How America USED to Treat Prisoners of War: "I Met a Man Named Franko"

[Stephanie]

Obama's remark about the British treatment of prisoners during WWII reminded me of this story. Fifty years later, Franko remembered how well he was treated by the Americans when he was an Italian prisoner of war during WWII. He remembered it so fondly he got on a plane and came to New York after 9/11, to show his support.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1574256

I met a man named Franko
Tue May-11-04 12:18 AM

It was October of 2001. I still had the jitters so bad I was walking everywhere - no subways for me. My friend was having a barbecue in his backyard on 79th St. I picked up some things at the Union Sq. Greenmarket at 14th, and started walking uptown. I was at about B'way and 28th when I saw this tiny little old man sort of stranded in the crosswalk. He caught my eye then reached out and grabbed my arm. "Is this Harlem?" he said. He was lost. He was a tourist from Italy. He might have been 80 years old. I said I would help him find his midtown hotel so we started walking together.

Franco said, "I was a prisoner of the Americans in World War II. They treated me so well. They gave us Vienna sausages. I want to try them again. When I heard what happened in New York, I wanted to come, because the American soldiers treated me so well when I was a prisoner."

We got in a cab. I took him to the barbecue. He had a hotdog and some chips.

After the barbecue I put him in a cab. I hope he got home okay.

[Stephanie]

1. thank you

He was a dear.

[Captain Hilts]

2. A lot of PoWs decided to come back here after The War. nt

[Stephanie]

3. Franko was a prisoner in Europe

But yes, I'm not surprised, thanks.

[Captain Hilts]

5. In Charleston, SC, there was an Italian POW camp. Locals sometimes brought food...

to the POWs. Some stayed.

Some say that's part of the reason the big opera festival - Spoleto??? - is held there now.

[MellowDem]

4. We used to treat POWs very badly

Including in WWII. Atrocities occured in every war. It's just that the last few wars exist in an age of much more open coverage. There was no "golden age".

[Captain Hilts]

6. No, not really. The ones rounded up in Europe at the very end of the war were

treated badly because of resources.

But, during the first years of the war, Axis POWs actually ate BETTER than your average US citizen because the Geneva Accords insisted you feed your POWs the same as you feed your own troops. So, they got a lot more meat in their diets, etc.

Locals began to get ticked off over severe rationing and watching POWS gain weight, so the quality of the food was ratcheted back a bit.

We also tried to have the POWs police themselves, but such trouble between hard-assed Nazis and regular drafted German soldiers sprang up, we ended up having to police the camps with US troops.

POWs were permitted to attend entertainment events in some military bases and camps.

[MellowDem]

8. I'm not talking about in general

I'm saying we've always had instances where we treated POWs badly in every war, even executed them or tortured them, but a lot of them were less public back then.

To say we treat POWs generally worse now is a false assumption and offensive to the men and women in the current armed forces, not to mention a ridiculous continuation of the myth of the "greatest generation".

[Stephanie]

7. Franko's experience was different

He was grateful to the Americans for their humane treatment. He was hungry, and all those years later he still remembered the Vienna sausages the Americans gave him. And he traveled alone to come here in 2001 because of it, despite his frailty and against his son's advice.

[MellowDem]

9. It was an individual experience

and shouldn't be used to make a broad comparison between how we treated POWs back then and now.

[Stephanie]

10. It was indelible for him.

And emblematic of what happened then vs. what happened under Bush. We used to have a code of ethics. It was effective.

[MellowDem]

13. I agree

that we have to have a code of ethics. But we didn't have any better of a grasp on it back then as now. Remember the internment camps? And many current POWs are treated very very well, and I bet there are quite a few cases of POWs from modern US wars coming to live here.

[Stephanie]

16. Internment camps were wrong, but they were not torture camps.

Even when we were wrong we were not inhuman.

[UTUSN]

11. K&R ----------- BIG #5!1 --------- for THANK YOU!1 n/t

[northofdenali]

12. Tears of joy are warring with those of frustration and anger.

WE. MUST. PROSECUTE.

[Canuckistanian]

14. Franko was a POW, not a "detainee"

Of course, there's no difference. But just by calling them detainees, suddenly "different rules" apply.

POWs get Geneva Convention rights. Detainees don't. POWs get visits from the ICRC. Detainees don't.

America has always treated prisoners decently. How far back in history do you want to go? George Washington forbade his officers to torture or abuse their prisoners. And some of the prisoners respected the Americans so much that they stayed.

This is SO un-American that it's NEVER happened before in history.

