German Prisoners of War Were Shocked by U.S. Industrial Might After Arriving in the United States
June 4, 1943. Railroad Street, Mexico, Texas. The pencil trembled slightly, when non-commissioned officer Werner Burkhart wrote in his secret diary, writing words that would earn him a single conclusion if they had discovered it own officers. Americans must maybe they are lying to us. No nation can to have such abundance while waging war on two fronts.
Through the train window he I just witnessed something that contradicted three years of Nazi propaganda. The electric light ate out every farmhouse, every corner streets and from every store window. An endless constellation of electricity, stretching across the Texas plains to 10:00 pm. In Germany the rules blackouts plunged the Reich into darkness since 1940 year.
Even before the war, electrification rural areas reached barely 20% German farms. However, here is that Nazi propaganda described it as decadent collapsed America, electricity flowed like water. 18850 Afrika Korps veterans Romel got off the passenger train. Not freight cars, not loading platforms, and soft Pullman cars with dining service and sleeping quarters in some places.
The entire population of Mexi came out, to witness their arrival. That what none of them knew was that this moment will trigger the deepest psychological transformation into modern history of prisoners of war. Systematic destruction of the Nazi ideology through simple demonstration American industrial power. The mathematics of the Allied victory did not fit in combat plans, and in production statistics that will soon destroy everything assumptions that these soldiers carried about your enemies, your homeland and your in fact. The collapse began on May 13, 1943
Tunisia. General Jurgin Von Arniam Kromel’s successor, surrendered along with approximately 25075.000 German and Italian soldiers. Numbers varied because disparate units continued to surrender during several days. The most experienced desert Wehrmacht fighters, people who threw back British back to Egypt, who earned the grudging respect of himself Mangomere, suddenly became prisoners.
Among them was Hauptmann Friedrich Rathke, holder of the first Iron Cross class, veteran of the French company, wounded twice in North Africa. His diary discovered decades later in the National Archives, will provide historians the most detailed account of psychological impact American captivity of German soldiers.
Journey from defeat to revelation started in the port of Aran, Algeria. Pokatki and 30,000 other prisoners of war were waiting in improvised transport camps ships, American efficiency is already began to destroy their prejudices. The US Army processed thousands of prisoners daily with organizational precision, which surpassed everything that the Vermach reached even at the peak of its power.
ID cards photographed and filed, medical examinations completed, vaccinations done, license Geneva Convention explained at a glance German by American officers, who have been trained specifically for this moment. But the first real shock came with food. Obergev Reiter Hans Muller, captured from the twenty-first tank division, wrote to his mother 8 months later: “In the camp in Aran, while we were waiting for the ships, the Americans were feeding we are better than we have eaten in 6 months desert war. White bread, real
coffee, meat twice a day. We thought that it’s propaganda that they’re trying impress us. We don’t understood that this was their standard military meal. Liberty class ships who were supposed to transfer them through Atlantic. were themselves monuments American industrial power. Ss Robert and Piri was built in 4 days, 15:29 minutes at the Kaiser’s shipyards in Richmond, California.
A fact that would rejected as impossible propaganda, if the Germans knew about this. These ships produced at a rate of 3 per day per peak production, returned after delivery of supplies to the European theater military actions. Instead of sail back empty, they were transporting human cargo up to 30,000 prisoners of war per month by the summer of 1943.
Two week Atlantic crossing July 1943 provided the second phase psychological destruction. Feltfebel Kurt Zimerman from the ninetieth lung division kept a detailed report, which preserved in letters to his family after repatriation. The ship’s crew, he noted, everyone threw away more food waste day than his entire company received in weekly rations in recent months in Africa.
American sailors threw away half-eaten steaks, whole loaves of bread bread, gallons of milk, which is too stood for a long time,” wrote Zimerman. They did it openly, without thinking, without to mock us, but because for them this waste meant nothing. Their the supplies were limitless. The ships themselves became floating classes of the American power.
The prisoners of war discovered that the ship bringing them was one of 2710 Liber-class ships built during the war. Each demanded 250,000 parts assembled from components, produced in three-two states. Engines, they learned from the talkative American guards were built at three separate plants, each which produced nine hundred horsepower cylinders, which were then assembled into ports that barely existed for 2 years back.
Oberst-Lieutenant Wilhelm von Stoban, whose aristocratic Prussian the family served in every German war with from the time of Frederick the Great, later he would write in his memoirs. When our ship was approaching the American coast, I watched the rotating radar antenna above the bridge. This technology which we thought we had just us and maybe the British in in limited quantities, was standard equipment on a truck ship That’s when I first suspected that Germany had already lost war. August 2, 1943.
Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. America’s first view destroyed the last remnants of Nazi propaganda about American industrial weakness. Base Norflk is spread over 4,300 acres. Her the docks stretched for a mile. Her cocks loaded and unloaded dozens of ships at the same time. In one day this the only port processed more tonnage than the entire German port of Hamburg got it done in a week.
Gefreiter Johan Weber, factory worker from the Ruhr, before call counted 47 cargo ships on various stages of loading or unloading Every tap,” he noted in in his secret diary, lifted weights, which would require dozens of people and horses in Germany. They were moving on electrical energy, smoothly, continuously, without coal smoke, which strangled our industrial cities.
Prisoners lined up in columns to march to waiting trains. Along the way they passed past parking lots filled with civilians cars, hundreds of them owned by dockers. In Germany private car ownership remained the privilege of the rich and the party elite. Volkswagen, promised to the German people with 1934, remained propaganda a dream.
Less than a thousand ever been delivered to civilians. Here ordinary workers traveled to work by own cars, but nothing prepared them for the trains themselves. Not freight cars, not 40 and 40 cars man or eight horses, which transported German troops across Europe. And full-fledged passenger cars, Pullman cars with soft seats that turned into sleeping places, carriages, restaurants with white tablecloths and silver cutlery, observatory carriages with panoramic windows.
[music] “We boarded as tourists, not prisoners,” wrote Hauptmannratke. American the guards were almost embarrassed comfort. One sergeant apologized that air conditioner not working properly in our carriage. Air conditioning in August. [music] We believed that such luxury exists only on a private train Hitler.
Three day trip to train from Norfolk to Texas camps and Oklahoma will be more destructive for Nazi ideology than any military defeat. While the trains were rolling through Virginia, prisoners pressed facing the windows, becoming witnesses America that couldn’t exist according to everything they were told. Every the small town shone with illumination.
Martinsville, Danville, Greensboro. communities, who would be happy in Germany have one electric street lamp, demonstrated illuminated showcases shops, electric signs, houses with burning lights in several rooms. Trains passed by factories working on the night shift. Their windows were lit up, the parking lots were full even at midnight.
Obbergereiter, whose father was blocker of the Nazi party in Hamburg, wrote in a letter discovered in 1987: “We’ve been through dozens of cities that first night. Each one had more electricity than anything Hamburg”. The guards told us that it’s normal that every American the city has had electricity since the 1920s. I called him a liar.
He just shook shoulders and said that we will see. B Roanoke, Virginia, the train stopped for water and coal. The prisoners watched as American railroad workers completed in 30 minutes what would have taken 2 hours in Germany. Automated coal loaders, electric water pumps, mechanized systems lubricants Every aspect of the operation demonstrated technological superiority.
It was even more alarming the accidental wealth of the workers themselves. They wore leather boots that cost would a German worker have two months salaries. They drank Coca-Cola from glass bottles and threw empty ones into trash cans without a second thought. They smoked cigarettes continuously, put them out half smoked. Feltfebel Heinrich Müller, electrical engineer and Siemens before the war, calculated that the only railway station on where they stopped, used more electricity in one hour than his entire area in Berlin was used for
day. “It was wasteful magnificent,” he wrote. They left lights burn in empty buildings. Electric fans were running empty rooms. It was carefree endless resource. When are the trains crossed Tennessee and Kentucky, prisoners collided with American industrial power in full manifestation. Through the windows they watched endless factories, each of which there was more than anything that most seen in Germany.
Alcoa’s aluminum smelter in Tense was running for 3 miles along the river. Its electric the furnaces consumed 175,000 kW of energy. larger than the entire city of Munich. About Louisville trains slowed down as they passed past the Roberttown complex where the factories synthetic rubber grown from empty fields in just 18 months.
Four massive enterprises, each of which hired thousands of workers, produced 800,000 tons of synthetic rubber annually. Germany, despite invention of the process, never handled more than 120,000 tons per your best year. Oberleutnant Eric Hofmann, chemist at IHF Farben, immediately understood the consequences.
In the post-war interview he recalled: “I knew these factories. I could see the distillation columns, catalytic cracking units. Every enterprise was more advanced than anything we built. And there were four of them only in this one place. We were told that there were dozens of others all over the country. Trains passed the Ford Willow Run plant for outside of Detroit, visible for miles.
