German POWs in America: the bread they hid in their pockets, summer 1943

[TheIronDiaries]

Summer 1943. A German soldier captured in North Africa steps off a train in Texas. His officers told him American prison camps would be brutal. He is handed a metal tray. Hot food. White bread. Cold milk. He does not eat. He hides bread in his pockets, certain the real rations will come later. They never do.

I put together a short documentary on the 371,683 German soldiers held in America: 500 camps across 45 states, the farm work that saved the harvest, 80 cents a day, and the friendships across the wire that kept going for decades after they went home in 1946.

Video here:
View: https://youtu.be/fdR6WIFTKPk

Did your family ever cross paths with the POW camps? Happy to be corrected on any detail. Sources are in the description.

 

[fannum]

Summer 1943. A German soldier captured in North Africa steps off a train in Texas. His officers told him American prison camps would be brutal. He is handed a metal tray. Hot food. White bread. Cold milk. He does not eat. He hides bread in his pockets, certain the real rations will come later. They never do.

I put together a short documentary on the 371,683 German soldiers held in America: 500 camps across 45 states, the farm work that saved the harvest, 80 cents a day, and the friendships across the wire that kept going for decades after they went home in 1946.

Video here:
View: https://youtu.be/fdR6WIFTKPk

Did your family ever cross paths with the POW camps? Happy to be corrected on any detail. Sources are in the description.

My Dad came from a Winterset, Iowa farm family, which had emigrated from SE Germany in early 1800s. A relative had taken his military expertise to aid in our Revolution, was made an officer, was well paid, and returned home with glowing accounts of the new land. Thus, in tough times, some of the next generation became immigrants, and by 1940s, major landowning farmers.
With the war, the US established POW camps in the Midwest, using paid prisoner labor to take care of manpower shortage. One of biggest prisoner of war camps were in Clarinda, Iowa near there, with smaller camps closer, and even some POWs trusted enough to live on farms. With much of Iowa being settled by Germans, mutual friend and relative contacts brought them together. Shortly, the farmers decided to hold a cookout at one of the camps, and all was going well ... until my relatives brought out their prized corn on the cob ... only to see the POWs react with disgust!
It was a cultural difference ... in Germany, corn was only pig food, and all the pre-capture tales of being poisoned came out!!
Obviously, that was soon overcome; on repatriation, there were tearful partings, and today, many returned, assimilated, and raised families.

 

[Antarctica]

Immediately after capture, British PoWs found quickly that if they wanted breakfast they had to keep some of their first German food for the next morning -- read this in a book on Escapers. This knowledge came in handy for me when I was recently in hospital .... they twice kicked me out befor breakfast to free beds.

 

[Gnomey]

Interesting!