The Swastika Tattoo

A Secret Reeducation Program

Gerry Birch — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:58:16 +0000

The American public during WWII felt strongly about the ”reeducation” of German prisoners of war. In other words, with more than 370,000 men on our soil, now was the time to teach them about American democracy and individualism.

Publicly, the War Department nixed the idea because of its policy of strict adherence to the dictates of the Geneva Convention about prisoner indoctrination. However, after studying the Geneva Convention for a loophole, they found it in Article 17: “So far as possible, belligerents shall encourage intellectual diversions and sports organized by prisoners of war.”

Thus with pressure from President and Mrs. Roosevelt, a secret reeducation program based upon intellectual diverson was begun in autumn 1944 and it was not revealed to the public until after V-E Day in 1945. This program was a highly controversial effort to influence the Germans through camp newspapers, books, film, and lectures. It was an intellectual exercise that many believed failed–still it was an effort to bring American values and philosophy to the Germans.

Books introduced in camp libraries included the works of Thomas Mann, Ernest Hemingway, and William Soroyan–books that had been banned and burned by the Nazi regime. A newspaper called “Der Ruf” (The Call) was written by prisoners of war who had been highly screened and moved to a secret location for fear of prisoner retaliation. As the war came closer to an end, movies became a propaganda weapon. Such films as Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Back to Bataan, Song of Bernadette, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo were shown.

Read my novel “The Swastika Tattoo” about life for German POWs held in a camp in Arizona.

Next time: More About the Use of Film to Reeducate German Prisoners of War

Fallout at the End of WWII

Gerry Birch — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 22:28:05 +0000

For the German prisoners of war held in America, 1945 was a difficult year. Not only did Germany unconditionally surrender, but the men were suddenly subjected to a severe cut in rations that coincided with the end of the war and the liberation of American prisoners in Germany.

Most German prisoners felt the rationing of food was retribution for the horrors found at Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald and Belsen-Bergen. In truth, the American people were enraged about the death camps, but they also felt the German POWs had been coddled. The War Department responded that the cut in rations were due to increased demands of America’s armed forces now facing Japan.

Whatever the reason, beef was served only twice a month, and margarine was served at all times instead of butter. Eggs were now a rare treat for the German prisoners of war. In many instances, the men were eating not much more than vegetable sandwiches and the result was a drop in weight.

While Americans felt smug about the POWs cut in rations, the farmers who used their labor were upset. Many farmers’ wives began feeding the men. One farmer even said that any farmer knows a underfed horse cannot put in a good day’s work and the same was with the German POWs.

Despite the new food policy, the POWs were more concerned about repatriation. When would they be going home?

Read my novel “The Swastika Tattoo” about life for German POWs held in a camp in Arizona.

Next time: A Secret Reeducation Program

The Last of German POWs Arrive in New York

Gerry Birch — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 19:42:47 +0000

The last bunch of German POWs arrived in America on May 12, 1945. There were 3,000 men offloaded in New York to be processed into prisoner of war camps. As noted by a New York Times reporter, the men, albeit bedraggled, were well fed, none had been tortured, and there was no instance of inhuman treatment of any sort because it was American policy to adhere to international law regarding prisoners of war.

It was a sharp contrast from the American soldiers who arrived in New Jersey on May 13 from German camps. They were emaciated, many had been tortured and some spoke about seeing fellow Americans left to starve in the roadsides as they were forced marched from camp to camp.

The youngest of the German soldiers was a frightened 13-year-old; the eldest was 65 and a veteran of WWI. Many of the men had yet to see their sixteenth birthday.Most of them spoke against the Fuehrer, that they did not know Germany had committed atrocities, and Heinrich Himmler, the head of the feared SS and who oversaw all police and security forces including the Gestapo, was a “Schweinehund” (a vile German insult meaning pig-dog).

Before being transported to American prisoner of war camps located throughout the United States, one interpreter yelled at the men in German ”By the way, former American prisoners of war are going to be your guards from now on.”

Information for this blog came from the New York Times, May 13, 1945, “Arrival of Two War Prisoner Groups Provides Vivid Contrast: Our Soldiers Bitter at Brutality, Enemy Plainly Well Treated.”

