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The Germans were the first country to acquire large numbers of Kriegsgefangenen (POWs) or Kriegies. German policy varied as to the nationality of the POWs. Here a primary factor in the German mind was race. The Wehrmacht treated French, British, and later American POWs relatively correctly. The greatest numbr of Western POWs were the French. Large numbers of French soldiers were taken prisoner during the German western offensive and the resulting fall of France (May-June 1940). The Germans after the French surrender (June 1940), interned the French Army in POW camps in the Reich. Vichy hoped that the Germans would release them, but the never did. The SS was a different matter. The internment of the French and some British POWs was for almost the entire war as they took large numbers of POWs in 1940. The German treatment of Polish and Soviet POWs, however, was barbaric and many died from starvation, exposure, and mistreatment. Few of the Polish POWs taken in 1939 survived the War. The German policy was in part a planned method of elimination and in part their inablity to deal with the massive numbers involved. German treatment improved somewhat as they began to take fewer POWs and began to use the Soviet POWs for forced labor, but it was still brutal.
Most American POWs were aviators shot down during the strategic bombing campaign. Small numbers of Americans were taken prisoner during the fighting in North Africa. Until D-Day about 90 percent of the American POWs were airmen.
The American 8th Air Force joined the British in this campaign beginning in 1943. Losses in the air war were substantial, especially until 1944 when long-range escorts became available. Small numbers of American POWs were taken in Italy and Normandy. This only changed when the Germans took substantial numbers of prisoners in the opening phase of the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944). There were both Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe POW camps. The Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe tended to treat American POWs correctly, if harshly. As a result, about 99 percent of the Americans captured by the Gernans survived the War. They were concerned about the treatment of the much lrger number of German POWs ad unlike the Soviet prisoners, NAZI race policy did not overide Whermacht obligations underthe Geneva Concention. The Germans provided the American POWs about 1,500 calories a day. This was below the minimum daily requirement, but well above that allocated to Soviet and Polish POWs. The Americans survived largely because they could supplemet the German rationswith Red Cross packages, some 27 million reached the POWs. The 11-pound packages included cookies, coffee, raisens, and especially importahtly--cigarettes. Even if the POWs did not smoke, the cigarettes were very important. The German guards loved American cigarettes and the POWs could trade them for all sorts of neded items. Even the crates the packes were shipped in proved useful to build chairs and tables. Conditions in the camps deteriorated in the cmps in the last few months of the Wr. SS units were responsible for masacres of POWs. The best known one occurred at Malmedy during the Battle of the Buldge. The Germans in the Bulge did their best to identify Jewish GI who were then sent to concentration camps rather than POW camps. The U.S. Army was very concerned about German treatment of POWs. As a result, they were very careful with German POWs. Camps were set up in several locations in the United States where the Germans sat out the war in relative luxury.
The Germans Launched their Western campaign (May 10, 1940). The Belgian Army fought for 18 days untilm King Leopold surrendered without consulting his British and French allies (May 28,1940). This created an opening for the Germans that almost prevented the BEF evacuation at Dunkirk. The King who was the commander of the Army was made a POW. The Belgian Cabinet disassociated itself from the King's surrender set up a government in-exile in London. They proclaimed their resolve to continue war on the the Allied side. The Germans interned the Belgians in similar circumstances to the French. King Leopold when brought before Hitler Berchtesgaden amd pleaded the Belgin case which reportedly angered Hitler (November 1940). As a result of the meeting, however, the Germans releasrd 50,000 Belgian POWs and improved food allocations for occupied Belgium. We believe the Germans continued to hold most Belgian officers, but do not yet have details. The Germans in violation of the Geneva Conventions forced French and Belgian POWs to work. This was often farm labor, but some were employed in war industries.
British soldiers were taken prisoner during the German Western offensive (May-June, 1940). Othes were taken in North Africa after the Germans arrived (1941-42). Aviators were shot down in the strategic bombing campaign which Britain initiated in 1940. Other prisoners were taken when the offensive aimed at seizing the Rhine Rover bridges at Arnem failed (1944). The British POWs were for the most part treated correctly. The Germans did not, however, provision the POW camps very well, This was the case even errly in the War, but got progressively worst as conditions in the Reich deteriorated.
British and other Western POWs (American and Canadian) got Red Cross packages delivered theough Sweden. The German authorities, as a result, cut food rations to the American and British Commonwealth POWs by one third. This forced the Allied governments to subsidize German Geneva Convention obligations.
The Germans took Canadian prisoners in the Dieppe raid (1942). SS units shot some Canadian prisoners after Normandy.
The Czechs, deserted by the British and French did not resist the Germans (March 1939). We are not sure what NAZI policy was toward the Czech Army. We believe that senior officers were arested by the Eibsatzgrupen/Gestapo during the occupation, but we still have few details. Nor do we know about the treatment of Cechswho flws with the BRitish RAF. This involvedrelatively small numbers.
The Danish Army did not resist the German invasion (April 1940) and the small Danish Army was not interened.
After the capitulation on May 15 1945, all Dutch military were sent home, with the exception of the Generals Winkelman and Van Voorst, who were taken to Germany as POWs.
