soldiers, it is an interesting and welcome addition.

After two introductory chapters on "Life in the Camps" and "Labor and Re-education Programs," Fiedler deals with Missouri's main camps: Weingarten, Clark, Leonard Wood, and Crowder. He then examines the smaller camps in the state's different regions, before closing with a twelfth chapter on "Leaving the Camps."

The Enemy Among Us is beautifully designed, richly illustrated with photographs, nicely written, and reasonably priced. However, it offers very little in terms of analysis or interpretation. Although Fiedler speaks German, he has used only American literature, and while he tries to give a balanced account, his perspective nevertheless strongly reflects the way most contemporary Americans viewed the Axis prisoners. The Italian POWs are inevitably "easygoing" (p. 153) and "normally peaceable" (p. 143), while the Germans, in contrast, are pictured as either fanatical Nazis or their suppressed victims. In fact, Fiedler uncritically reproduces what a contemporary American official (John Brown Mason) called the general public's "grossly exaggerated idea of the Nazi-criminal aspects of camp life." For example, he offers estimates that up to 300 Germans were killed by fellow POWs without mentioning that official statistics list only 4 murders (p. 43). Historians like Robert D. Billinger, Jr. (Hitler's Soldiers in the Sunshine State: German POWs in Florida [Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000]) [End Page 636] have offered a much more complex and sophisticated interpretation of the situation the prisoners found themselves in. Unfortunately, there are also numerous other inaccuracies or mistakes, as well as minor formal problems. References like "Smith to Commanding General" (p. 433n.128), for example, force the reader to check all previous endnotes to find where the document is first mentioned, and the interviews conducted by the author are not listed in the bibliography.

Nevertheless, the book can be recommended to all interested in the history of Missouri during World War II, as it not only deals with enemy POWs, but also contains much information about the state's military installations and home front. Historians will also find it useful, as the interviews conducted by the author have brought together an interesting array of recollections from local Missourians. In addition, the book also provides excerpts and quotes from local newspapers and smaller archival collections that are normally overlooked or by-passed by out-of-state historians.



Matthias Reiss
German Historical Institute London
London, England


...

pdf

Share