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German Pows facts

While investigating facts about German Pows In Russia and German Pows In America, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Master Sergeant Roddie Edwards, the ranking US officer at a Nazi POW camp. When Nazis told him to assemble his Jewish soldiers, he instead assembled all of his soldiers and told the German commandant that "we are all Jews here." He saved up to 200 Jewish soldiers.

what was the irony of how german pows were treated?

During WW2, captured German officers were sent to Britain as POWs and lived in luxury in Trent Park to make them feel relaxed. However, they were being listened to by 100 ‘listeners’. They revealed secrets about the holocaust, events in Berlin, Hitler's madness and V2 rocket bases.

What happened to german pows after ww2?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what happened to german pows. Here are 50 of the best facts about German Pows Who Stayed In Britain and German Pows In Canada I managed to collect.

what happened to german pows in russia?

  1. A British POW started a hobby of stitching while in captivity. His work was so good it was hung on the wall by the German guards, not realising the secret message stitched on it. The message 'God Save The King' and 'F--- Hitler' was stitched in Morse code.

  2. In World War 2, German POWs in America were shocked by how African Americans were treated. This was due to the prisoners working alongside them in the fields, allowing them to become closer over their shared labour.

  3. Hanns Scharff, German Luftwaffe's "master interrogator," instead of physical torture on POWs used techniques like nature walks, going out for a pleasant lunch, and swimming where the subject would reveal information on their own. He helped shape US interrogation techniques after the war.

  4. German soldiers in American POW camps dramatically burned their German uniforms after being shown films of the atrocities of the Holocaust.

  5. Rupert Trimmingham, a black US Army soldier serving in WW2 who wrote a letter to the Army magazine about having to eat behind a train depot restaurant while German POWs were served inside in 1944, sparking support from other soldiers and contributing to the integration of the army in 1948.

  6. British officers imprisoned in Colditz castle, an 'escape-proof' Nazi POW camp, tried to escape by tunneling out. They emerged instead in a German colonel's wine cellar, where they proceeded to drink 137 bottles of wine, fill them with urine, and place them back on the shelves.

  7. When Kurt Vonnegut served in WW2 he was captured by Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. He was a POW in Dresden and survived the bombing of the city by hiding in a meat locker in a slaughterhouse where he was imprisoned. This inspired him to write the anti-war novel Slaughter-House Five.

  8. British officers imprisoned in Colditz castle, an 'escape-proof' Nazi POW camp, tried to escape by tunneling out. They emerged instead in a German colonel's wine cellar, where they proceeded to drink 137 bottles of wine, fill them with urine, and place them back on the shelves.

german pows facts
What happened to german pows in america?

What is true about german pows?

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A British PoW captured by the Germans in World War I was freed to see his dying mother - but went back to the prison camp after giving the Kaiser 'his word' he would return.

When Lena Horne entertained troops during WWII for the USO, German POW's were given front row seats while black servicemen were relegated to the back of the theater. She walked off the stage to the row where the black troops were seated and performed with the Germans behind her. - source

During WWII, over 400,000 German POWs were sent to the United States. In the POW camps, they often held theatrical and musical performances, were allowed to leave the camps without guards on the honor system, and were able to work on farms, mills, and other places for fair wages. - source

A German POW escaped his American prison camp near the end of WWII, and lived in the US for 40 years under a fake name, before finally admitting the fraud on the Today Show. His name was Georg Gärtner.

After WWII ended in Europe, German soldiers in US custody were not considered POW’s. No longer protected by the Geneva Convention they were not entitled to similar shelter or the same quantities of food as U.S. troops. Consequently, tens of thousands of prisoners died from hunger and disease - source

When were german pows released after ww2?

In 1942 in a German POW camp north of Toronto the prisoners rebelled using pipes and sticks and were subdued by a group of baseball bat weilding Canadians. The Battle of Bowmanville.

How many german pows died in allied captivity?

30 british officers tried to escape POW camp "Castle Colditz" (Oflag IV-C) by digging a tunnel. Because they read the compass wrong, they landed in the wine cellar of a german colonel. There they drank 137 bottles of wine, filled them with their urine and placed them back.

In World War 2 it was common for desensitized US troops to murder German POWs if they were wearing American boots, as it was a reminder that one of their buddies had been killed

About Oskar Speck; a German man who paddled by folding kayak from Germany to Australia from 1932-1939 only to be arrested as a POW upon arrival.

In a 1945 German POW camp near Ziegenhain, Germany, the Germans demanded that all of the Jews step forward. The ranking US Officer, Roddie Edmonds, ordered all US personnel to step forward, refusing to give up the Jewish soldiers under his command. He was finally honored 70 years later.

Most Nazi soldiers brought to the US as POWs left with positive feelings about the country at the end of WWII, and after their Geneva Convention required German repatriation, about 5000 of the soldiers emigrated back to the States, with thousands of others returning later to visit.

When were the last german pows released?

An American WWII Pilot escaped from a German POW camp and after three days of evading capture, commandeered a German Folkwolf 109 and flew himself and one other American Pilot to safety in the Netherlands. He was later quoted as saying "When I saw windmills, I knew I had made it,".

During WWII, Soviet POWs in Germany faced far worse treatment than any other nation with 60% chance of dying. In comparison, British POWs held by Japanese and German had respectively 25% and 3% chance of dying.

During WWII American prisoners under German control had a mortality rate of about 1%. American POW's under Japanese control had a mortality rate of about 37%

A German Professor during WW1 recorded the voice of many Indian PoWs, a unique project at a PoW camp outside Berlin. In Tamil and Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu and more, these men speak and sing of home. Now available in the Humbolt archives.

How many german pows returned from russia?

During WWII, the card company Bicycle fabricated special decks that were sent to POW in German Camps. When moistened, the cards peeled apart to reveal sections of a map indicating precise escape routes.

About Horace Greasley, a British POW who escaped a German POW camp more than 200 times in five years to visit his girlfriend, a local woman named Rosa Rauchbauch. He returned each time with contraband for his fellow captives

That, during WWII, when German prisoners escaped POW camps in Australia, the locals would give them the Australian "fair go", providing food and directions.

Bicycle Playing Card Company joined forces with American and British intelligence agencies to create a special deck of cards, specifically created to help allied prisoners of war escape from German POW camps.

Neutral Ireland captured both Allied and German POWs during WWII. Guards carried guns equipped with blanks, prisoners could receive visitors, and sports between German and Allied prisoners took place regularly.

The only method used to send escape tools to WWII POWs that was never discovered by the Germans was hiding silk maps, metal tools, and compasses in Monopoly game boards - allowing at least 744 airmen to escape POW camps.

In WWII two German pilot PoWs almost escaped by flying home in an RAF plane, unwittedly aided by RAF ground staff. Twice.

57% of Russian POWs held by the Nazi Germans in World War II died in captivity.

In WWII, only 8,300 British and American POWs—3.6 percent—died in German custody. 3.3 Million Soviet POWs—57%—were killed because they were seen as racially inferior.

Conditions in German run POW camps in the initial invasion of the USSR were so bad that prisoners submitted written petitions asking to be shot.

When 25 Germans escaped from an American POW camp. Two of them gave up & entered the nearest home. The two men entertained the occupants, two teenagers, with stories of war, even sharing chocolate rations with them until their parents returned and called the cops.

German POWs volunteered to fight for the US against Japan after discovering the Holocaust

Forced labor of German citizens was one of the most controversial points of the Yalta agreement. Germans were forced to work for the Allies as part of their war reparations. Not only were German POWs forced to work for the Allies, but also thousands of women.

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about German Pows. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is German Pows so important!

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