Stalag: U.S.A. The Remarkable Story of German POWs in America
By Judith M Gansberg
Judith Gansberg was born in Passaic, New Jersey, the daughter of Martin Gansberg, a reporter and editor for the New York Times. She spent time in post-war West Germany in the 1960s living with her family and that planted a seed of curiosity in her. She wanted to know how American influence had impacted the Germans after War World II. That stayed with her even as she returned to the US to attend the University of Michigan and did her graduate work at the University of Maryland receiving a master's degree. She became an adjunct professor of speech at Southeastern University in Washington, as well as a noted television scriptwriter and producer. In 1976 she married Robert Berger in the Beth loin Reform Temple in Clifton New Jersey and they moved to Silver Springs, Maryland.
Stalag: U.S.A was published in 1977, after some 8 years of research and work. Ms. Gansberg interviewed both American officers and former German prisoners, many of whom didn't want to be found as they were trying to forget the war and their part in it, a common action among West Germans at the time. She also sifted through thousands of formerly classified papers as part of her research. As she did this, a secret project to de-Nazify POWs emerged, one whose goal was not only to reeducate the German POWs, without their knowledge, away from the ideology of national socialism and towards liberal democracy. In short, the US Army was doing nothing less than trying to turn the 371,000 German POWs into a pro-democracy nucleus for a new Democratic Germany.
The program was kept a secret as it was felt that if the POWs found out they would become even more resistant to the ideas of democracy, freedom, and apple pie. Well, maybe not apple pie. Additionally, there was the fear that if the Nazi Government found out they would attempt to indoctrinate American soldiers or otherwise subject them to abuse. On top of that, there was a running resistance to the idea in the US Army and the US government. Many officers and officials felt that German prisoners were treated too gently and that the German people had proven they were an untrustworthy breed of humanity no longer worthy of consideration. The counterarguments were many, including pointing out that American prisoners were being held by the Germans and that treating German prisoners with a level of respect ensured American treatment would remain mostly within the bounds of the Geneva Convention. Another argument was that some effort had to be made as Germany simply couldn't be held under armed occupation forever. Perhaps the most convincing argument, however, was that of the Soviet Union. If the Western Allies didn't find a way to organize and live with a German state, the Soviets would, and, even as early as 1943, the US Army considered the possibility of a unified German state under Soviet control a nightmare.
There were also profound logistical problems to overcome. By 1941 it was clear to the US military that it was simply a matter of time before the US was dragged into the maelstrom of war that had devoured a large portion of the planet. The Roosevelt administration certainly agreed, given that FDR was willing to commit to actions that the fascists viewed as increasingly hostile and provocative. Congress and elements of the civilian government were not entirely convinced however which hampered preparations. That said, it was agreed that POWs should be taken to the continental United States. This was for several reasons. First,to limit the strain in the theater of operations as all supplies were shipped from the US. It was easier to pack German and Italian prisoners into empty supply and troop ships heading back to the US where they would be closer to the factory and farms that would clothe and feed them and their supplies wouldn't compete for space on a ship with the supplies for American fighting men and women. Second, it would be easier to build and guard such camps on American soil, not to mention solving the problem of escaped prisoners. I mean, let's say a prisoner in a prison camp built in Missouri escapes, what's he gonna do? Walk the 1300 miles to bloody Mexico? Even if he reaches Mexico, he's still out of the war! He could try the slightly shorter trip of 1000 miles to the coast of North Carolina I suppose but how's he gonna charter a boat to Germany in the middle of the war? With no funds to speak of either! These were also obstacles for any rescue attempt for POWs, and that's why over 371,000 Germans ended up in the US.
Of course, things got more complicated in 1942 when the British pushed hard for the US to take over holding the POWs that they had taken. This was because, frankly, feeding the nearly 100,000 German and Italian prisoners was straining British food production already under attack from German U boats. So the prison camps had to be built and staffed with alarming speed but there was another motivation for accepting these prisoners and moving American-taken POWs to the states. Bluntly, they were a labor force. With increasingly large amounts of American manpower tied up in the military and traditional means of importing Hispanic workers becoming harder as the Latin American States joined the war, there was an increased demand for farm labor and labor on various civilian industries that weren't considered war critical. Now, this is legal under the Geneva Convention as long POWs are paid and aren't put to work indirectly war-critical industries. So the US would take advantage of this new labor pool to reduce the strain.
