Were Germans under the same obligation to refuse parole that Americans are?
Also, were German /officers/ imprisoned separately?
Regarding food, my impression is that the European economy was in a state of progressive collapse, so the immediate post-war period had even less food than the end-of-war period.
There were a lot of German prisoners in camps in Minnesota/Iowa/Dakotas during WWII.
They were paid 85¢ per day (Set at the prevailing wage for a farm worker in the 1940’s), the farm owner actually paid the US government, and the POW got paid in ‘camp script’, which was only spendable at the camp PX, where they sold candy, snacks, cigarettes, paper, envelope, stamps, higher-quality soap, shaving supplies, etc.
Here in the upper Midwest, a large part of the population was of German ancestry, with similar names, attended German Lutheran churches, and still spoke some German (older folks, mostly). The POW labor was urgently needed on the farms, and they were thus welcomed. Farmers did offer them extras, but mostly food or such – not cash US money – no place where POWs could spend that.
US policy was to treat POWs well – let them see how America under democracy was better than German Fascism. Romantic involvement was officially discouraged, but … there were many lonely young farm girls, and a great shortage of eligible young American men – it happened. Many German POWs, at the end of the war, got letters from family telling them about current conditions in Germany, and compared it to the opportunities in America, and decided to stay rather than be repatriated. And it was American policy to make this fairly easy.
Germany had been bombed to hell. The economy was tanked, and East Germany had been overrun by the Soviet army. Those young men had little reason to want to go back.
South Africa was a destination for a lot of Italian POWs (German, not so much, because active Boer Nazi sympathizers were considered a liability)
There was one big POW camp constructed in Transvaal and other POWs were kept in smaller camps in other places, where they built some of our most scenic roads and mountain passes.
And to some degree all over the U.S. Look at the video in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7lNPacTyn4 . It gives the percentage of people of each of the top 15 national origins of their ancestry. As you can see, German has been the top ancestry since 1867. Admittedly, this is probably not the ideal way to measure ancestry. This was probably done by asking people what their ancestry was. To do it right, you would have to ask each person back then to take one of those ancestry tests that now exist using saliva. Note that this gives a separate measure for Jews, although many Ashkenazi Jews had ancestors who emigrated to the U.S. from Germany. Also, note that some people simple give their ancestry as American.
There were several POW camps in Pennsylvania, one in the Michaux State Forest, not far from where I live. From what I’ve read, it mostly housed German officers, many of whom never went back home, opting to settle in the US. The camp still existed after the war and for many years was a summer camp for kids whose families belonged to area Presbyterian churches. I went there myself several times. It was originally a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the 1920s and 30s. We were housed in the old barracks, and we were given some slight history as to the camp’s purpose only 20 years earlier. I recall there was a recreation hall where on the walls were murals painted by the POWs.
Unfortunately, the camp was given up by the church in the early 1970s and abandoned. Falling into disrepair, it was eventually bulldozed and nothing remains of it today. That’s really too bad, because there are probably several thousand of us who attended that camp who would love to see it again.
According to the Geneva Conventions, all PoWs were supposed to be repatriated after the war. The US mostly followed those Conventions, but I suppose they winked at some violations.
The PoW I discussed earlier went back to Germany, got married, but kept in touch with the farmer he worked for in Medford. After some years (in the early 50s I believe) he decided to emigrate after all.
This is not true. Mind you, the POWs werent a lot less well off, and in some cases about the same.
There were Italian POW camps around my old hometown in Southern California. The prisoners worked the citrus groves and farms in the area. Lots immigrated here after the war.
It happened and someone even wrote a Young Adult Book - “Summer of my German Soldier” by Bette Greene.
It’s definitely true. German & Italian POWs were treated favorably compared to Interned Japanese-Americans. The US gov. provided significantly more funding, autonomy, and leniency to German/Italian POWs than it did to citizens of Japanese descent. They were often allowed to work outside of the camps on local farms, shop/dine in local towns, etc. Interned Japanese-Americans were afforded no such luxuries. Thanks to Jim Crow, German POWs were even treated better than Black US soldiers., and better than Black laborers in the same labor camps. In fact, German POWs were shocked that their living/working conditions were better than Black laborers on the same farm. It’s part of the historical record and has been the subject of much scholarly research.
The interned Japanese-Americans weren’t really in prison camps. They were concentration camps and they differed in many other ways. There were in remote areas where there weren’t towns to visit and it was families who were interned there, not POW men. It’s not really a good comparison.
It was unquestionably one of the most evil things in US history. I lived in an area of West Los Angeles with a large Japanese-American population and the parents of a lot of my friends/peers were children or teenages in the camps. I’ve heard many second hand stories. Families had to live in dormitories with no privacy so there was no dignity and the weather was generally horrible. Their stories were all about how they had baseball and basketball leagues and they put on plays and talent shows. After a while the boys would sometimes sneak out to go hiking and no one really cared so long as they were back by dinner time.
This may sound like I am trying to downplay things and I am not. It’s more that that the perspective of the internees is interesting. Cultural stoicism.
Something similar happened in Montana.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/italian-internment-prisoners-world-war-ii
It’s still a valid comparison. The US Govt. adhered to the Geneva convention where it came to POWs, and afforded them a minimum level of quality of life decency that they denied Japanese Americans by placing them in concentration camps. There’s no reason the Govt. couldn’t have treated them similarly. They just chose not to because they weren’t bound by the Geneva Convention, and racism. Also, Black soldiers/laborers were not in concentration camps, so you can make a direct comparison to how they were treated vs German POWs.
Not in World War 2.
During World War II, the treatment of Prisoners of War (POWs) by the US was primarily governed by the 1929 Geneva Convention.
Many US citizens were terrified of the Niʻihau incident
A Japanese pilot crash landed in an area near Pearl Harbor that was designated for submarines to pick up any pilots who were shot down. He talked a local into helping him kill some people. FDR and Eleanor argued over his decision, but FDR decided the real or imagined safety of US citizens overrode the harsh treatment of Japanese US citizens.
Ignorance fought! Thank you.
That is a separate topic and is a completely direct comparison.
There is a story from WWII where a black entertainer (don’t recall who) was supposed to perform someplace like Memphis. There were German POW’s in the audience who had better seats than black civilians due to the segregation laws in effect at the time. The entertainer refused to perform.