Career soldiers had to sign some sort of a word of honor declaration that they would not take up arms again against the German forces. I'm not sure why the Germans treated the Dutch POWs differently from the French POWs. Perhaps because of racial affinities. Also the Dutch had been neutral in World War I and tried to remain neutral in World War II until the Germans invaded. They also at first tried to behave "correctly" and promissed to respect Dutch institutions and traditions. The German occupation authorities in 1943 required all 300.000 formerly drafted military personnel to register. Most of them ignored the order and many went underground. The Grrmans sent 11.000 Dutch men to Stammlagers (Stalags) in Germany and had to work in the German war industry.
Large numbers of French soldiers were taken prisoner during the German western offensive and the resulting fall of France (May-June 1940). The Germans after the French surrender (June 1940), interned the French Army, some 2 million men, in POW camps. The men were transported to camps in the Reich. Conditions at German POW camps varied widely. Conditions for Poles and Soviet POWs were essentially death camps and survival rates were very low. Conditions for the Western Allies were very different. Conditions were spartan, but survivable. The French were the largest group of POWs and from the Western Allies and confined the longest period. The Germans kept the French POWs throughout the entire War, despite entrties from Vichy authorities to repatriate them. I'm not sure why the Germans did this. Perhaps it gave them leverage with Vichy. Perhaps they were seen as a valuable source of labor. A najor factot was probably that POWs would have been a likely group to have helped organize the Resistance which by 1943 was beginning to become increasingly troublesome to the Germans. The French POWs were kept in camps in both Germany and Austria. A French reader tells us about a visit from the Petits Chanteurs ŕ la Croix de Bois in 1943. Another reader writes, "It is actually amazing that this French boys choir was allowed to sing for French forced-laborers and POWs during the War. I remember pictures in the Dutch newspapers during the German occupation of the French actors and entertainers Maurice Chevallier and Danielle Darrieux, performing in such German camps. One can call it collaboration, but there had to be some sort of collaboration, also from the part of the NAZIi authorities, to make these events possible. I believe the Germans still saw this sort of propaganda of value even when people all over Europe had come detest them. As for the French, the prisoners enjoyed it tremendously. I still see the picture of the POW, who tried to kiss a laughing Maurice Chevallier. It was a snapshot I never forget." [Stueck] There were other visitors, such as a French boy choir that sung to the POWs. Germans in violation of the Geneva Conventions forced French and Belgian POWs to work. This was often farm labor which few POWs objected because it usually meant they were able to get some extra work. Others were employed in war industries. Many French POWs were given seasonal jobs with farm work outside the camps. One Austrian girl remembers two French POWs that worked on her family farm in the Tyrol during Summer 1942. She was 8-years old and lived in the city, but her uncle still worked the farm. She became friendly with the French soldiers. She recalls that one was a priest and the other was younger and had red hair. In the evening she and her cousins would sit with the French POWs and have fun learning each other's language. After the harvest, the girl and her mother returned home and the French were returned to a POW camp. After school one day she saw German shoulders marching POWs down the street. Then she noticed one of the POWs was the red-haired Frenchman. He saw her and cried out, "Isabella, Isabella." One of the guards then beat his viciously with the butt of his rifle. The little girl was horrified and screamed. She ran home sobbing and told her mother and was surprised when her mother wanted to know if anyone saw her and knew who she was. It wasn't until after the war that she understood her mother's reaction. [McCracken] The French POWs were not able to go home until the Allies liberated the camps (1945). The Germans treated the Free French like the resisrtance as illegal combatants give that France hd signe an armistace. France after D-Day reformed the French Army. At this time both the Resistahnce and the French began taking German POWs. We are not sure to what extent German treatment of French POWs being taken may have changed.
Greek soldiers were not treated as prisoners of war after surrendering to the Germnans. The Germans permitted them to go home after their units were demobilized. Officers were even allowed keep their side arms. [Blau, pp. 94-96.]
Italy was an Axis country, Germany's principal European ally. Mussolini joined the War when it was clear that the Germans had defeated the French (June 1940). The Italians fought as a German ally until 1943 when the Italian Government signed an armistace with the Allies. The Germans moved into Italy in force. Italians were given the choice of fighting with Germany or internment. Most chose internment. There were some masacres of Italian soldiers. Most were shipped back to the Reich as POWs. I am not sure what conditions were like for the Italians in the German POW camps.