Stalag: U.S.A takes us through all these issues to help provide the context in which the program was assembled and operated, and helps explain why it wasn't until 1944 that the damn thing got off the ground in the first place. Ms. Gansberg also gives a short exploration of problems within the camps themselves. Not every German was a hardcore Nazi, but at least 10% of the prisoners were and throughout 1943 those prisoners conducted a covert reign of terror over the POW camps. This involved midnight beatings, threats to loved ones still in Germany, and the constant pressure to conform to the party line at all cost. Even going to the chapel regularly was enough to be marked for persecution and admitting that Germany might be losing the war could get you hounded to death. The US Army would win this struggle against Nazism in the POW camps but only by rounding up the hardcore Nazis (mainly SS, long-term party members, and Gestapo prisoners) and shipping them off to separate camps. While those camps were also subjected to the program, only 3% of the hardcore Nazis ever really shifted their beliefs. However, by separating them from the normal, less committed troopers, prisoners could be made open to the ideas of democracy and a more open society.
Throughout 1944, 1945, and even into 1946, German POWs were carefully led through a program meant to expose them to the ideas of democracy, mostly through an American-centric lens. Interestingly enough a lot of this was led by German POWs themselves, as the battle for the camps allowed the army to identify hardcore anti-Nazis, and recruit some of them for the program. They were gathered into a special camp called The Factory where they designed an educational program on American history and government. As well as engagement through media via movies that showed democracy in a good light or were educational in nature. These works were everything from feature films to documentaries on government and infrastructure, including films on the Roosevelt projects such as the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The Germans recruited for the Factory also released a newspaper for circulation within the POW camps, Der Ruf (The Call), which was very popular in the camps and had an impact of eroding open Nazi support. Despite prisoners having to pay for it, the paper achieved a sell rate of 90%. Consider that, at the same time, the prisoners could read newsletters from their own camps or even American newspapers. In fact, they were openly encouraged to read The New York Times. Der Ruf, while openly political and critical was also intensely philosophical and cultural carrying reviews of musical performances, books and films, and articles on the need to rebuild German and Austrian spiritual and intellectual life from the ruination of Nazi influence. Encouraged by this, the Germans of the Factory, also published the Bucherreiche Neue Welt (New World Books) a 24 volume of books that assembled the works of Germans exiled by the Nazi party, as well as past German works that had been banned and works the German creators felt would speak to German POWs such as Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.
From this program, further efforts were made to train German POWs to provide a corps of approved Germans for police and government work. It is unknown how effective these efforts were, however, in large part because the occupational authorities in Germany itself refused to cooperate in any meaningful way, as they were unimpressed with Germans showing up from largely unknown POW camps, with certificates of completion from a training program most of them had barely heard of. Once again showing that the US Army doesn't really need outside enemies, as an institution, it is perfectly capable of battling itself. Despite that, tens of thousands of Germans were cleared and sent directly to post-war Germany and ended up in education, local government, and law enforcement, as was intended. What part they played, if any, in the long process of Germany grappling with and confronting the full extent of their past under Nazism is difficult to say.
Ms. Gansberg is not a trained historian and that shows in this book. It's rather unorganized and often struggles with providing enough in-depth examination and coverage of its main topic. This is her first book and, as far as I could find, also her last historical nonfiction book. Still, this is practically the only full-length book I could find on this specific topic and Ms. Gansberg should be saluted for her years-long effort to gather the information together before it was lost. Especially for devoting years of unpaid labor to research and interviewing. As a secondary historical source, it seems to sit in a unique place and has value for that. Overall I'm giving Stalag: U.S.A. The Remarkable Story of German POWs in America by Judith M Gansberg a B+. I wish someone had applied more organization to it but the material in it is interesting and Ms. Gansberg writes in an approachable and easily understood way. If you're interested in the time period or how the US historically dealt with the largest group of foreign POWs it ever dealt with, this book is for you.
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