This is the only factory built in just 9 months, produced B-24 Liberator bomber every 63 minutes. At peak production 42.000 workers were collected by bombers from 1.550.000 parts produced 1.500 subcontractors. The plant occupied 2.5 million ft. of space and used more electricity than the entire German city Cologne.
Hauptmann Werner, Luftwafe pilot, shot down over Tunisia, pressed his face to window as they passed. He counted 17 B24 at various stages of completion, visible from the train. We were told that American planes are giving way, hastily built, will fall apart in battle,” he wrote. But I could see the precision of the assembly lines, quality of construction.
These were unyielding aircraft. They’re just were built faster than we could imagine imagine. The deeper the trains went to America, the more complete it became destruction of Nazi mythology. B Louis they crossed the Missipi River across the Ics bridge, while barges below transported more grain than all German vintage 1942.
The prisoners could see granaries stretching along both banks, each of which accommodated enough wheat to feed German city for months. Untrofitser Karl Schmitt, the son of a farmer from Bavaria, wrote in in his diary: “The Americans are transporting food the way we transport ammunition, in infinite quantities, without worries about losses.
I watched how they loaded one barge with enough enough wheat to feed everyone my village is 5 years old. Crane operator eating a sandwich with meat thicker than ours weekly rations. Train to Kansas City stopped at a massive slaughterhouse where tens of thousands of livestock awaited slaughter. The smell of meat processing plants filled the air for a mile.
German prisoners of war who were content 200 grams of meat per week in Africa, when lucky, watched how the American workers ate beef sandwiches during lunch break. They ate meat like we ate bread,” wrote Gefreiter Paul Fisher. No, that’s wrong. They ate meat the way we would like to eat bread. The security guard bought us hamburgers at the kiosk near the station.
Meat, cheese, vegetables on white bread for 15 cents. He bought 20 of them, without hesitation, I paid one dollar bill. It wasn’t special. This was their usual food. Arrival at the camps themselves provided next level of cognitive destruction. Camp Hurn Texas built in just 4 months, housed from 3 to 4,800 prisoners in conditions which were superior to what most knew as civilians.
Wooden barracks with electric lighting, flush toilets, hot showers and steam heating. Every building built with lots of lumber, which whole German villages. Camp hospital struck medical personnel among prisoners. Obersttenant dr. Friedrich Bauer, chief lung surgeon 164 division, ended up in a better institution equipped than most German civil hospitals.
X-ray devices, surgical equipment, pharmaceutical stocks that were not available in Germany since 1941, all standard support for enemy prisoners. They had penicillin – later Dr. Bauerer testified. This the miracle cure we’re talking about I just heard rumors. They used it is free, even on prisoners with minor infections.
German soldiers died due to lack main sulfonamide drugs, and Americans gave us their very best cutting-edge medicine without hesitation. The camp kitchen has become another class American prosperity. Prisoners, assigned to kitchen duties, refrigeration chambers discovered electric mixers, automatic dishwashers and gas stoves, who could cook food for 5,000 man.
The daily ration included fresh milk, eggs, meat, vegetables and white bread. The number of which German civilians the faces have not been seen since 1939. Felt Febel Otta Krps, former hotel chef from Munich, wrote: “Today we threw away more food than my family has seen in 3 year. Not spoiled food, just surplus. American rules require so that we cook 10% more than necessary to provide everyone the prisoner has a full ration.
Surplus are thrown away. I cried while throwing away perfectly good bread in the trash. K September 1943 labor shortage in American agriculture led to the use of prisoners of war fields and factories throughout the country. This a decision dictated by necessity, will be more destructive for Nazi ideology than any propaganda program could achieve.
Groups of prisoners daily were delivered by truck to work sites places while traveling across the US heart without blindfolds or limited routes. They saw everything: endless fields of corn and wheat, factories operating in three shifts, shops full of goods, parking lots, full of cars, houses with refrigerators and radios.
At the cotton gin plant outside of Houston Herbert Lank watched as one car processed more cotton in one hour, than his entire village could handle per month using traditional methods. The genie was powered by electricity Colorado River Authority, part rural electrification programs areas, which brought energy 90% Texas farms by 1943.
Farmer, who owned the gin was no one special,” Lank wrote. Not aristocracy, not a party member, just farmer However, he had electricity, plumbing, truck, car and tractor. His workers, including blacks ate lunch from boxes containing more food than German workers received in a week. And it was ok. Every farm we pass We passed by and it was the same.
