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Why did Mahatma Gandhi not get Bharat Ratna or the Nobel Peace Prize?

The Noble Committee on its website: www.nobleprize.org has expressed in detail the circumstances and reasons for Mahatma Gandhi becoming the missing laureate. Most portions of the article have been reproduced with additional commentary. The full piece can be referred here.Mahatma Gandhi was probably the strongest symbol of peace and non-violence in the 20th century. If anything the noble prize for peace should have been awarded to the man who was passionately experimenting his philosophy of non-violence in a world otherwise going through world wars.In retrospect of course the noble committee did agree that Gandhi was indeed the missing laureate. The question often asked is: Was the committee's vision too narrow to identify the right person or was there political calculations to be considered before awarding a prize to the man fighting one of the most powerful empires of all times or were they simply biased?Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and finally in 1948. The noble committee and the foundation acknowledges that Gandhi should have made it to the list. While it is certainly true that mostly Europeans made it to the list of winners back then, it is also to be accepted that the committee and its decisions had much more credibility than in recent times.Gandhi made it to the shortlist in 1937 and the noble committee took a serious view of his nomination.· By 1937, Gandhi was being accepted as a leader of credibility leading his people through a freedom struggle. His ideas and actions were being keenly watched by people around the world. While there was a section which was inspired by his movements, there existed a section which did not think his ideas to be too important and specially relevant to the larger politics of the world. In 1937 this could have been a legitimate criticism considering Gandhi's focus on specific issues of the Indian independence struggle· A common criticism was that Gandhi was a nationalist focusing on his country's problems only. He lived and worked in South Africa for long enough but his primary focus remained the treatment of Indians while no noticeable work was noticed for improving the condition of the Blacks who were treated much worse· His mixing of religion and politics too did not find much favour with the committee members back then· After Gandhi's first nomination the committee's adviser, professor Jacob Worm-Müller, who wrote a report on Gandhi. On the one hand, he fully understood the general admiration for Gandhi as a person: "He is, undoubtedly, a good, noble and ascetic person – a prominent man who is deservedly honoured and loved by the masses of India." On the other hand, when considering Gandhi as a political leader, the Norwegian professor's description was less favourable. There are, he wrote, "sharp turns in his policies, which can hardly be satisfactorily explained by his followers. (...) He is a freedom fighter and a dictator, an idealist and a nationalist. He is frequently a Christ, but then, suddenly, an ordinary politician."For both the subsequent nominations in 1938 and 1939, Gandhi was not shortlisted and he was finally considered in 1948. This is where I certainly think that the noble committee missed a place in history.Nomination of 1947The nomination for 1947 was written by Govind Ballabh Pant among others and he wrote: "Recommend for this year Nobel Prize Mahatma Gandhi architect of the Indian nation the greatest living exponent of the moral order and the most effective champion of world peace today." By this time Mahatma Gandhi had firmly established his place in the international order and the naysayers too had gracefully accepted that their initial understanding and estimate of the man was incorrect.This time historian Jens Arup Seip wrote an update report for the noble committee on Gandhi's life and actions from 1937 to 1947-48. The report was more favourable than the last one and found that during three major events in the decade: the freedom struggle, India participating in World War II and the issue of partition, Gandhi had followed his principals of non-violence. While the report gave a positive image of the Mahatma, it did not explicitly support his candidature.From the diary of committee chairman Gunnar Jahn, we now know that when the members were to make their decision on October 30, 1947, two acting committee members, the Christian conservative Herman Smitt Ingebretsen and the Christian liberal Christian Oftedal spoke in favour of Gandhi. One year earlier, they had strongly favoured John Mott, the YMCA leader. It seems that they generally preferred candidates who could serve as moral and religious symbols in a world threatened by social and ideological conflicts. However, in 1947 they were not able to convince the three other members. The Labour politician Martin Tranmæl was very reluctant to award the Prize to Gandhi in the midst of the Indian-Pakistani conflict, and former Foreign Minister Birger Braadland agreed with Tranmæl. Gandhi was, they thought, too strongly committed to one of the belligerents. In addition both Tranmæl and Jahn had learnt that, one month earlier, at a prayer-meeting, Gandhi had made a statement which indicated that he had given up his consistent rejection of war. Based on a telegram from Reuters, The Times, on September 27, 1947, under the headline "Mr. Gandhi on 'war' with Pakistan" reported:"Mr. Gandhi told his prayer meeting to-night that, though he had always opposed all warfare, if there was no other way of securing justice from Pakistan and if Pakistan persistently refused to see its proved error and continued to minimise it, the Indian Union Government would