Cant remember where i read it and it seems like a paradox, but all i have ever heard was that the germans treated POWs humanely and fair.
This movie putthat on end.
They treated British and American POWs well. However, they saw Slavic people as being inferior beings and showed them little kindness.
Of the 3.6 million Russian POWs taken by the Germans, 2.8 million died. They were not treated well at all.
Generally they did but during the real battle of the bulge many german units killed of prisoners because they had to advance and couldn't take prisoners. the movie is telling the truth about this. this stuff did happen during the battle of the bulge but in other campaigns they did treat US and English pows alright. They were desperate at this point and couldn't take prisoners. So the moive is correct, you should read more history.
shareby - chrillenator
all i have ever heard was that the germans treated POWs humanely and fair.
[deleted]
Warge
The Red Cross perhaps?
http://www.hulu.com/watch/82199/the-last-days-of-wwii-april-15---april -21#x-0,vepisode,1
share
It was Russians who built Treblinka
Sorry, that should have been written 'Russian PoWs under order and command of SS.'
Happy?
And no, I can't cite any sources about those 90% well-treated PoWs because I talked to a Red Cross official and he said exactly that to me, but from what I have read (in books) that seems to be accurate.
The Red Cross conducted unannounced inspections of PoW camps for both the Allies and Axis and they had most to say about the mistreatment in Japanese camps which were indeed horrific. Some sub-camps were worse than others, but in general, Allied PoWs (especially western allies) were indeed treated well or as good enough as the German resources allowed. The exactly same thing was true for PoW camps for Germans - late in the war the camps were swamped by a large number of prisoners, and even if the Allies tried to keep the prisoners on their feet, many Germans suffered, but in general, they got off just as well as their 'colleagues' in the opposing camps.
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Top 5: Jaws, Shrek, Fucling Åmål, [Rec]. Add more if I find any top movies
Hey NoahBody,
My Grandfather was a POW for over a year and unless you're calling him an idiot it's a fact, read up and learn something before opening your big mouth. I love how people like you talk about things you know nothing about.
He was treated as well as the Germans could treat him, when they were short on food the POW's were short on food, now having said that, there were definitely differences in the way you were treated based on status. My Grandfather was an officer and thus was treated well, but when they captured him he was hanging in a tree from a parachute after a carpet bombing mission, and they knew why he was there. To say Germans were treating all people unfairly is just a ridiculous blanket statement.
Get educated>> http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-of-ww2/prisoners-of-war
Yup, it's a paradox since Germans are uncivilized Nazi-monsters. Totally different from Americans who are highly civilized and of course always treat their prisoners with utmost respect.
sharelol
good one, yes
exactly what i was about to say
NO body treated anyone well. War was war. Infact i highly doubt that the Malmedy massarcre was an accident. The germans led them to a feild, and shot them. The fact that it was done so *beep* up COULD mean it was a big misunderstanding, however the waffen SS were very reckless and fanatical. Im not suprised that they *beep* up in trying to kill the americans. The Einsatzgruppen and Deaths head units were more organized in Executing people(jews).
shareThere were also many instances of German Army units and even SS treating their prisoners on the Western Front well (Kurt Meyer, later commander of the Hitler Youth Division, was released early from prison in Canada in the 1950s after having been convicted of war crimes in part because of the testimony of Canadian servicemen who had been his POWs).
*In general* the Germans and western Allies treated each other *relatively* well. *In general* the Soviets and Germans treated each other poorly, although the Soviets weren't *quite* as bad. Not too complicated is it?
Several millions (i've read that 3-4 millions) of Soviet POWs were condemned to "death by neglect", while German POWs were sent to Siberia.
shareYup, it's a paradox since Germans are uncivilized Nazi-monsters. Totally different from Americans who are highly civilized and of course always treat their prisoners with utmost respect.
Ever heard of irony?
shareThat the Germans treated prisoners humanely and fairly is a myth, German atrocities were as murderous as those committed by the Japanese and the Soviets against PoWs and civilians. Although PoWs were generally well treated when captured by German front line regular troops, it was when they entered PoW and concentration camps that the horrors occurred. The military PoW camps were run somewhat humanely by the various branches of the German military at the beginning of the war but most camps had been taken over or were operated by the Nazi fanatics of the Schutzstaffel (SS) by the last year of the war. Prisoners of war and civilians held in the concentration camps run by the German SS were never treated humanely or fairly.
Although Red Cross food parcels were getting through for the "western PoWs" even during the latter stages of the war, these lifesaving resources were often withheld from the PoWs by the Germans. This is true for all PoW camps run by the Wehrmacht, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe, or the SS, it didn't make any difference. While many apologists and neo-Nazis blame the allied bombing for the lack of food supplies which led to the massive deaths by starvation of both PoW and concentration camp inmates during the last year of the war, NO German soldier or German civilian starved to death anywhere in Germany (or occupied Europe) during this same period. The Germans even had a written policy for the starvation of prisoners, especially those in concentration camps. Look it up. Liberated warehouses were found to be filled with sufficient Red Cross packages and food supplies to feed all prisoners.
