# How Did The Germans Treat American POW's in WWII? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 5, 2001, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551 "2001-11-05T04:49:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/41 "2013-01-20T15:25:08Z")
My anecdote: My big, strapping, over six foot tall uncle spent the last couple years of the war in a German camp. Toward the end they weren’t fed much, with the result he was carried from the camp on a stretcher, weighing about 90 pounds. He did recover (it took several years) and lived into his 80’s. Hate the Germans? Not collectively - his own father was a German immigrant to the US. But he sure as hell had a grudge against some of them. Then again, towards the end the camp guards were starving, too, and the only reason they weren’t over run by the prisoners was because the prisoners were just that little bit worse off. They offered no resistance when the allies arrived largely because they weren’t physically able to fight anymore and the allies had food. How POW’s were treated depended on many factors - where and when they were captured, where they were sent, rank, who ran the POW camp… Same on the other side. The experience of a German POW sent to a Russian camp was markedly different from one sent to a camp in Iowa. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/42 "2013-01-20T16:35:32Z")
> [@Joe17761776](#): > > My question: Who were the first US POWs in WWII? Not those captured by our good friends the Japanese but those captured by the Germans. Those from [Kasserine Pass](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Kasserine_Pass), I’d imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/43 "2013-01-20T21:57:21Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > That was Kolditz Strafelager. Pat Reid wrote several books about it, which have been collected as **The Colditz Story**. Although the movie \*\* The Great Escape\*\* said that Staag Luft Drei as the place where they put “all the bad eggs”, Colditz really was the place for the hard cases. They had a number of extremely clever escapes. They made a movie, called, I think “The Colditz Story” aout it, starring John Mills. The TV movie **The Birdmen** was a highly romanticized and fictionalized story about the glidrer they built in Kolditz. A recent episode of \*\*Nova[/B was about them rebuilding the Colditz glider and seeing if it actually _would_ flu (the camp was liberated before they had a chance to try it). The reconstruced glider Did. \*\* > [@](#): > > Also check out Douglas Bader’s Reach For the Sky. RAF pilot with both legs amputated before he flew and was shot down during the Battle of Britan. He was interred in Colditz, and all the POW’s did was try to make booze and escape. I read it years and years ago. This may be the most delayed nitpick ever… _Reach for the Sky_ while \*about \* Douglas Bader , was written by the same Paul Brickhill who authored \* The Great Escape \*. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/44 "2013-01-20T22:04:18Z")
Editing issues. To make things clear, \*\* China Guy \*\* was quoting \*\*CalMeacham \*\* in the first part of his post . ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/45 "2013-01-21T09:27:32Z")
> [@JubilationTCornpone](#): > > Well, Klink treated his prisoners fairly well, but I think that was due to incompetence rather than compassion. Sgt Schultz was the brains of the outfit. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/46 "2013-01-21T20:01:19Z")
> [@Dereknocue67](#): > > Sgt Schultz was the brains of the outfit. Is that what you heard? I heard nothing… ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Milton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6bbea6/32.png) [@Mr.Milton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Milton)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/47 "2013-01-22T20:08:25Z")
Per a book I read from my local library, Jewish US POWs who were captured around and after the Battle of the Bulge --they’d be mostly ground soldiers (infantry, artillery, etc.) instead of airmen-- were segregated, ill-treated and sent to one of the notorious camps, maybe Buchenwald. It was easy for the Germans to sort them out from the other POWs because the US issued dog tags had a “J” for Jewish (and “C” for Catholic, “P” for Protestant, in case one was badly wounded and needed a clergyman). But the Germans didn’t always pay attention to the tagging, as they’d sometimes ask the POWs to self-identify, and one Jewish prisoner remembers being told by his non-Jewish peers to tell them he was anything other than Jewish. Sometimes the Gemans just decided who was Jewish based on looks, probably supposing that at least some POWs knew to lie about it. In at least one case a Hispanic-American was deemed “Jewish-looking” and sent away with the actual Jews. I believe he was in the medical corps orignially. I suppose that since Germany had pretty well gone down the toilet by the end of 1944 (Battle of the Bulge time), the hard core Nazis had by then managed to override the call that the Heer and Luftwaffe had made earlier in the war as to treating all western POWs IAW the Geneva convention. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/48 "2013-01-22T21:35:54Z")
> [@Mr.Milton](#): > > … > I suppose that since Germany had pretty well gone down the toilet by the end of 1944 (Battle of the Bulge time), the hard core Nazis had by then managed to override the call that the Heer and Luftwaffe had made earlier in the war as to treating all western POWs IAW the Geneva convention. This raises the general, and fascinating, horrific point (if I understand you correctly) that when the war was surely lost, and the bare chance that Western forgiveness of their crimes might be entertained, Nazi barbarity was redoubled. After Hungary’s alliance with Germany became unreliable, it was invaded in March 1944. By the end of the war some 600,000 Jews were shipped to their death, often by diverting rolling stock and troop transport logistics of the non-Ss military command. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/49 "2013-01-22T21:36:43Z")
