POWs

Read Old WW2 Prisoner of War Articles Here. Numerous are the WW II POW Articles in Our Collection. Check Them Out Today!

The Re-Education of German Prisoners of War (The American Magazine, 1946)

During the earliest days of 1944, the U.S. Army’s Special Projects Division of the Office of the Provost Marshal General was established in order to take on the enormous task of re-educating 360,000 German prisoners of war. Even before the Allies had landed in France it was clear to them that the Germans would soon be blitzkrieging back to the Fatherland and in order to make smooth the process of rebuilding that nation, a few Germans would be required who understood the virtues of democracy. In order to properly see the job through, two schools were set up at Fort Getty, Rhode Island and Fort Eustis, Virginia.

German Boy Soldiers in Captivity (Yank Magazine, 1945)

A fascinating article reporting on the Baby Cage, the Allied prisoner of war camp that held some 7,000 boy soldiers of the German army, ages 12 through 17.

In light of the fact that so manyGerman youths had been indoctrinated from their earliest days in Nazi dogma and then dumbfounded to a far greater degree within the Hitler Jugend system, the Allied leadership post-war government believed that this group needed to be instructed in the ways of tolerance before being let loose into the general population.


Click here to read about the Nazi indoctrination of German youth.

Japanese Prisoners at Camp McCoy (Collier’s Magazine, 1944)

A midget Jap submarine went aground on the morning of December 8, 1941, off the island of Oahu in Hawaii, and a lieutenant just one year out of the Imperial Naval Academy walked ashore and became the first, and for many weeks our only, W.W. II prisoner. He eventually wound up at Camp McCoy…

Boss Man (The American Magazine, 1944)

Here is a quick look at U.S. Army General Allen W. Gullion (1880 – 1946); he was in charge of every German, Italian and Japanese prisoner held by the American Army during the Second World war (At the time this article appeared there were about 150,000 Germans, 50,000 Italians and only a handful of Japanese).

The Murder of Grefreiter Kunz (Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

Accusing one of their fellow inmates of treason (Vaterlandsverrater), a Nazi kangaroo court located in the POW camp in Tonkawa, Oklahoma murdered him. The U.S. Army administrators who run the camp dutifully received the body as if justice had been served, and buried it in the camp graveyard. This article explains how all this came about.

An American POW On Radio Tokyo (American Magazine, 1942)

When the bright boys at Radio Tokyo decided to allow one of their half-starved American prisoners to flatter them on air, they couldn’t imagine that he would take the opportunity to broadcast vital information needed by the U.S. Navy, but that’s just what he did.


Click here to read an article about the American POW experience during the Korean War.

The Surrendering Italians (PM Magazine, 1943)

Italians who were assigned to the defense of key hill positions surrendered in droves as the U.S. attack intensified… Many of the Italians had been without food for two days. There water was exhausted. Some of the captives shamelessly wept as the Americans offered them food and cigarettes.


Click here to read about American POWs during the Vietnam War.

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