Read my novel “The Swastika Tattoo” about life for German POWs held in a camp in Arizona.

Next: Fallout at the End of WWII

American POWs held by Nazis Arrive in New York

Gerry Birch — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 19:36:43 +0000

Less than a week after the celebration of Victory in Europe (May 8, 1945), American prisoners of war began returning home. An article in the New York Times recorded the arrival of the 1,300 men who arrived at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. According to the article, they were in a glum mood, with little horse play and hardly any conversation. It was only after a hearty meal of steak, potatoes, ice cream and cake that they began to talk of their experience.

The Times said: “One man told of how sick Americans were forced to march 500 miles through rain and snow from camp to camp; another of eating cats and fighting for potato peelings when the ration of a bowl of sour soup a day became unbearable; a third spelled out slowly the name of a German officer who had left starving American prisoners to die by the roadside.”

In front of a reporter, another American POW, furious, shredded a magazine that had been given him on the troop ship. The magazine had a picture of two American girls shaking hands with German prisoners of war at a railroad station. “Shaking hands! Shaking hands!…The Germans didn’t shake hands with their rubber hoses!” he said.

The men showed a significant loss of weight and were dispirited. As they told the stories of being marched hundreds of miles to escape the Russian onslaught, most of them told of eating nothing but weak coffee and bread.

One man, who would only identify himself as “Snuffy,” told about being packed in a boxcar after one march and then the Germans lit flares around the train so the Royal Air Force could see it during a bombing run.

“They beat it when the bombs fell, but eight of us were killed,” he said.

Information for this blog came from the New York Times, May 13, 1945, “Arrival of Two War Prisoner Groups Provides Vivid Contrast: Our Soldiers Bitter at Brutality, Enemy Plainly Well Treated.”

Next: The Last of the German POWs Arrive in America

Read my novel “The Swastika Tattoo” about life for German POWs held in a camp in Arizona.

A Swastika Banner Flying in the Arizona Sunshine

Gerry Birch — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 22:47:38 +0000

On February 7, 1945, a truck-load of high-spirited German prisoners of war unfurled a swastika banner as they rode through the town of Chandler, Arizona, on their way to pick cotton. The city marshal stopped the truck. He was told the problem was military business and that the Army would take care it. However, the banner was seen again as the men were on their way back to Camp Papago Park that evening. A guard searched for what was really a neckerchief, but it was never found.

The news of the event showed up the following day in the Arizona Republic, and citizens in the area sounded off with furious letters to the editor. A few days later remarks about the lax prisoner of war camp at Papago Park were made by a U.S. Senator and several Congressmen. There were calls for less pampering of prisoners, a program to indoctrinate the men in democratic principles and segregation of prisoners who were pro-Nazi. Unfortunately, the Congressman who made those charges did not know that it was because camp troublemakers and former escapees were confined to one compound, making the digging of the 178-foot tunnel possible.

Despite the high profile charges, the Army dug in its heels, stressing its POW program had positive aspects, particularly that the work program of prisoners in the fields and factories saved American taxpayers as much as $100 million. The Army also said fair treatment of more than 350,000 Germans would assure similar conditions of nearly 80,000 American prisoners of war being held by the Third Reich.

Next: Stories of American POWs held by the Third Reich

Read my novel The Swastika Tattoo, a story about a German POW held at Camp Papago Park in Arizona.

THE LAST OF THE NAZI ESCAPEES RETURNED TO CAMP PAPAGO PARK

Gerry Birch — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 01:23:04 +0000

Two of the German escapees decided by the end of December 1944 that they could not go on. One of them had injured his foot in the escape and it was terrribly swollen. The men ate a good meal of bacon sandwiches, coffee and chocolate. They approached a farm house and when they knocked on the door they found a frightened 12-year-old boy taking care of his siblings. They explained they were unarmed German officers who had escaped from Camp Papago Park and they wanted to surrender. With constant reassurances, the youngster let the Germans inside, explaining his parents would be back soon. The officers shared the last of their chocolate with the children.

When the parents got home, the boy told them who was sitting in the kitchen. The father, reached in his back pocket taking out a copy of the “Phoenix Gazette” which had photos of the twenty-five escapees. He wet a pencil with his tongue and put an X over the faces of the two men sitting in his kitchen.

Two other German prisoners celebrated New Years Eve only thirty-one miles from the Mexican border. The next day, they found a jackrabbit recently killed by a vehicle, so they skinned it, cooked it and sprinkled pulverized salt tablets on the meat for seasoning. Contented, they curled up and went to sleep under some bushes, but a Papago Indian who was walking toward Sells, Arizona and saw the two sleeping figures. He thumbed a ride to Sells where he reported what he saw to the U.S. Customs Service. When the men woke up they were surrounded.

When the men were taken to Sells, the entire village turned out to look at them, one woman exclaiming that the Germans looked just like Americans. Then a strange thing happened, the men were aked if either one of them them could play chess. When they said they could, the Americans brought in a disabled boy who played chess, but he had no one in the town to play the game with. Seeing the boy was terribly nervous, the Germans decided to let him win for the sake of international relations.

The last escapee to be rounded up was the German leader of Camp Papago Park, Captain Jurgen Wattenberg. He had been hiding in a cave near the prison camp and when he ate the last of his food near the end of January 1945, he cleaned himself up and walked into Phoenix where he spent a few hours sitting in a a hotel lobby. He decided to walk outside and asked a street cleaner where Van Buren Street was. He was told he was on Van Buren Street. The street cleaner became suspicious by Wattenberg’s accent and ignorance of his surroundings, and he told a passing police officer. Wattenberg was questioned and then he simply admitted he was the last of the twenty-five prisoners of war who had escaped from the camp.

Please read my novel, “The Swastika Tattoo” at Amazon.com or at Smashwords.com.

Next time: Fallout from the escape.

BUILDING A BOAT TO ESCAPE FROM CAMP PAPAGO PARK

Gerry Birch — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 01:56:38 +0000

Ingenuity Despite the Lack of a Flowing River

Three of the German prisoners of war who readied themselves to escape from Camp Papago Park in Arizona over Christmas 1944 decided they would make a boat and float down the mighty Gila River. Since Mexico was about 130 miles, it seemed easier to walk only forty or fifty miles, catch the river and float across of the border.

As the men looked at a stolen map, they saw the Gila River which wound its way from a juncture with the Salt River all the way to Gila Bend, making a big U-turn, as the name of town indicated, and then it flowed southwest to join the Colorado River, almost at the border with Mexico, near Yuma, Arizona. From the map, the men surmised the Colorado River was a big river and that the Gila expanded as it flowed south.

They decided to make a boat out of a canvas skin which could be rolled up. The canvas would be pulled over wooden struts which would go into a second bag. Most of the men who knew about the pending escape laughed at their plan, calling them the “three mad boatmen,” who they thought were insane to attempt carrying a folded boat through a 178-foot tunnel. However, the three were determined to float their way to Mexico rather than walk. They managed to gather the wood needed and began building their boat, under the noses of the guards who thought they were making some bizarre handicraft. The canvas was acquired because the leader of the camp, U-boat Captain Jurgen Wattenberg convinced the top brass that one of the barracks in Compound 1 A needed repairing and that the men of the compound could easily fix it with canvas and a little tar.

Proud of their ingenuity, the three easily made their escape through the tunnel and managed to make it to the river about five days later, hiding by day and traveling by night. They were disappointed, when they saw it, however, because it was not as big as they hoped. Exhausted by their treck, they made their way to an island in the middle of the muddy river and went to sleep. When they awoke, the river had nearly disappeared. Little did they know during their planning that the river is mostly nonexistant because of irrigation and municipal water diversions. There had been water in it, however, after the big storm which happend on the night and early morning of their escape, December 23-24, but by the time they made it to the river on December 28, there was not sufficient water to float the boat. They dragged the boat, following the river, and they were able to use it periodically, but they finally decided it was a burden and destroyed it.

Disappointed, but unbowed, the Germans followed the Gila River until January 8, 1945, when one of them decided it was time to take a break and wash his underwear. Some cowboys saw him, no doubt thinking it was odd to see a man without underwear, and called police. That was the end of their adventure and they were soon returned to Camp Papago Park.

Read my novel The Swastika Tattoo. A story about a young German prisoner of war at Camp Papago Park.

Next: The Last of the Escapees Rounded Up