In Nebraska prisoners worked in the beet fields, becoming witnesses agricultural mechanization, which defied understanding. One harvester, learned about it, could perform employing 100 people. The fields extended to horizon. Each one is larger than the whole German districts. Farmers are careless talked about the harvests that would be fantasy in Germany.
60 bushels of wheat sacra compared to thirty in Germany on better soil. Defrayer Wilhelm Hofmann, working on a farm behind outside Scotsbluff, wrote: “Son farmer, boy 16 years old, drove a tractor worth more than anything my father earned in his life. When I mentioned this, the boy laughed and said it’s not even particularly good tractor.
His father was waiting for a new model from John Deer, which will be even better. The most devastating revelations came to to those prisoners who worked nearby or in American factories. Although the rules The Geneva Convention prohibited direct work on military production, prisoners of war could work in industries who freed American workers for military production.
This technical detail has allowed thousands German prisoners to witness American industrial power from the first hands At the New Jersey Soup Factory prisoners observed production lines that processed more tomatoes in one day than most German factories were processed in a month. The company operated with minimal staff of women and older men, since most young workers were in the army.
However, production exceeded peaceful levels. Stabsfiltwebel Ernst Wagner, who worked at a German food processing plant factory before the war, documented the experience. Everything was automated: electric conveyor belts, automatic machines for filling, steam plates that processed hundreds of cans at the same time. One elderly woman was in control management that managed what would require fifty workers per Germany.
She did this by listening to the radio and drinking coffee. Prisoners near Detroit unloading coal at a power plant, got an idea of the transformation automotive industry to military production. Complex RER Rш, visible across the water, hired 100,000 workers, producing jeeps, aircraft engines and tanks. The plant consumed 1,500,000 kW of electricity daily, larger than the entire city of Hamburg.
We could see parking lots,” wrote Obergefreiter Franz Kellner. Thousands of cars owned by workers. Workers. B Germany, even our officers rarely owned cars. Factory workers traveled here to work. The guard told us that many workers owned two cars: one for work, one for family use. We thought he mocks us.
By the winter of 1943 cumulative impact of these observations produced what American officers intelligence called the syndrome ideological collapse among prisoners. Department of Special Projects “Secret” re-education program”, managed office of the “general provost”, documented growing number of prisoners requesting access to American newspapers, books and educational materials.
Major Paul Noland, a member of the monitoring team, said in December 1943: “Prisoners are no longer argue when shown to them production statistics. They saw too much. The most fanatical Nazis became quiet. They still keep loyalty to Germany, but no longer talk about victory. Many openly bet questioning what they were told about America.
Camp newspapers published by the prisoners themselves, began to reflect this transformation. Derruf. Call, published in Fort Kirne Rodlin, gradually shifted away from the calling nationalism to discussions of democracy, economic systems and post-war reconstruction. Editors, carefully selected anti-Nazi prisoners, discovered that their audience is becoming more and more receptive.
Lieutenant Herman Goods, captured along with tenth tank division, wrote in letter passed through the American censorship. We were told that America is the nation is a mongrel, weak, divided, controlled by Jews, incapable of military valor. [music] Every day I spend here I I see the opposite. This is the most organized a united and powerful nation on Earth, we were told fairy tales by criminals.
The most crushing blow to the Nazi ideology came from the unexpected source. Treatment of Italians prisoners of war after the surrender of Italy in September 1943. Italian prisoners of war who agreed cooperate, were formed in Italian service units, received better accommodations, increased salary and more freedom.
German prisoners of war watched as their former the allies worked side by side with Americans, barely American restaurants, some even met American women. And Freitor Friedrich Schulz wrote: “The Italians betrayed us, but they are treated better than us treated them as allies. They work freely, earn money, send parcels home.
Americans don’t show hatred towards them. This the democracy we were taught to despise, seems more noble than ours own system. Christmas 1943 had the most profound psychological impact. American organizations churches and community groups sent 500,000 Christmas parcels to Germany prisoners of war, enemies who tried a few months earlier kill American soldiers.
Each the parcel contained cigarettes, sweets, toiletries and games. Local communities invited prisoners to Christmas dinners, although the rules are not allowed the majority to accept invitation. At Camp Hearn, Texas the local Methodist church choir performed Christmas carols in German for prisoners.
