11.094.000 German soldiers became a prisoner and were held in foreign custody. About 3.8 million were in American custody and of this number were 363.036 in America. The situation of the prisoners in the United States was substantially different of all the others. The favorable conditions of life were a decisive difference. They lived in a country without needs and in addition were the United States not immediately affected by the war. The prisoners can be divided into two large groups: the soldiers of the "Africa corps" which were captured in Tunisia in 1943 and the prisoners of the west front after the invasion in 1944. The camps:
The camps were almost exclusively set up in the southern states of the the USA. The reasons for this are simple: The mild climate in the south reduced the costs and the isolated situation should prevent acts of sabotage. The camps were provided with double barbed-wire fences. Headlight and machine-guns were assembled on the watch-towers. The following buildings were located inside the camp: Quarters, dining hall, canteen, wash-room and rooms for the leisure time. Furthermore the administration buildings, sick person area and quarters for the guarding staff were outside the camp. Lodging was usually tents or wooden buildings like the quarters used by the American army. In general was in the main camps and permanent branch camps no reason to complain. Some insufficiencies were noticeable in non permanent branch camps and labor service companies, though.
Catering:
For German habits catering was quite luxuriant until 1945. Also the canteens were well equipped till that moment but got limited later also.
The mail service:
The mail was enormously important for a prisoner because news from the native country provided a piece of spiritual balance. It was allowed to the prisoners to write 1 letter per week to his relatives. The mail service between the prisoners in different camps was forbidden. The letters were not allowed to contain military information or references to books and in addition, they were censored. After the surrender of the German Reich the mail service broke down. At October 22nd, 1945, a limited mail service with the foreign countries was allowed by the occupying powers. Many soldiers got no mail from their relatives till they were back in Europe and the worry, especially which ones family lived in bombed towns and in the areas occupied by the Russians, made them mad.
Leisure time:
A supply of movies, theater, board- and card-games, books, music, art and the possibility of further education was available for the leisure time. However, most leisure time was spend to sports. It was offered soccer, hand- and fist-ball, table tennis and gymnastics. In labor companies the supply wasn't as sufficient, though and in most cases the only possibility to occupy oneself in the leisure time was to play soccer.
Labor:
To receive a labor performance as big as possible a "no work, no eat' policy" got introduced. If a prisoner denied an order, he got a cut of all privileges and the rations were reduced till he fulfilled the orders. Usually the prisoners had to work in the local farming and for the army.
Escape:
The prisoners knew that they hardly could reach their native country after a successful escape out of the camp. The Provost Marshal General noticed: "1369 escape attempts were made until March 1st, 1945 but only 12 prisoners of war (6 Germans and 6 Italians) were in liberty to this day. The punishment after the recapture consisted in detention and water and bread for 30 days.
12 million people were expelled from the areas of the eastern empire. That ethnic purge was called population transfer by the Allies. The Morgenthau plan wasn't unknown in the US POW camps either of course and they feared to become a slave. An uncertain future for the prisoners. A colors scale was introduced: black, gray and white. "White" indicated the Anti Nazis, "gray" were mitläufer (just going along with it) and "black" Nazis. The re-education of a Nazi to a democrat wasn't simple at all. The prisoners had to work in America and after a hard working day it was hard to follow and understand the courses held in English.
How will be the future?
After the VE (Victory Europe) the food gets very bad.
Some people claim, that the Americans treated the German prisoners after the VE much worse because they had not to fear for their own men in German captivity any more. Others claim, that the opinion about the German soldier changed, after pictures of concentration camps went around the world and therefore the treatment of the German deteriorated. Anyway, the rations were reduced and the prisoners got robbed. Honor awards were most popular souvenirs. The identification papers of the NCO's where taken away and they couldn't prove their rank and had to work contrary to the Geneva convention (the American government estimates the profit which made with the work of the Germans at more than 180 million dollars). Due to reasons like that the trust of the prisoners in the justice of the free democracy was not increasing. But the re-education continued with several methods because the US war department saw in the presence of about 370.000 German prisoners of war in the USA a "opportunity like never before to develop a germ cell of democratic thinking and respect under the Germans for America". A prisoner reports about the re-education in camp Rupert, Idaho: "after the end of the war, every Sunday real and alleged professors came to us, to convince in discussions of the glory of America and the undoubtedly present value of democracy ". A prisoner from Drew Field, Florida: "I remember that once, the American teacher has gone away furiously because the distinguished national socialists of the camp had driven him speechless and with no argument left due to the race problem in America".