Members of the German SS were selected for their aryan looks, proof of aryan blood line and membership in the Nazi party. The Nazi fanatics of the SS were responsible for war crimes and atrocities committed behind the lines, although one section, called the Waffen SS, fought fiercely alongside regular German military units. The motto of the fanatical Waffen SS was no surrender and fight to the death. Although the SS murdered civilians and prisoners from the beginning of the war, from 1944 onwards some regular military units murdered PoWs and innocent civilians on a regular basis, especially if they looked non-aryan, slavic or Jewish.
Apologists claim that there were good and bad Nazis. Not true. There is no such animal as a good Nazi. But not all Germans were Nazis: there were good and decent German people. Generally, the soldiers, sailors and airmen serving in the Wehrmacht, Kriegsmarine and Lufwaffe should never be confused with the radical, murderous Nazis of the SS and the secret state police, the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo), although there were many Nazis serving or leading in all branches of the German military. But, I emphasize, it was the fanatical German SS who committed most of the war crimes behind the front lines.
No German, Japanese or Italian PoW starved to death or were murdered while held by the western allies. However, many German PoWs who entered the Soviet gulag were never seen again. Most people forget that the USSR invaded Poland within weeks after the German invasion (as agreed upon in the German-Soviet pact of 1939) and that the Stalinists were responsible for the first atrocity of the war, the mass murder of all the Polish officers, intellectuals, and other leaders in the Katyn forest, committed under the guise of offering sanctuary and protection to these embattled people fleeing the German military advance. These murders were indeed a crime against humanity. The fact is that the nasty dictator with the big mustache murdered more innocent people than the nasty dictator with the little mustache.
Ask any western PoW or camp survivor. He/she will tell that if humane treatment meant that they were not murdered outright or tortured to death like other PoWs and prisoners held by the Germans, then yes they were treated humanely. But then ask them if they were treated humanely according to the provisions of the Geneva Convention, that is, treated with the same care and regard as the German, Italian and Japanese prisoners held by the western democracies. The answer would have to be no.
Herr Goebbels once said if you loudly repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. I think that is what you have been subjected to by the writings by neo-Nazis and apologists, that the Germans treated their prisoners humanely and fairly. It's simply not true.
I was born when she kissed me, I died when she left me, I lived while she loved me.
"No German, Japanese or Italian PoW starved to death or were murdered while held by the western allies."
There are several cases of U.S. soldiers having firing squads for Germans solders after they had surrendered. Check out American veterans telling one such story in Ken Burn's War (Battle of the Bulge Segment). An even more serious charge, as yet undocumented, but with a ring of truth to it, has Americans killing over 300 Waffen SS soldiers by firing squad. All of the Waffen SS were drafted non-native Germans.
It is certainly known that after surrendering to Patton's 3rd Army, the 3rd SS Division was turned over to the Russians, many were secretly executed without trial and almost all were put in Gulags. Murder by proxy one could say.
"I think that is what you have been subjected to by the writings by neo-Nazis and apologists"
Actually, its American liberals publicizing stories of U.S. troops murdering both regular Army and Waffen SS troops(I realize you were referencing something else).
Your statements about the Waffen SS are truer early in the War but foreigners with some German ancestry were drafted and forced into service. They numbered in the hundreds of thousands. A Romanian one, Georg Fleps I think was his name, triggered the Malmedy massacre by mindlessly shooting a captured American.
The Germans including the Waffen SS never treated U. S. soldiers on a scale like the Japanese did during the Bataan Death March. If they had, we would have had thousands of more fatalities.
"The military PoW camps were run somewhat humanely by the various branches of the German military at the beginning of the war but most camps had been taken over or were operated by the Nazi fanatics of the Schutzstaffel (SS) by the last year of the war."
I could be wrong but I think the Luftwaffe ran the POW camps for the British & Americans from start to finish.
Every statement Spitfire(number) just typed is false and easily checkable as so.
He sounds like a teenager.
Internet wisdom eh?
stopchasingyourtail
Sounds like accurate information as far as my studies/research have shown.
Some possible additions: Interpretation of facts do vary, yet I have come to believe less in some reports than others, and although there are favourable reports of visits to PoW camps and concentration camps in general, I wonder if folks were given rose-coloured eyeglasses before their visit.
Also up to but less than 20 SOE British PoWs have been verified as not only treated poorly but executed outright and up to but more than 70 British and international PoWs were shot after an escape attempt. These two incidents are well documented on line, in literature and eye witness accounts.
The lack of either sympathy and/or empathy on the part of the German SS and/or the Soviets is appalling. And while I do not intend to make excuses for the other Allied forces behavior, much of it was reprisals for previous inhumane behaviour.
google Fritz Knoechlein
if it takes a week to walk a fortnight,
how many apples in a bunch of grapes....