Women from Hearn They sent homemade cookies and pies. Boy Scouts delivered homemade Christmas cards. This kindness to enemies destroyed the last remnants Nazi racial theory. Oberleutnant Walter Müller, whose brother died in bombing of Hamburg, wrote: “They they know that we are their enemies. Many have sons and husbands fighting against our armies, but they show us Christian charity.
Not propaganda but genuine kindness.” What kind of people are so treat enemies? Only those who absolutely confident in victory and reliable in to its strength. Christmas itself the feast defied understanding: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, pies, ice cream. The amount of food that Germany doesn’t have seen since the First World War.
The prisoners ate until they were sick, unable to realize that such resources are wasted on enemies. “We ate like kings,” wrote filtfebel Hansmeier. Better than eating German generals are better than party generals leaders. And it wasn’t special. The guards told us it was normal American Christmas dinner, what every American family eats the same food.
If they can feed prisoners like that, What do their own soldiers eat? K at the beginning of 1944, more than 40,000 German prisoners were enrolled in educational programs. They studied English language, American history, mathematics and natural sciences. The University of Chicago provided correspondence courses.
Stanford University sent professors to lecture on democracy and economics. Thirst for knowledge was insatiable. Prisoners who they said that Americans are uncultured barbarians discovered libraries with millions of books, universities that accepted all social classes, scientific research that led the world. They read American newspapers freely, comparing multiple points of view, then which was impossible in the Nazi Germany. Corporal, Dr.
Wilhelm von Brown, physicist, called from the institute Kaiser Wilhelm, attended lectures on atomic physics at Camp Shelby. Later he wrote: “American professors, including Jewish refugees from Germany were taught us without hatred. They talked about science as a public domain belonging to to all humanity.
They’ve been around for years ahead of German research, and they shared knowledge with enemies. This the generosity of spirit was incomprehensible to the minds, formed by Nazi ideology. B camp theaters showed American films, not propaganda, but ordinary Hollywood products. Prisoners looked, carried away by the wind into the view images of American defeat and restoration that resonated with their own situation.
They saw grapes of wrath, smitten that Americans show such self-criticism enemies. They don’t hide anything,” he wrote. Lieutenant Joseph Kramer. They show your problems, your failures, your conflicts, but it is honesty that makes them stronger, not weaker. In Germany it’s like this criticism would mean death.
Here it is considered patriotic. The spring of 1944 brought expanded prisoner labor programs when US production has reached its peak. German prisoners of war worked in candy factories, mills and production enterprises. becoming witnesses full power of American industrial potential. The numbers told the story which no one could refute propaganda.
At the Higins Boat Factory New Orleans prisoners unloaded steel that will become landing craft for day D. They watched as the workers assembled 700 boats per month, each which required 20,000 parts. On The plant employed 20,000 workers, including thousands of women who ruled cranes, welded hulls and supervised production.
Senior Fltwebel Kurt Zimerman wrote: “Women perform men’s work, managing complex mechanisms, teenagers work on drilling equipment. Everything we need they said it was impossible in a democracy, but production never stopped. Three shifts 24 hours, 7 days a week. >> [music] >> They produced more boats per month, than our entire fleet built in a year.
On Republ Stele factory in Agio prisoners witnessed the production of 10.000 tons of steel daily. Blast furnaces worked continuously, powered endless iron ore trains from Minnesota and coal from Pennsylvania. The scale defied the German understanding. This is the only plant produced more steel than the entire RUR on dive,” wrote Oberwachmister Paul Hartman. I worked at the grain company before the war.
I thought I understood industrial production, but it was outside imagination. They lost more steel in waste than we could produce. Workers complained about overtime, producing quantities that we don’t could achieve with slave labor and double shifts. Summer harvest 1944 ensured final destruction Nazi propaganda about American weaknesses.
German prisoners worked throughout the Midwest, becoming witnessing agricultural production that could feed peace. In Kansas they watched the cleanup wheat, where individual farms produced more grain than whole German provinces. Harvesters moved through the fields like ships on the Golden Ocean. Everyone harvested 100 acres a day.
Elevators, which they filled could accommodate more wheat than Germany imported for the whole year. Untrophycer Franz Weber, farmer from Eastern Prussia, wrote: “One American farmer with machinery doing work 100 German farmers. They showed me aerial photographs of wheat fields, thousands of miles of grain for you.
They could have lost half the harvest and still have more than all of Europe combined. B central valley of california prisoners picked fruit in the gardens, which stretched beyond the horizon. They observed how perfectly good fruit thrown out due to minor defects. fruits that would be treasure in Germany. Whole harvests sometimes they were plowed in to maintain prices.
