Confronting Captivity

Britain and the United States and Their POWs in Nazi Germany

Arieh J. Kochavi

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781469614823, 9780807829400
• eBook ISBN: 9780807876404
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

How was it possible that almost all of the nearly 300,000 British and American troops who fell into German hands during World War II survived captivity in German POW camps and returned home almost as soon as the war ended? In Confronting Captivity, Arieh J. Kochavi offers a behind-the-scenes look at the living conditions in Nazi camps and traces the actions the British and American governments took — and didn’t take — to ensure the safety of their captured soldiers.

Concern in London and Washington about the safety of these POWs was mitigated by the recognition that the Nazi leadership tended to adhere to the Geneva Convention when it came to British and U.S. prisoners. Following the invasion of Normandy, however, Allied apprehension over the safety of POWs turned into anxiety for their very lives. Yet Britain and the United States took the calculated risk of counting on a swift conclusion to the war as the Soviets approached Germany from the east. Ultimately, Kochavi argues, it was more likely that the lives of British and American POWs were spared because of their race rather than any actions their governments took on their behalf.

NOTES

ABBREVIATIONS

ABC	American-British-Canadian
ADM	Admiralty
AGWAR	Adjutant General, War Department
AIR	Air Ministry
AOOH	Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters
CAB	Cabinet
CO	Colonial Office
CRC	Combined Repatriation Committee
DO	Dominions Office
ETO	European Theater of Operations
ETOUSA	European Theater of Operations, U.S. Army
FO	Foreign Office
FRUS	U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States:
	Diplomatic Papers
GRDS	General Records of the Department of State
INF	Ministry of Information
JIC	Joint Intelligence Committee
KV	Records of the Security Service
M.M.	Military Mission
MR	Map Room Files, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
NACP	National Archives, College Park, Maryland
OCOS	Office of the Chief of Staff
ODPO	Office of the Director of Plans and Operations
OPD	Operations Division, U.S. Army General Staff
PHPS	Post Hostilities Planning Section
PREM	Prime Minister Private Office
PRO	Public Record Office, Kew, England
PWX	Prisoners of War Executive Branch of the G-1 Division, SHAEF
RG	Record Group
RIAUSMMM	Records of the Interservice Agencies, U.S. Military Mission in Moscow
ROPMG	Records of the Office of Provost Marshal General
RWDGSS	Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs
SSAGD	Special Staff Adjutant General’s Division
TS	Treasury Solicitor
WO	War Office

INTRODUCTION

1 Wild, Prisoner of Hope, 269. Wild was a chaplain with the British army when he fell prisoner to the Germans at Dunkirk in May 1940. Allowed to exercise his ministry as chaplain during his captivity, he was freed in January 1945 and arrived back in England in April 1945, after which he started “scribbl[ing] down into old notebooks all that I could remember about five years as prisoner” (11).

2 Ibid., 271.

3 PRO, FO916/1183, C. E. King, SHAEF, Political Office, British, to PWD, 30 May 1945; statistics of U.S. POWS, see below, chap. 3. On the difficulties involved in arriving at accurate numbers, see Nichol and Rennell, The Last Escape, app. 4; Vourkoutiotis, Prisoners of War and the German High Command, 5-6.

4 Churchill, Their Finest Hour, The Grand Alliance, The Hinge of the Fate, Closing the Ring, and Triumph and Tragedy; Burns, Roosevelt; Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins ; Stimson and McGeorge, On Active Service in Peace and War; Hull, The Memoirs of Cordell Hull; Eden, The Eden Memoirs; Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe; Montgomery, The Memoirs of Field-Marshal the Viscount Montgomery of Alamein; North, The Alexander Memoirs; Arnold, Global Mission; The Memoirs of General the Lord Ismay.

5 PRO, WO208/3242, message from the prime minister to the prisoners of war, 3 August 1941.

6 See, e.g., Moore and Fedorowich, Prisoners of War, 8; Mackenzie, “Prisoners of War and Civilian Internees,” 302-3, 308.

7 On German treatment of Soviet POWS, see Streim, Die Behandlung sowjetischer Kriegsgefangener; Streit, Keine Kameraden; Bartov, The Eastern Front, 106-41; Werth, Russia at War, pt. 6, chap. 10; Schulte, The German Army, chap. 8; Förster, “The German Army,” 15-29; Fried, “The Fate of Soviet POWS,” 203-25; Junod, Warrior without Weapons, 202-7; Müller, “Die Behandlung sowjetischer kriegsgefangener,” 283-302.

8 For a study on German policy toward British and American POWs based on German archival sources, see Vourkoutiotis, Prisoners of War and the German High Command.

9 Prisoners of War Bulletin (published by the American National Red Cross for the relatives of American prisoners of war and civilian internees) 2 (November 1944).

10 NACP, RG 59, GRDS, Decimal File, 1945-49, “American Prisoners of War in Germany,” prepared by Military Intelligence Service, War Department, 1 November 1945.