[Stephanie]

15. Excellent points, thank you.

Dehumanizing prisoners by labeling them "detainees" - changing the rules of war by labeling combatants in a war zone "terrorists" - it's all meant to dehumanize, and to nullify our code of ethics.

[tuckessee]

28. It has occurred before and on a much more massive and deadly scale

German troops who came into Allied hands after the formal surrender by Doenitz in May 1945 were classified as DEPS - disarmed emeny personell - and were therefore not covered by any rights possessed by POW's.

That allowed the Allies to hold them incommunicado in confined open areas with no fresh water or sanitation facilities while denying them rations.

There's no doubt tens of thousands of Germans died in these "hunger" camps from the summer of 1945 on.

This is well documented in works such as Giles MacDonogh's After the Reich.

[inwiththenew]

17. We executed some of the guards a Dachau on the spot

And here is what an American soldier said about it

"The killing of unarmed POWs did not trouble many of the men in I company that day for to them the SS guards did not deserve the same protected status as enemy soldiers who have been captured after a valiant fight. To many of the men in I company, the SS were nothing more than wild, vicious animals whose role in this war was to starve, brutalize, torment, torture and murder helpless civilians." Flint Whitlock, The Rock of Anzio, From Sicily to Dachau: A history of the U.S. 45th Infantry Division

[Stephanie]

18. Welcome to DU

That quote is chilling.

[catnhatnh]

19. From the review of the book "Stark Decency"

about German POW's held in Stark NH...

November 1944 - Two POWs held captive in a prison camp located just outside Berlin decided to tunnel their way to freedom. They cut a hole in the floor below a bunk, fixing it so the wooden plank could be replaced. Beneath that they dug a pit that served as a place to store their provisions and as a starting point for the tunnel. They spent Sundays and evenings digging, removing sand, and depositing it in the crawl space under the barracks floor. They managed to pilfer some wire, which they attached to the overhead light in their room to provide light in their tunnel. They almost made it. Their 30-foot long, two-foot high, 18-inch wide tunnel was a scant 10 feet from their goal, a drainage ditch under the guard tower, when an informer turned them in.

While many attempted to escape, only one POW successfully made it out and remained free because he learned to blend in with the population. The others didn't really expect to get away. They just wanted some time away from the camp. Despite the hard labor, they were well treated for the most part. POWs, guards, and townspeople actually developed a fondness and respect for one another. Ladies from town brought new socks for the prisoners and the prisoners made toys for guards' children. If one had to be a POW, this was not the worst place to spend the war.

The camp was Camp Stark, located in the town of Stark, approximately 20 miles northwest of Berlin, New Hampshire!

snip

For instance, when the war with Germany was over, public opinion turned against the POWs. Meat rations were cut to civilians because the military was still fighting the Japanese. At this time, the public also learned that the British were suffering terribly due to shortages. When the public learned that the rations to POWs in the U.S. remained the same, they accused the government of "coddling" them. The government reacted swiftly. Not only did it reduce POW rations, it also replaced the guards with soldiers who spent time in German prison camps. They thought that these men would be much harder on their German counterparts. This plan backfired. Oftentimes friendships developed between the guards and the prisoners. The government didn't realize that the guards and prisoners had an unusual bond, one in which understanding a shared experience negated the need for revenge.

Review here:http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/new_hampshire/88991

[Stephanie]

20. "understanding a shared experience negated the need for revenge"

What happened to John McCain?

[hay rick]

21. I work with a Japanese girl

whose father surrendered to American marines toward the end of World War II. He expected to be tortured and/or killed. Instead, he was given a shower, clean clothes and meals. Years later his daughter married an American serviceman.

I remember the day, just a few years ago, that HER SON, fresh from Parris Island, walked through the door wearing his dress blues. She broke down on the spot, crying tears of pride and great joy.

[Stephanie]

22. That's so sweet!

Thank you. That was Franko's sentiment. He was in awe of being given those Vienna sausages, and I'll always regret not dropping some off at his hotel.

[eridani]

23. In WW II Europe, everybody wanted to surrender to us

--because our standards for treatment of POWs, regardless of occasional abuses, were on average far higher than those of our allies or our enemies.

[Stephanie]

25. And it was a lasting impression

At least in this case.

[eridani]

26. If we were that country once, we can surely become that country again n/t

[bertman]

24. Thanks for the post, Stephanie.

[Critters2]

27. There were several POW camps in Northern Iowa. A parishioner

of mine, at the church in Iowa, grew up near one of them. Her parents owned the local bakery, and had Italian POWs who worked for them. She said they came and went to work like other employees. She had fond memories, and said her family stayed in touch with one for several years afterward.