Everyday Life for the 500K German POWs House in America During World War Two

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2025

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

During World War II, approximately half a million German prisoners of war were held in the United States, housed in 700 camps spread across the country, from Florida to Maine. These POWs were treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, often working in agriculture and other industries to alleviate domestic labor shortages.

Today, evidence of these POW camps has all but vanished, and with them the harrowing knowledge of what happened beyond the battlefield. But today’s guest, William Geroux (Jer-oh), author of “The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America,” not only exposes the forgotten history of these POW camps on American soil, but of the Nazi power games that dominated life within them. While German prisoners were protected by the Geneva Convention and generally treated fairly by their American captors, ardent Nazis in dozens of the camps began to punish and attack their fellow German inmates who failed to live up to Nazi ideology. What followed was a grisly series of murders in the heart of the United States.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Noble gold investments is the official gold sponsor of History Unplug, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals.
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0:11.3	Noble gold investments.com.
0:19.2	It's going to here with another episode of the History Unplug podcast.
0:22.6	During World War II, the Allies quickly ran into a huge problem.
0:25.9	They had no place to put German POWs.
0:28.9	England was essentially out of room, and as more American soldiers were stationed there,
0:32.4	had even less space than normal on the island.
0:34.5	The solution was to send German POWs to the United States,
0:37.9	where they'd be far from the front lines and have to cross an ocean to escape. The U.S. military reluctantly agreed,
0:43.0	but still set up these POW camps and very isolated areas and deserts for fear that these POWs
0:49.2	could find riverways and still be able to somehow flee the country. But over time, when it became
0:53.9	clear that few of
0:54.7	them were interested in doing so, and many of them were actually happy to be away from the fighting,
0:59.2	the U.S. government looked for ways to assist in supporting the manpower-strapped economy.
1:03.1	These German POWs were part of the orange harvest in California, wheat harvest in Kansas,
1:08.2	the fishing industry in the Gulf Coast. For years, nearly half a million
1:11.4	German POWs were housed in the United States. Today, evidence of these camps have all but
1:15.7	vanished, and with that the knowledge of what happened beyond the battlefield, but today's guest,
1:19.7	William Dureau, author of The 15, Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America,
1:25.3	shows this forgotten history, but also looks at the Nazi power
1:27.8	games that dominated life within them. While German prisoners were protected by the Geneva
	...

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