The concept that caused psychological breakdown among prisoners from starving Germany. They destroyed food to maintain price stability, – wrote Corporal Otta Schultz. Mountains oranges dumped by bulldozers into holes because there were too many of them. We begged to be allowed to send them to Germany to our families.
Security guards sympathized, but explained that it was impossible. There was waste strategic proof unlimited resources. June 6, 1944 year, when news of the landing in The Normandy reached the camps, the Germans the prisoners survived their final ideological collapse. Scale of operation: 6,000 ships, 11,000 aircraft, 150,000 people in the first wave demonstrated American organizational capabilities, beyond your wildest dreams Nazi Germany.
Prisoners in Shelby camp watched newsreels invasion within a few days. They saw endless streams of ships, artificial harbors, supply system, which delivered 15,000 tons daily through open beaches. They watched as their homeland is being crushed by the very nation which they were told was too weak to fight.
Oberleutnant Friedrich Fontauben wrote: “We then realized that everything is lost. Not only the war, but the whole Nazi project. We challenged greatest industrial power in the world fairy tales and racial mythology. We sent horses against their trucks, rifles vs their automatic weapons, courage against them unlimited resources.
Throughout total captivity German prisoners experienced something that challenged Nazi ideology more than any material wealth, American humanity. Despite the propaganda portrayed Americans as weak and sentimental, prisoners of war found people quite confident in your strength to show mercy. When the son of Corporal Hans Miller died during the bombing of Hamburg, American the camp commandant personally delivered message from the Red Cross and expressed condolences.
When the lieutenant’s wife Paula Fischer wrote that it was difficult for her feed their children, American church groups sent food parcels to her to Germany, enemy civilians in a country that America is actively bombed. They separated the German people from Nazi regime,” wrote Efreiter Otto. They said they were fighting Hitler, not with the Germans.
This is the difference which turned out to be propaganda, turned out to be authentic. They prepared us for reconstruction of Germany after the war, and not to destroy it. Medical service had a special impact on prisoners. German doctors worked bokbok with american medical staff, learning new methods, using advanced equipment. Prisoners received operations that Germany would only be available to the elite.
Mental health treatment, practically unknown in the Wehrmacht, provided to injured soldiers. Dr. Friedrich Bauer wrote: “They treated suicide attempts with counseling, not punishment.” Prisoners with mental breakdowns received therapy, and not beatings. This humanity towards to the enemies revealed the power that we never understood.
Confidence [music] true power. By March 1945 secret re-education program gave wonderful results. More than 25.000 prisoners voluntarily signed up for democracy courses. Lader newspapers published articles on constitutional government, free markets and civil rights. Discussion groups discussed the future of Germany after the war.
The success of the program exceeded all expectations. Prisoners who arrived as fanatical Nazis, wrote essays about democratic reconstruction. Officers, who swore oaths to Hitler, planned how to introduce American agricultural methods in post-war Germany. “We have become missionaries of democracy,” admitted Oberleutnant Hermann Goering, no relative of the Reichsmarshal, in an interview 1975.
not through coercion or propaganda, but through observation. We saw how it works. We saw that ordinary people live better than the German aristocracy. We wanted this for Germany. The transformation was so full that the American authorities were worried that the prisoners too enthusiastic about American order. Some asked stay in America after the war, others married American women, with whom we met through the programs prisoners’ correspondence.
Thousands in the end eventually emigrated to America in the 1950s years. April 1945 brought final revelation. When American troops liberated concentration camps in Germany, the footage was shown to German prisoners of war. Many at first refused to believe claiming that this is propaganda, but the evidence was overwhelming. Testimony of American soldiers photographs, newsreels and ultimately As a result, letters from Germany confirming horror.
The psychological impact was destructive. People who saved some pride in German honor, despite the military defeat, now faced complete moral collapse of your nation. Everything they fought for was not only defeated, but was evil. Corporal Walter Schmidt wrote the most eloquent summary: [music] “We they thought that we were warriors of a great cause.
We discovered that we were tools criminals. We believed that we were carrying civilization by an inferior people. We discovered that we were barbarians. The Americans, whom we called weak and decadent, showed us that on actually means civilization. When the war ended in May 1945, German war prisoners faced repatriation with mixed feelings.
They witnessed an America that went against everything they believed. They ate better like prisoners than like soldiers. They were treated with great enemies’ dignity than their own government Last months of captivity were spent preparing for return to destroyed Germany. American authorities provided vocational training, agricultural education and political instruction.
