I had the pleasure recently of speaking to 2 former german POWS

[eagler]

who were kept in confinement at prison camps in the central US during WW2. To make a long story short - they both stayed in this country after the war and married American women. Part of the reason was due to the kindness that was shown to them by their captors.

[hlthe2b]

1. thank you for that.... I wish that some well qualified historian....

would take a look at official policy (and any deviations that undoubtedly occurred) for US treatment of WWII POWs, and any changes over time in Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I....

If we had real press, they would do this story...

[Media_Lies_Daily]

2. And we treated them well because we wanted to make sure that our...

...POWs in Germany were also treated well, particularly our airmen.

On the Eastern Front, Germany and the USSR had a MUCH different set of "rules". POWs on that front were lucky to survive the war.

[Roaming]

13. The German POWs probably got the better end of the deal;

Americans and other nationalities kept in German POW camps didn't have it so good, due in good part because Germany didn't have enough food, medicine, etc., especially toward the end of the war.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Funny you should mention that...

because I remember a conversation with my German landlord in Bad Kreuznach many years ago when he was telling me how beautiful Colorado was and how much he enjoyed his stay in the US.

"So, what were you doing there?"

"I was a POW."

On another note, during the Revolutionary war, the Brits hired German mercenaries, as we were all told in school. What we may not have been told in school is that these mercenaries, called Hessians because most came from Hesse, did not so this on their own. The contracts were with the the dukes, margraves, electors, and kings who supplied the
generally unwilling but choiceless soldiers.

Many of these Germans were terrified because they were told of cannibalism, and worse, on the part of the rebels to keep them fighting. While being frog-marched through Pennsylvania, captured German soldiers found that the local citizens knew they had no choice in the matter, and were offered farmland, sanctuary, and a new home free from servitude to royalty.

Can we say we are any better now?

[datasuspect]

4. they were WHITE . . .

albeit nazis.

'nuff said.

[TheDebbieDee]

5. It's amazing how our nation treated Nazi POWs

with more respect and dignity than its black citizens.

[datasuspect]

6. well yes,

they got to PARTICIPATE in the communities they were imprisoned in while in POW camps located on us soil.

they would get day passes and shit like to go to the fucking movies (at least from what i heard from an old timer in iowa).

[wryter2000]

8. Exactly

During the Bork hearings, an African American professor said that when he was returning home after serving in WWII, he had to sit in the baggage car of a train while a German POW sat up in the passenger compartment.

[Bandit]

12. Or our own Japanese citizens

Americans were then and still are very racist.

[wryter2000]

7. I believe

A similar thing happened with Italian POW's in this part of the country.

[yella_dawg]

9. My mom tells stories about her church group

packing picnic lunches and going to the POW camps after church to pal around with the Germans. She was touched because many of these boys weren't much older than she was (13).

[JayS]

10. A lot of the German POWs stayed on after the war here also.

You still run into them occasionally but they are rapidly dying off. If you get a chance to talk to one of them it will be very interesting. They often talk of how they lived better here as a POW than they did in Germany. Considering who their leader was, that makes sense.

[ShaneGR]

11. This was part of the reason towards the end of the war...

So many Germans made a point of seeking out Americans to surrender to, I read a book, can't remember the name of it, documenting hundreds of cases where stray Germans marched hundreds of miles seeking out American troops to surrender to. They were fearful of what would happen if the Russians got a hold of them.... rightfully so.

[Kellanved]

14. yes

The American treatment of WW2 POWs is legendary.
There are stories about occurrences in the Rhine Meadows Camps after the end of the war, but they can be explained by the sheer number of POWs. Still far better than the treatment most Allied POWs got in German hands.

[Jackpine Radical]

15. Check out the book Stalag Wisconsin by Betty Cowley

http://www.historyofmilitary.com/Stalag_Wisconsin_Inside_WWII_Prisoner_of_War_Camps_187856983X.html

also

Behind Barbed Wire: German Prisoner of War Camps in Minnesota
by Anita Buck.

http://www.historyofmilitary.com/Behind_Barbed_Wire_German_Prisoner_of_War_Camps_in_Minnesota_Minnesota_0878391134.html

for stories about the German PWs in the midwest.