CHAPTER ONE

1 Umbreit, “The Battle of Hegemony in Western Europe,” 278-304; Gilbert, The Second World War, 75-83; Atkin, Pillar of Fire.

2 Ray, The Night Blitz; Maier, “The Battle of Britain,” 2:374-407.

3 PRO, FO369/2562, American embassy to London, nos. 1892, 1883, 2 February 1940; each report covered seventeen aspects of camp life: General Description (Location, Buildings, Grounds, Security Measures, Air Raid Chambers); Capacity and Personnel; Interior Arrangements (Quarters, Bedding, Heat, Light); Bathing and Washing Facilities; Toilet Facilities; Food and Cooking; Medical Attention and Sickness; Clothing; Laundry; Money and Pay; Canteen; Religious Activity; Recreation and Exercise; Mail; Welfare Work; Complaints; and General Impressions. Three British officers who had succeeded in escaping from POW camps before the Dunkirk evacuation confirmed that British POWs in German captivity were generally treated well. PRO, AIR14/461, “Lessons Learned from Escapers of British Personnel after Capture during Recent Operations (Open Warfare),” 14 June 1940.

4 ”Department” refers to the War Office’s Directorate of Prisoners of War (DPW).

5 Satow and Sée, The Work of the Prisoners of War Department, 5. See also PRO, FO370/1806, for correspondence between FO and WO officials regarding this volume.

6 Rolf, Prisoners of the Reich, 11-14.

7 Of the approximately 37,000 British POWs held by the Germans after the evacuation of Dunkirk, 36,077 were army (including 1,341 officers), 363 Royal Navy (50 officers), 351 Royal Air Force (182 officers), and 396 merchant navy (74 officers). PRO, FO916/1173, “Prisoners of War as at 1 July 1940.”

8 PRO, KV2/172, The Kriegsgefangenenwesen, May 1945; Durand, Stalag Luft III, 132-35, 147-52; Hasselbring, “American Prisoners of War,” 103-5, 122-23, 199- 205; Foy, For You the War Is Over, 12, 17-19; Vourkoutiotis, Prisoners of War and the German High Command, 29-31.

9 PRO, FO916/2775, report on visit to Stalag XX A, 31 July 1940.

10 See also Vourkoutiotis, Prisoners of War and the German High Command, 65-67.

11 PRO, FO916/2775, report on visit to Stalag XX A, 31 July 1940.

12 Quoted in Rolf, Prisoners of the Reich, 31.

13 Article 43 of the Geneva Convention ruled that in every place where there were POWs, they should be allowed to appoint “agents entrusted with representing them directly with military authorities and Protecting Powers.” The agents “shall be entrusted with the reception and distribution of collective shipments. Likewise, in case the prisoners should decide to organize a mutual assistance system among themselves, this organization would be in the sphere of the agents.” In camps of officers and persons of equivalent status, the article continued, “the senior officer prisoner of the highest rank shall be recognized as intermediary between the camp authorities and the officers and persons of equivalent status who are prisoners.” Friedman, The Law of War, 1:504.

14 PRO, FO916/2775, report on visit to Oflag VII C, 19 June 1940.

15 Ibid. The convention’s Article 11 reads as follows: “The food ration of prisoners of war shall be equal in quantity and quality to that of troops at base camps. Furthermore, prisoners shall receive facilities for preparing, themselves, additional food which they might have. A sufficiency of potable water shall be furnished them.” Friedman, The Law of War, 1:496.

16 PRO, FO916/2775, report on visit to Oflag VII C, 19 June 1940.

17 Each prisoner received a daily ration of 1,000 grams of potatoes, 50 grams of meat, 50 grams of jam or cheese, 10 grams of butter and sugar. They also received 100 grams of fish weekly and fresh vegetables.

18 PRO, FO916/2775, report on visit to OFLAG VII C/H in September 1940.

19 Ibid., American embassy, London, to the British foreign secretary, 7 October 1940.

20 PRO, PREM4/98/1, letter from Mrs. +C. Tennant, 20 November 1940; see also Wild, Prisoners of Hope, 17-19.

21 PRO, FO916/2577, Switzerland to FO, no. 225, 18 October 1940; see also ibid., report on visit to Stalag XX B, 2-3 August 1940; PRO, FO916/2775, report on visit to Stalag VIII B, 13 August 1940, and report on visit to Stalag Luft, 22 October 1940. About the YMCA, see Shedd et al., History of the World’s Alliance of Young Men’s Christian Associations.

22 PRO, FO916/2576, the American chargé d’affaires to the British foreign secretary, 18...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• ABBREVIATIONS
• Introduction
• I - FACING THE CHALLENGE
• II - REPATRIATION
• III - THE FINAL STAGE OF THE WAR
• IV - LIBERATED BY THE SOVIETS
• NOTES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY