Hello. I am looking for information about German treatment of POWs and German POW camps in general.My father was in German POW camps from March 1943 until April 1945.
Hello and welcome to the forum. You came to the right place. Out of curosity, What camp(s) was your father in? Did he serve for the United States?
Hello, bigdunc. Welcome to the forum. Can you give us a bit more information? What unit was your father in? Where was he when he became a POW? Do you know what camp he was in? The more information you can give us, the better results you will get. Enjoy your stay, and we'll do our best to help you out.
Welcome. Generally Western allied soldiers who were caught with their uniform and dogtags were usually treated fairly well (at leas tat the beginning of the war) . Not good, but certainly better than the Russian pows who were often left to starve. This was the case until 1944. Then lack of food, cold weather and forced marches made their cases worse, this is partly because there was no food enough left and that the aliied were advancing closer to the initials Stalags. Evaders were treated severly and in some cases shot . There were of course exceptions. Some were treated terribly whereas others almost felt better as a pow than on the battlefield, but it was certainly not politically correct to boast about that when they returned home. I know pows who were assigned to farmwork, who ate with the farmer's wife and ended up sleeping with her while the husband was on the Ost front.... I even know a person who returned to Germany after the war and married a widow he met during the time he was pow. This is of course an exception , but it shows how many diffierent cases, stories and version can be told by survivors. If yo uknow someone who survived a dreadful deathmarch you get his version. Russian survivors will tell they were in hell and they were. A famous movie from the 1950s called la vache et le prisonnier (the cow and the prisonner ?) depicts this situation with humor when a pow crosses germany with a cow and gets helped by everyone , because noone could actually imagine a man with a cow could be an evader.
Thank you for all of your replies. All that I know was that my father was captured on Feb.14,1943 near Kasserine Pass.His unit(battalion?)was on a hilltop and was surrounded by Rommel's forces.He was in several different POW camps.Thanks again for your help.
Can you give us his full name? (even better service number) and also where he grew up/ probably enlisted? also do you have any idea if he was infantry/tanks/artillery/other? I have no doubt someone will find something
My father's name was Keels W.Duncan. He was drafted in Spartenburg,S.C.and was in the infantry.He was listed as MIA in March 1943,then as a POW in August 1943.Thanks
The photo collection at Stalag Luft I Photos from a World War II German POW camp* gives a good overall image of confinement. The British War Time Memories Project has a section on POW Camps. The Wartime Memories Project - Prisoner of War Camps Judging from the dates, it is likely he was captured during Operation Torch in North Aftrica. POW stories from that campaign at: http://camp59survivors.wordpress.com/armie-s-hill/ Many POWs in 1943 were sent to E715, near Auschwitz (Hope your father was not one of them) later transferred to Blechhammer and Heydebreck http://www.scrapbookpages.com/AuschwitzScrapbook/History/Articles/MonowitzPOWs.html As a side note, info on USAAF aircrew POW camps at http://www.303rdbg.com/pow-camps.html
Hello Bigduc, Welcolme aboard . I have found that for you NARA - AAD - Display Full Records - World War II Prisoners of War Data File, 12/7/1941 - 11/19/1946 Domi
