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Re: POW Camps in the US



"Wick, Charles Harrison" wrote:

> I still find it incredible that German POWs during WWII were shipped
> back to the US, why weren't they sent to Great Britain or France?

Several reasons (and I confess, only vaguely recalled).  First, it
was 'wasteful' to send ships back from overseas empty; second,
the US anticipated a more severe labor shortage than actually
occured, and third--I'm on very shaky ground here-- the Geneva
Conventions require that, where practicable, POWs should be
incarcerated in places similar to the areas where they were taken.

As I mentioned before, most German POWs in the US had been
cpatured in North Africa and the Mediterranean (i.e. in 1942
and 1943).  Later, when the hauls were larger--especially in
1945--the vast majority of them were kept in Europe.  The
US even handed over something like 250k to the French, who
needed the cheap labor after the war.  The British, of course,
cpatured plenty of their own.

Once again, I would recommend the works of Arnold Krammer
on this topic.

Ed Frank

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