The Norwegian Army was very small and surprised by the German invasion (April 1940). Those that were not captured at the onset, fought with the Allies in the north. When the Germans struck in the West, the Allies evacuated Norway (June 1940). The Germans allowed the Norwegian officers and men to mobilize and return hime. (The same occurred in some other countries (like Denmark, Greece, and the Netherlands). We are not sure just why, but in the case of the Norwegians it seems largely a racial calculation. The Germans believed that the Norwegians would accerpt German occupation and provide a valuable infusion of Aryan blood to the Reich. The Germans as the War progressed came to realize thzat the Norwegians would not accept German domination and as Allied forces began to drive back the Germans, the former Norwegian soldiers represented a security threat. Many had joined the increasingly active Resistance or were cooperated with it. Their military training and skills were vvery vluable to the Resistance. And Allied counter intelligence had begun to plant the idea that an invasion of Norway was beong planned. The allied goal was to draw as many German soldietrs from Gramnce as possible in preparation for D-Day. As a result, the Germans rounded up all the officers of the former Norwegian Army that they could find (August 16, 1943). Many had already fled to Britain or were in hiding with the Resistance. Of approximate 1,500 officers who were arrested, the Germans sent nearly one third home the following week because of age, illness, and other reasons. The others were transported to the Reich. The Germans had after the Polish campaign opened Stalag XXI-A in Schildberg, a town in pre-War Poland that had been annexed to the Reich. With most of the Polish POWs dead, the camp was used for the new Norwegians POWs. It was renamed Oflag XXI-C. Some 1,150 Norwegian officers were held here. Available reports suggest that they were correctly treated.
The Poles were the first country to resist the Germans militarily. Most all of the Polish Army that survived the fighting was captured: around 400,000 men by the Germans and over 200,000 by the Soviets (September-October 1939). The German treatment of Polish POWs varied and was not nearly as barbaric as that accorded the Soviet POWSs when Hitler launched Barbarossa. As the Polish POWs were taken in 1939 and given the conditions they experienced, most did not survive the War. Over 32,000 Jewish soldiers were killed during the German invasion (September 1939). About 61,000 were taken prisoner. Some German soldiers separated Jewish POWs from the very beginning ahnd shot them. Once in internment camps a more formalized process of separating out the Jewish POWs began, but we do not yet have full details. Almost all died while in German hands. Some were transferred to Ghettoes. Some to harsh labor brigades. Many Polish soldiers escaped during the fighting when the Germans did not have full control of the situation. They disappeared into the local population. The German practice at first was to hold the Poles in POW camps and provide lists of the men to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The IDRC lists included very few Jewish names. The German practic changed abruptly (February 1940). Tey stopped providing lists to the IDRC. Suddenly without explantion, the Germans resumed sending lists to the IDRC (1943). But they only included the names of officers. The Katyn discovery may have been a factor to prove it was not the Germans who were killing Polish officers. Conditions for the officers varied. Some were held in relatively corrct circumstances. It seens that the enlisted men were no longer under the control of the Wehrmacht. They had been turned into civilian workers. We are not sure about the conditions. This violated the 1929 Geneva Convention regarding the treatment of prisoners of war. It deprived them of POW status and the protections that should have been provided them. Conditions in these camps were terrible and the death rate was high, but they were not death camps. There were survivors. Polish POWs causing problems were sent to concentration camps. At any rate the ICRC lost track of most of them. The enlisted POWs were transported to German labor and prison camps, abused, used for slave labor, or sometimes shot. Substantial numbers of Polish soldiers fled into neighboring Hungary and Rumania when it was clear that the fight was lost. The Germans for a whle did not have control of the borders. The poles there were interned. Both countries were within the NAZI orbit, but there was sympathy for the Poles, especially Hungary. Polish soldiers began disappearing from the internment camps as aesult of both bribable and sympathy. As aeslt, individually and in small groups, Poles made their way west to France and Britain. NAZI diplomats pressed Hungarian and Romanian officials on this, but at this point the NAZIs did not yet in aposition to demand. As a result, a new small Polish military force began to take shape. It was not large enough to play a role resisting the German Western campaign. It would play a role in the Battle of Britain. There were also some Polish soldiers and airmen fighting with the British taken prisoners, but we do not yet know about their treatmnent. The numbers of Polish POWs tken at this time were very small.
The German treatment of Polish and Soviet POWs was barbaric and esential genocidal. Many died from starvation, exposure, and mistreatment. The German policy was in part a planned method of elimination, following a series of Hitler's orders as well as orders from Wehrmacht commanders. One aspect was the Hunger Plan. Another asopect was the inablity of the Wehrmacht to deal with the massive numbers surrendering. German plans for the Occupied East were a genocide targetting the Slavs. Thus when it looked liked the Soviet Union would be quickly knocked out of the War, there was no real desire on the part of the Germans to provide for the vast numbers of Red Army POWs. At some camps the Soviet POWs were not even provided barracks and other structures and were exposed to the elements even during the winter. While in terms of fatalities, the worst time for POWs was in 1941 when the German took huge numbers of POWs. With the failure of Barbarossa, the NAZIs had to begin draf\ting wirkers, including the workers in araments plants. This created a severe labor shortage. German treatment of the Russian POWs improved somewhat as they began to use Soviet POWs for forced labor, but it was still unimagineitevly brutal. The Germans recruited some anti-Soviet POWs to form anti-Soviet Russian units. The Germans never, however, fully trusted these units and did not fully equip them. The Soviet POWs liberated by the Red Army were treated abonamally. Many were transported to the Gulag. Stalin's attitude was that they should have never surrendered.
Blau, George E. The German Campaigns in the Balkans, Spring 1941 (1953).
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