Table Of ContentMen in German Uniform
Men in
German Uniform
PoWs in america during
World War ii
Antonio Thompson
Legacies of War v g. Kurt Piehler, series editor
The University of Tennessee Press • Knoxville
The Legacies of War series presents a variety of works—from scholarly monographs
to memoirs—that examine the impact of war on society, both in the United States
and globally. The wide scope of the series might include war’s effects on civilian
populations, its lingering consequences for veterans, and the role of individual na-
tions and the international community in confronting genocide and other injustices
born of war.
a
Copyright © 2010 by The University of Tennessee Press / Knoxville.
All Rights Reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America.
First Edition.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thompson, Antonio.
Men in German uniform: POWs in America during World War II / Antonio
Thompson. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (Legacies of war)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN-13: 978-1-57233-742-8
eISBN-10: 1-57233-742-7
1. World War, 1939–1945—Prisoners and prisons, American.
2. Prisoners of war—United States—History—20th century.
3. Prisoners of war—Germany—History—20th century.
4. Soldiers—Germany—History—20th century.
5. Germans—United States—History—20th century.
6. World War, 1939–1945—Concentration camps—United States.
7. World War, 1939–1945—United States.
I. Title.
D805.U5T455 2010
940.54'727308931—dc22 2010019337
This book is dedicated to my wife, Amy,
and my three children, Madeline, Julian, and Sophia.
My love for all of you is immeasurable.
Contents
Foreword ix
G. Kurt Piehler, Series Editor
Preface xii
Acknowledgments xv
1. Housing the Enemy: Prisoner of War Administration and Camp
Construction 1
2. Sprechen Sie Deutsch? From Recruitment in the Third Reich to
Incarceration in the United States 15
3. Igniting the Powder Keg: Nazi Influence within the Camps and
the Last Acts of Defiance among POWs 37
4. Love Thy Enemy: Coddling, Segregating, and Fraternizing with
German POWs 55
5. The Devil Is in the Details: German POW Labor and the American
Home Front 77
6. Idle Hands: Recreation and Intellectual Diversion behind Barbed
Wire 103
7. Exorcising the Beast: The Reeducation of German POWs in the
United States 117
8. Leaving a Place Called Amerika 129
Notes 135
Bibliography 159
Index 175
Illustrations
Following page 71
Colonel George Chescheir, U.S. POW Camp Commander at Fort Benning, GA
Colonel George Chescheir and the POW School at Fort Benning, GA
POWs Boarding the Train at Fort Knox, KY
POW-Constructed Model Castle at Camp Ruston, LA
Examples of Barbed Wire Surrounding Camp
POW Buying Cigarettes at the Canteen at Fort Benning, GA
POW-Constructed Stadium Model, Camp Ruston, LA
Yugoslavian POWs Housed at Camp Ruston, LA
POWs Working in the Kitchen at Fort Knox, KY
POWs Carving Turkey at Fort Benning, GA
POWs Shopping at the Canteen at Fort Knox, KY
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
exterminating European Jewry and enslaving the Slavic populations of Eastern
Europe. Soviet soldiers captured by the Germans were often summarily exe-
cuted or faced brutal imprisonment in camps that provided little food or medi-
cal care. In turn, the Soviet Union reciprocated with similarly harsh treatment
of German POWs. Most died in captivity, and those who survived would not see
home until the mid-1950s. Japan never developed a systematic policy of geno-
cide; yet it committed scores of atrocities against the occupied peoples of Asia,
beginning with China. Historians have characterized the struggle in the Pa-
cific as a war without mercy in which Japanese forces visited brutal treatment
on American and other Allied prisoners of war. Forced marches, summary ex-
ecutions, 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 de-
veloped 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 occu-
pied peoples of Europe, they adhered to the Geneva Convention in their treat-
ment 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 fol-
low international law in its treatment of captured German POWs. As Antonio
Thompson’s work demonstrates, providing for the transportation, housing, and
