WWII POW Treatment
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Why was there such a substantial difference of treatment of POWs between the Axis and the Western Allies? Obviously the Soviet Union is an exception to the rule, but the point still stands. Japan hadn't signed the Geneva conventions at that time, but Austria and Germany certainly had. It just seems strange that there was such a large disparity between the conditions of each nation; didn't the Germans fear that their own POWs in other countries would be treated poorly if they didn't have reasonable standards in their prisons?
>>30258740
At some point you have to decide if you're going to feed your prisoners or your fighting men.
>>30258740
Back in the 1990s, I had a neighbor who was a POW. He was an infantryman and was captured by German infantry. He said they treated him very well. They gave him lots of food and water - even cigarettes. They were friendly. I suppose it was an infantry thing. They knew what he had been through as they were going through the same shit.
I was impressed by that story. Thankfully, he escaped before being transferred to the rear where the true evil occurred.
>>30258740
POWs in germany wasnt treated to bad, atleast not in the early stages of the war.
This ofcourse excludes poles and others that the germans considered "subhuman".
The Japs however treated everyone like shit.
>>30258740
>>30258787
What this guy said. Also, the Axis Military and Government are very shit in supplying anything. So, you have 100 tons of food, you can only send 50 of it to the front, how many will you give to the POW? Granted, the POW wasn't subhuman and so on depending on the time frame of the war. Dynamics and changing conditions.
>>30258740
I heard stories from people in Yugoslavia who were taken prisoner in '41 and sent to Germany to work on some farm. In '45 the owner paid them their wages and sent them back to Yugoslavia.
>>30258849
Did those people also have different skin/hair color and accents upon their return?
The Japs pretty much treated everyone like shit
Canada, and I assume the USA but I don't really know, treated Japs pretty bad, whether they were citizens or PoWs.
>>30258740
We held EPWs from WWII on our soil. There was literally no where to run so they were free to roam about. The tiny little towns of the south west were there homes. They were free to walk around and interact with the townsfolk. This is no joke. This truly happened. They would watch movies at the theater and purchase ice cream floats from the soda jerk. Regular afternoons.
>>30258740
The Axis had supremacist policies that brought out the worst in their most fanatical douchebags.
>>30258881
So part of Germany really did go on a holiday for a couple years in the 40s
>>30258825
>>30258839
>>30258881
My Gran grew up on a farm in Somerset and they had a bunch of German POWs that were allowed to basically do what they wanted in their own free time as long as they showed up for work. One of them built and painted a doll house for her apparently.
Dont know anyone who had anything to do with being a POW in Germany though.
>>30258881
my grandmother grew up there during the war, she said her and other kids would go watch them work and throw dirt clods at them. also once she watched them play baseball.
>>30258896
I remember a story about Snap On replacing a screwdriver in Germany in the 80s that the owner brought back from a stateside pow camp in the '40s.
It was used as a promotional story, because German law usualy doesn't allow lifetime warranties.
>>30258926
Lol damn that is pretty cool if true
The Western Front and the Eastern Front were two completely different wars, at least until Germany started to run out of things like food and fuel and medicine and began acting like a rabid dog.
Barbarossa was literally a no-holds-barred war of extermination, the long term goal being the domination of eastern Europe all the way to the Caucasus and the elimination of the the Slavic race. The Germans took no prisoners (very few prisoners, fuck off autists) and literally raped and burned their way across the countryside. This was justified by Nazi racial science that deemed Slavs animals and Slavic lives worthless. After the battles on the outskirts of Moscow and the end of Operation Barbarossa, the tide began to turn against the Germans. This made their behavior more desperate and brutal, because they knew if the Soviets made it to Germany that every atrocity that they had committed would be returned upon them a thousandfold.
The Western Front, on the other hand, had more of the "Honor and Glory and the Grand Adventure!" vibe to it until the Allies discovered the camps. (Disclaimer: If you were a Jew or other "undesirable" you were probably fucked no matter where you were) It was an "old-fashioned war", not as much about territorial gain as it was to gain political leverage. If the UK had surrendered after Dunkirk, for example, Hitler probably would have left them more or less alone provided they behaved. The only territory taken (annexed, not occupied) from the French by the Germans was the Alsace-Lorraine, which France and Germany both had historical claims to.
The goals of the Western operations were to retake "German" territory that France had annexed in the aftermath of the First World War, and to cow the Western Allies into submission so the occupation of Eastern Europe could happen unhindered. Not to say that the occupation of France was a picnic for the French, but if you were an ethnic Frenchman who didn't rock the boat you'd live somewhat normally.
>>30258740
This could all be my memory failing me but I remember when I read the Band of Brothers book they said the Wehrmact was not so different from the US conscript military and the German citizens were very similar to Americans. I interviewed a guy that fought in my grandfathers unit in Belgium and the push to Berlin as a school project and he said the German people and conscripts were okay people and if you were taken as a POW you thanked God it was there and not in Asia. I wish I could still walk into a VFW and meet WW2 vets like I did then.