Prisoners learned about the marshal’s plan before he announcements, realizing that America will restore, not punish Germany. They prepared us for restoration of our country, wrote Oberleutnant Friedrich von Oben. They gave give us skills, knowledge, hope. They turned defeated soldiers into future ones citizens.
This generosity is from the winners was incomprehensible to the minds, formed by the Nazi vindictiveness. Between 1945 and 1946 371.683 there were German prisoners of war repatriated from American camps. They returned to Germany divided, destroyed and poor, but they brought with something precious. Knowledge about how does democracy work industrial society.
German prisoners of war who experienced American prosperity, became unwitting agents transformations in post-war Germany. They saw industrial efficiency, agricultural productivity and democratic prosperity. They knew that reconstruction was possible, because they were witnesses society that has achieved this. Many former prisoners of war reached fame in the restoration of Western Germany.
Khan Skrol, imprisoned in Oshelby camp, became ambassador of the Western Germany in the United States. Walter Hallstay, who taught classes at the camp Akoko, became President of the European commissions. Rüdigerfon Wehmar, held in the Ahearn camp, served permanent representative of Germany to United Nations. Edward Ackerman, prisoner at Fort Robinson, became a leader in German agricultural reform.
They brought American methods to German industry, American efficiency in German agriculture economy and American democratic ideals in German politics. Economic miracle of the fifties was built partly on knowledge, received in American camps for prisoners of war. “We learned that prosperity comes from freedom, not from conquests,” wrote Khan Skroll in his memoirs.
“We saw that democracy creates wealth that diversity brings strength that good treatment workers increases production. These lessons learned as prisoners, formed a new Germany.” Historians named the experience of German prisoners of war in America one of the most successful programs re-education in history. Without coercion, without propaganda in traditionally American industrial power and democracy turned seasoned Nazis into future ones democratic citizens.
Program succeeded because it did not rely on words, but observation. Prisoners saw how American society operates at peak efficiency, treating enemies with dignity. They witnessed the industrial potential, which forced the German production looks primitive. They experienced a standard of living that exposed Nazi promises as fantasies. Dr.
Arnold Kramer, presenter historian of German prisoners of war America, concluded: America won propaganda war not through smart messages, but through pure reality. Every bulk food, every electric light bulb, every working toilet was argument against Nazism. Prisoners of war were converted to prosperity. Statistics confirms this assessment. From 371.
683 German prisoners of war held in America, less than 1% tried to escape. Total 2.22 attempts were recorded. Post-war polls showed that 95% rated their treatment as good or excellent. The most remarkable thing is that thousands maintained correspondence with American families during decades after the war.
In 1985 in fortieth anniversary of the end of the war surviving German prisoners of war spent meeting in Westin, Texas. More than 500 former prisoners returned to America. Many brought their families to show them where they started transformation. Former chief corporal Hans Weber, who was held at the fort Robinson, Nebraska and later returned to become a doctor in George Towne, M, spoke at the meeting.
Life in the camps was a huge improvement for many of us who grew up in cold apartments without amenities in Germany. We discovered running water, central heating and plenty of food. But more Moreover, we discovered dignity. Former senior sergeant major Kurtmayer, who worked on farms in Voyove, added: the farmers didn’t treat us like…
enemies, but what about young people, far from home. They shared their food, their knowledge, sometimes their houses. This humanity comes from people whose sons fought against us, changed us forever. At the 1985 reunion dinner former Oberleutnant Herman Gutz, who was 78 years old at the time, said main speech that captured the essence transformation.
We arrived in America as enemies, as Nazis are like believers in lies. We left as friends, as democrats, as people, who saw the truth. America showed us that strength does not come from conquest, but from production. Not from hatred, but from diversity. not from tyranny, but from freedom.
We witnessed the arsenal democracy in full production. We saw farmers producing food for the world, the workers who built instruments of victory, and citizens who treated enemies with dignity. We learned that America’s true weapon is these are not her bombs or tanks, but hers inexhaustible ability to create and her unshakable confidence.
We returned to Germany with a mission to build a society that can create, not destroy that can flourish through peace, not through war. Germany, who rose from the ashes was built on lessons learned in American prison camps. We who came as conquerors left as students. America from your former enemies now your friends.
Thank you for being showed us the way. The audience exploded standing applause. Americans and Germans together former enemies united in recognition transformation, which turned out to be impossible when those first trains arrived in Texas in June 1943. The extent of the experience of German prisoners of war in America can be measured in harsh statistics that reveal how the scale of the operation and its remarkable success. Camp infrastructure.