> [@Mr.Milton](#): > > It was easy for the Germans to sort them out from the other POWs because the US issued dog tags had a “J” for Jewish (and “C” for Catholic, “P” for Protestant, in case one was badly wounded and needed a clergyman). But the Germans didn’t always pay attention to the tagging, . . . The Germans checked if you were circumcised and considered its presence _de facto_ proof that you were Jewish (since circumcision for anything other than religious consideration was very rare until after the War). ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/50 "2013-01-22T21:39:15Z")
> [@solosam](#): > > Treatment of POWs ran the entire gamut. In some battles there were incidents where American POWs were executed immediately. Just to be clear, there were also incidents where German POWs captured by Americans were killed. I read a memoir written in the 50’s or early 60s where a company commander related sending a couple guys to take some German POWs on the 20-minute walk back to the Battalion HQ. Guys showed back up 10 minutes later, alone. A few moments of uncomfortable silence, everybody went back about there business. Author briefly mused about War Crimes, and went on to the next incident. IIRC the TV version of _Band of Brothers_ has a similar incident, though it leaves open what really happened. War is hell. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/51 "2013-01-22T21:47:53Z")
I live in Kansas, right in the middle of the US, and there were German POW’s here in town during WWII. I don’t think they had it too bad, some were used as farm workers. My great uncles, brothers of my maternal grandfather, were farmers west of town and the German guys would be trucked out to their place during the day to work. One of the reasons they were sent there was because my great uncles spoke fluent German, having spoken it in the home as young children. One of my great grandfather’s was from Germany, a draft dodger who lit out for greener pastures in the 1880’s. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/52 "2013-01-22T21:50:02Z")
US soldiers killed many SS “guards” [when they liberated Dachau](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_liberation_reprisals). The Wiki doesn’t have the quotation of General Patton when he was informed, but it was more or less “they deserved it.” ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/53 "2013-01-22T21:54:56Z")
[This](http://www.axpow.org/beesleystratton.htm)is a link to my uncle’s story of being a POW in Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/54 "2013-01-22T22:47:54Z")
[Here’s an interview](http://www.feldgrau.com/articles.php?ID=28) with a German soldier captured in north Africa. He talks about how much he wanted to be captured by Americans rather than British. So much so that they escaped from their British captors to go surrender to Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/55 "2013-01-23T02:06:27Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > The Germans checked if you were circumcised and considered its presence _de facto_ proof that you were Jewish (since circumcision for anything other than religious consideration was very rare until after the War). So they thought 90% of US servicemen were Jewish? Circumcism was quite widespread by that time among American Christians. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/56 "2013-01-23T07:15:52Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > They got windblown and rained on? > 😉 A spelling snark on a 12-year-old post? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![owlfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@owlfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlfan)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/57 "2013-01-23T11:53:27Z")
My Dad was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and spent the remainder of the war as a POW. He didn’t talk about it much. He spent Christmas day on a boxcar being shipped to the camp. He mentioned only having turnip soup to eat, but they knew the Germans were eating pretty much the same thing. He said when the area was undergoing Allied bombing they would be allowed out to take what cover they could and then would return to the camp because there was no where else to go. The guard would also take their pants from them to ensure their return to camp. The only other thing he waid was that all the guards were old men and young boys. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/58 "2013-01-23T17:27:51Z")
> [@JubilationTCornpone](#): > > Well, Klink treated his prisoners fairly well, but I think that was due to incompetence rather than compassion. You think wrong, my friend. Stalag 13 has \*never \*had one successful escape. (See the documentary referenced above, personal eyewitness report from camp Kommandant, etc… for cite.) ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/59 "2013-01-23T17:58:52Z")
> [@Rebo](#): > > [This](http://www.axpow.org/beesleystratton.htm)is a link to my uncle’s story of being a POW in Germany. Thanks for sharing that! Very interesting. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551/60 "2013-01-23T23:25:47Z")
This is thirdhand, but a friend’s father was an infantryman in WWII. When about to be captured, he and other Jewish soldiers used rocks to bash out the “J” on their dog tags…which of course was a giveaway. However, they received the same more or less decent treatment as the other American POWs in their camp. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-germans-treat-american-pows-in-wwii/91551.md?page=4)