>>30258984
>if you were taken as a POW you thanked God it was there and not in Asia
No shit Cap, the Americans didn't join the war until the very late stage of it when Germans were actively seeking truce with the west.
>>30259023
I enjoy rewriting history too!
>>30258963
As for the Pacific War, well, the Nips were sick sadistic bastards who literally set fire to the whole of China, and then suckerpunched the US.
To the Japanese, the only human was a Japanese, everyone else were no better than animals be they Chinese or Korean or American. The Germans at least were willing to coexist with other white people. The atrocities committed in occupied China every day match and usually exceed the nastier bits of Hitlers legacy. Cannibalism for shits and giggles, the sexually-enslaved "comfort women", the biological warfare of Unit 731, and a very, very long list of others. Furthermore, the Germans at least had the decency to false-flag and declare a defensive action, the Japs just attacked Hawaii without so much as a peep from Tokyo about it. (I know, they actually meant for the declaration of war to reach DC immediately prior to Pearl Harbor but this is from the perspective of the average American of the time.)
Small wonder the average GI looked at his Japanese counterpart as an animal, because by and large thats the way the Japs behaved. Americans were ANGRY, they had been stabbed in the back, and the horror stories from the Pacific came back home a lot sooner than the ones from Europe. This was a just war from any perspective, and even the peaceniks of the time were calling for blood after the Seventh of December. Americans HATED the Japanese on a level that just wasn't there for the Germans. Sure we were at war, and there was fighting and killing, but we wanted to "beat" or "win" against the Germans, while total extermination of the Japanese race was something most Americans wouldn't have cried over. We put natural-born American citizens in concentration camps because they were ethnic Japanese. The Japs had sown fire and death, and in a flash of light the Reaper came knocking once, then twice, and we were willing to keep going until nothing was left of the Japanese islands but sand and a slick of blood on the ocean.
>>30259090
Stop.
>about a third-fourth of all soviet war dead soldiers are POWs dying in camps
sheeeeeiiiiiiit
>>30259125
I'll own up, I know far less about the Pacific theater than I do about the European, and maybe I have just a little bit of a wehrboner, but the fighting on in the Pacific was indisputably more like the Eastern front than the Western.
Famliy story time /k/
> Be my grandmother. 10yrs old in 1939. Living on a large prussian farm near Königsberg which belonged to my great-grandfather.
The family used to breed riding horses for private and military use since the last 200 years. Great-grandfather lost half of his right hand to a farm accident. So great-grandmother decided to buy themselves a car in 1932.
Always had swedish farm labourers over the summer.
Were catholic as fuck und strongly disliked the national socialists due the struggle of power between the NSDAP and the Catholic Union.
Now to the prisoners of war.
Over the time of the war they had some frenchmen, two russians und and kept their swedish helpers.
All were treated good, like a part of the family. One of the frenchmen later married a german/polish kitchen helper and settled next to the farm.
( Later had to flee the country due to the incoming russians.. Both continued living near Sigmaringen in southern Germany, died sometime in the 70es due to smoking)
Another frenchman was 50/50 german/french and decided to join the Waffen SS in 43/44.
My great-granduncle later claimed that he fell in the defense for Berlin in April/May 45.
When the russians came closer, the 3 remaining russian POWs decided to flee with the rest of the family.
1 died of tubercolosis, 1 lived near Essen and the last one joined the french foreign legion.
>>30259480
> Sigmaringen
Singen reporting in, how about them refugees in the Graf-Staufenberg-Kaserne?
The allies left like 100,000+ of their troops in Soviet hands
>>30258963
>The goals of the Western operations
The ALLIES declared war on Germany.
They could have chosen white peace at any time
Instead Britain destroyed europe, destroyed their empire, destroyed france, and now we're where we are today.
>until the Allies discovered the camps.
bullshit
>the long term goal being the domination of eastern Europe all the way to the Caucasus and the elimination of the the Slavic race.
Bullshit and bullshit
>that every atrocity that they had committed would be returned upon them a thousandfold.
More pro-commie bullshit
>>30259492
>how about them
Learn to speak English, rot head.
pol retards are chimping out again
>>30259496
>nazis build a war economy
>start taking other countries
>plans to genocide millions
THEY DINDU NUFFIN THEY WERE A GREAT BOIS SPREADING WORD OF JEEBUS
>>30259497
> thread about WWII pows
> grammar Nazi shows up
>>30259520
>They didn't
>territorial disputes, take a look at a map of the world in 1939 retard
>bullshit made up after the war
Meanwhile the commies are fucking everywhere in the west
>>30259492
Sorry mate, I'm not from that area.
I'm living in small village between Stuttgart and Ulm.