More than 500 camps in southern states. In every state except Nevada, North Dakota and Vermont. 175 main camps with 325 branches. Camps built for housing from 250 to 12,000 prisoners everyone. Construction was completed in on average 90 days per camp. Population prisoners 371,683 German prisoners of war, part 425.871 Axis prisoner of war.
Peak population in May 1945. On average 20,000 new arrivals monthly in 1943 year, 30,000 monthly after D-day, 60,000 monthly in recent months war. Labor contribution: 14 million people one agricultural labor, 100 million board feet processed wood, $230 million in value labor forties, 80 cents daily wages for prisoner.
The prisoners filled out critical labor shortage in forty states. Escape statistics. Only 2.22 escape attempts from more than 371.000 prisoners, 0.6%. Zero successful permanent escapes. Most of the fugitives were caught in within 24 hours. Not a single American the civilian was not harmed by the escapees prisoners of war. Educational programs, more than 40,000 enrolled in educational courses, 135 camp newspapers published, 30,000 attend English classes, 15,000 in vocational training, university correspondence courses for 8,000.
Post-war immigration. Approximately 5,000 former prisoners of war emigrated in the USA after the war. More than 12.000 maintained correspondence with American families. Average duration correspondence 31 [music] year. Many returned as tourists or business partners. Evaluation of treatment. 95% appreciated treatment as good or excellent, 74% believed that captivity positively changed their worldview, 61% expressed interest in studying democracy.
Less than 10% saved strong Nazi beliefs by 1945 year. German prisoners of war who experienced American industrial power, not we simply witnessed history. They were transformed by her. Their captivity became education, their defeat was enlightenment, and their conclusion became liberation from ideological chains Nazism After all, the greatest America’s victory was not won on the field battle, and in prisoner of war camps, where irrefutable evidence achieved democratic prosperity something that the armies could not achieve.
Complete transformation of the enemy’s consciousness. The prisoners of war arrived with faith in the German superiority and American weakness. They left knowing the truth. American industrial power was not just overwhelming, it was incomprehensible to minds formed by scarcity and tyranny.
The trains that brought them to captivity in 1943, they were transporting soldiers of the Third Reich. The ships that brought them back to Germany in 1946, architects were transported democracy. They saw the future and it it worked. Their story serves evidence of deep truth. The most was a powerful weapon in America’s arsenal not military force, but simple irrefutable evidence of abilities of a free society create abundance.
German the prisoners of war were stunned American industrial power, but in She eventually converted them. In their transformation lay the seeds post-war redemption of Europe and final defeat of the Nazis dreams. They returned to Germany not as defeated enemies, but as witnesses of what free societies can achieve. An economic miracle that transformed West Germany in the 1950s, it was built on the foundation laid in American prisoner of war camps, where the enemy soldiers learned that prosperity comes not from conquest, but
from freedom, not from race superiority, but from human dignity, not from totalitarian control, but from democratic cooperation. German prisoners of war arrived in America expecting to find a weak a divided nation on the brink of collapse. Instead of this is what they discovered industrial a colossus of unlimited power and amazing humanity.
They have arrived like prisoners of war, but they left like witnesses to the arsenal of democracy on his absolute peak. In their awe of American abundance lay psychological seeds of the Atlantic alliance, marshal plan and democratic reconstruction of Germany. They saw America, and they will never be the same.
Their children will grow up in democratic Germany, allied United States. Partnership, built on a transformation that started when 1850 veterans Afrika Korps got off the train at Mexico, Texas, and found that everything they believed was not true. History of German prisoners of war in America – this is, ultimately, history redemption through revelation.
She proves that sometimes the greatest victories are achieved not through destruction, but through demonstration, not through propaganda, but through prosperity, not through hatred, but through humanity. German soldiers witnessed the American industrial power, became involuntary ambassadors of democracy who brought home seeds of transformation that will blossom into one of the most successful reconstructions in history.
Their path from Nazi soldiers to democratic citizens are left with only one of the most remarkable transformations in modern history, not completely by force, but by irrefutable evidence what free people can achieve when they work together. At the end after all, it was a secret weapon America. Not just an ability produce more tanks and planes, than any nation in history, but ability to turn enemies into friends through the simple power of example.
German the soldiers were stunned industrial power of America, but what more what matters is that they were changed by her. And in this change lay the foundation for better peace. M.
