Men in German Uniform: POWs in America during World War II

Foreword

Foreword World War II was a horrific war. Not only did millions die on the battlefield, but the regimes of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan also waged war on civilians. Germany engaged in a campaign of systematic genocide aimed at exterminatingEuropeanJewryandenslavingtheSlavicpopulationsofEastern Europe. Soviet soldiers captured by the Germans were often summarily executed or faced brutal imprisonment in camps that provided little food or medical care. In turn, the Soviet Union reciprocated with similarly harsh treatment ofGermanPOWs.Mostdiedincaptivity,andthosewhosurvivedwouldnotsee home until the mid-1950s. Japan never developed a systematic policy of genocide ; yet it committed scores of atrocities against the occupied peoples of Asia, beginning with China. Historians have characterized the struggle in the Pacific as a war without mercy in which Japanese forces visited brutal treatment on American and other Allied prisoners of war. Forced marches, summary executions , starvation diets, forced labor, and inadequate medical care took a horrendous toll on those taken captive by the Japanese. In a war marked by terror bombing of civilian populations, blockades that deprived belligerents of food, and death camps, there remained islands of humanity and places where the rule of law prevailed. International law developed after World War I prohibited the use of poison gas on the battlefield, and all belligerents in the war observed this prohibition with the exception of Japan in China. Despite the unspeakable cruelty of the Nazis toward the occupied peoples of Europe, they adhered to the Geneva Convention in their treatment of American and British Commonwealth prisoners of war. As a result, Americans held in German POW camps received regular inspections by the International Red Cross, lived in barracks that met basic standards for health and safety, and generally received regular (if spartan) food rations as well as the life-saving Red Cross packages containing food and medicine. Perhaps most important, they were allowed to correspond with families at home. German adherence to the Geneva Convention was not a one-way street but mirrored the decision of the United States government to scrupulously follow international law in its treatment of captured German POWs. As Antonio Thompson’sworkdemonstrates,providingforthetransportation,housing,and x Foreword feeding of approximately 371,000 German prisoners of war was a massive undertaking , especially considering that the regular American army numbered less than 200,000 in 1939. Thompson reveals in depth how the army built an elaborate system of prison camps across the United States, all while mobilizing for total war and putting millions of Americans in uniform. It conscientiously adhered to the letter and spirit of the Geneva Convention, which insisted that German POWs receive living quarters comparable to those of American GIs and rations equal to those of average soldiers. While German POWs were not pampered, they enjoyed a diet that allowed many to gain weight, and they were imprisoned in a part of the world safe from aerial attack. The United States reaped benefits from treating German POWs humanely. Although captured officers could not be compelled to work, enlisted men provided much-needed labor on American farms, especially during harvests. There were a number of diehard Nazis who bristled at their imprisonment, and the military struggled to identify and isolate them, as well as protect German POWs who opposed National Socialism. But most POWs became complacent, andthisisreflectedintherelativelyfewattemptsatescapeorviolentresistance to camp policies. As a result, German POWs working outside of prison camps could be lightly guarded, and soldiers assigned to watch them consisted of those too young, too old, or physically unfit to serve abroad. Moreover, the U.S. Army’s reputation for good treatment of POWs encouraged many Germans to surrender, especially in the closing months of the war. Although systematic denazification efforts adopted in 1945 had, at best, marginal impact on changing the ideological leanings of the imprisoned, the overall policies of the army did influence the worldview of many German captives and certainly contributed to postwar reconciliation between West Germany and the United States. The policies of the United States during World War II toward POWs remains a remarkable example of adherence to the rule of law and humanity in the midst of a horrendous war. Not only does Thompson’s fine study serve to remind us of some of the good that occurred during this conflict, but it also will help inform current debates on how to treat enemy combatants captured in the struggle against terrorism that followed the attacks of September 11, 2001. G. Kurt Piehler The University of Tennessee ...