Although we have some refugees here, none of them acted like a chimpanzee.
In the next bigger villages some problem arose with smaller groups of refugees, but they got their teeth kicked in by some young "germanized" turks and the local german youth.
I'm pretty calm about that. In 3 years I'm going to migrate to the US.
>>30258740
It depends on the time and place as well as the captors. My dad spent 8 months in a concentration camp during the Yugoslav wars. It was living hell.
>>30258963
my vatnik senses are off the charts
>>30258963
>>30259090
Quality posts?
In a WW2 thread?
It must be opposite day.
>>30259618
Copy pasting propaganda is not quality
>>30259618
>quality
literally euthanize yourself
>>30259634
>Stop having different opinions on things!
Shitposting is shitposting.
I will skip the calling each other retarded for a few angry posts, go ahead if that makes you feel better.
>>30259634
>>30259125
fuck off or post quality content samefag
>>30258881
Well they were white, and were treated with more respect than the African American serviceman due to it being a time of high racism. Not that I give a shit about it.
>>30259634
>>30259650
The Russian butthurt is strong in you.
>>30259545
>n the next bigger villages some problem arose with smaller groups of refugees, but they got their teeth kicked in by some young "germanized" turks and the local german youth.
Beautiful. But here's the real question: Did those "Germanized Turks" chimped out like the other Turks when Germany decided to recognize the Armenian Genocide? Otherwise I may have to do a little ass kicking in case they start shit with me for being Armenian.
>>30259712
another german here.
you don't have to put that in quotes, there are many legit 3rd and 4th generation turks here who strongly hate erdogan and his propaganda narrative.
they realize that the denial is just a smokescreen to create a discussion topic to divert from the internal problems turkey has, like the economy and unemployment.
oldest trick in the political book really.
real life is not a black and white memeworld.
>>30259673
>being a time of high racism.
Did you read that in a history textbook, so you believe it to be true?
It was a time of people not being a buncha faggot liberal pussies is all.
There was less "racism" than today.
>>30259712
Well it depends.
I would say about 50% of the germanturks are dumb goatfuckers and voted for the AKP.
Some germanturkish politician now have to be guarded by the federal police due to murder threats.
The turkish prime minister even said, the should get their blood tested for admitting the genocide.
30 % don't give a flying fuck and the rest opposes the turkish government.
Unfortunally some will always need an ass kicking.
Fun story:
The son of a co-worker of mine ( Second gen turk) once lectured his sister on how she should dress moderat in a islamic way and not like a "german" whore.
My coworker used a wooden stick to hit him about 20-30 times because :" Son if you want to live the islamic way, the rules also apply to you. You drank alcohol and didn't obey Ramadan last year!"
Needless to say my coworker hasn't seen the inside of a mosque in the last 30 years.
>>30259788
based
>>30259496
So are you claiming that Germany invaded Poland AFTER the Western Allies declared war?
>>30259533
Are you claiming that Germany didn't annex Alsace-Lorraine? Or are you claiming that the Germans weren't undermining the Versailles treaty since the Weimar days and that Hitler didn't openly renounce it in 1935?
>>30259570
Actually I desperately wish that the Axis powers had won the Second World War and that the US had never gotten involved beyond the Pacific Theater. Maybe you should take off the red white and blue colored glasses and look at things objectively. I only stated that the Germans and Russians committed atrocities against each other, and that the Germans kept camps for undesirables. I didn't even condemn them for it because I understand the difference between direction and distance. Hitler was moving in a great direction but he went too far. He rebuilt a Germany that was gutted and downtrodden and beaten in more than one sense of the word. He loved his country, he loved his people, and everything he did he did it because he thought it was the best course of action to take for his country.
But he was a madman, even if he was made a madman by his enemies. Between the constant fear of assassination, sometimes from his own subordinates, the poison his doctor was pumping in his veins, his own incompetent allies (Fuck Benito Mussolini it's his fault we're not living in a National Socialist paradise) AND trying to manage a THREE-front war (France/Western Europe, Russia/Eastern Europe, and Italy/North Africa) it's a small wonder he started acting erratically towards the end.
But what do I know? I'm a commie right?
>>30259800
You're the gay Omar was targeting.
>>30259826
what did hurt your feelings anon?
>>30259650
You have to send him to camp first.
>>30259849
Stop
>>30259951
But he denies the camps existed, remember?
Oh well, I'm sure the Soviets will take care of it if we send them another....counter-revolutionary....
>>30259966
Then you have to send him to the gulag.
>>30259959
>shitposts
>tells others to stop
no u
>>30258881
I grew up near a old POW camp. Apparently this is how it was with ours as well. The Germans works on a local sawmill and were paid wages and were free to walk around the town. I heard that some exPOWs moved back here after the war because they had even married some
Local girls.
>>30259825
>National Socialist paradise
>I'm a commie right?
Yes.