have to go to war against it. No one wanted war, but he could never advise anyone to put up with injustice. If all Hindus were annihilated for a just cause he would not mind. If there was war, the Hindus in Pakistan could not be fifth columnists. If their loyalty lay not with Pakistan they should leave it. Similarly Muslims whose loyalty was with Pakistan should not stay in the Indian Union."Jahn in his diary quoted himself as saying: "While it is true that he (Gandhi) is the greatest personality among the nominees – plenty of good things could be said about him – we should remember that he is not only an apostle for peace; he is first and foremost a patriot. (...) Moreover, we have to bear in mind that Gandhi is not naive. He is an excellent jurist and a lawyer." It seems that the Committee Chairman suspected Gandhi's statement one month earlier to be a deliberate step to deter Pakistani aggression. Three of five members thus being against awarding the 1947 Prize to Gandhi, the Committee unanimously decided to award it to the Quakers.1948: A Posthumous Award ConsideredMahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948, two days before the closing date for that year's Nobel Peace Prize nominations. The Committee received six letters of nomination naming Gandhi; among the nominators were the Quakers and Emily Greene Balch, former Laureates. For the third time Gandhi came on the Committee's short list – this time the list only included three names – and Committee adviser Seip wrote a report on Gandhi's activities during the last five months of his life. He concluded that Gandhi, through his course of life, had put his profound mark on an ethical and political attitude which would prevail as a norm for a large number of people both inside and outside India: "In this respect Gandhi can only be compared to the founders of religions."Nobody had ever been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously. But according to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation in force at that time, the Nobel Prizes could, under certain circumstances, be awarded posthumously. Thus it was possible to give Gandhi the prize. However, Gandhi did not belong to an organisation, he left no property behind and no will; who should receive the Prize money? The Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, August Schou, asked another of the Committee's advisers, lawyer Ole Torleif Røed, to consider the practical consequences if the Committee were to award the Prize posthumously. Røed suggested a number of possible solutions for general application. Subsequently, he asked the Swedish prize-awarding institutions for their opinion. The answers were negative; posthumous awards, they thought, should not take place unless the laureate died after the Committee's decision had been made.On November 18, 1948, the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to make no award that year on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate". Chairman Gunnar Jahn wrote in his diary: "To me it seems beyond doubt that a posthumous award would be contrary to the intentions of the testator." According to the chairman, three of his colleagues agreed in the end, only Mr. Oftedal was in favour of a posthumous award to Gandhi.Later, there have been speculations that the committee members could have had another deceased peace worker than Gandhi in mind when they declared that there was "no suitable living candidate", namely the Swedish UN envoy to Palestine, Count Bernadotte, who was murdered in September 1948. Today, this can be ruled out; Bernadotte had not been nominated in 1948. Thus it seems reasonable to assume that Gandhi would have been invited to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize had he been alive one more year.Why Was Gandhi Never Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?Up to 1960, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded almost exclusively to Europeans and Americans. In retrospect, the horizon of the Norwegian Nobel Committee may seem too narrow. Gandhi was very different from earlier Laureates. He was no real politician or proponent of international law, not primarily a humanitarian relief worker and not an organiser of international peace congresses. He would have belonged to a new breed of Laureates.There is no hint in the archives that the Norwegian Nobel Committee ever took into consideration the possibility of an adverse British reaction to an award to Gandhi. Thus it seems that the hypothesis that the Committee's omission of Gandhi was due to its members' not wanting to provoke British authorities, may be rejected.In 1947 the conflict between India and Pakistan and Gandhi's prayer-meeting statement, which made people wonder whether he was about to abandon his consistent pacifism, seem to have been the primary reasons why he was not selected by the committee's majority. Unlike the situation today, there was no tradition for the Norwegian Nobel Committee to try to use the Peace Prize as a stimulus for peaceful settlement of regional conflicts.During the last months of his life, Gandhi worked hard to end the violence between Hindus and Muslims which followed the partition of India. We know little about the Norwegian Nobel Committee's discussions on Gandhi's candidature in 1948 – other than the above quoted entry of November 18 in Gunnar Jahn's diary – but it seems clear that they seriously considered a posthumous award. When the committee, for formal reasons, ended up not making such an award, they decided to reserve the prize, and then, one year later, not to spend the prize money for 1948 at all. What many thought should have been Mahatma Gandhi's place on the list of Laureates was silently but respectfully left open.

Did the Allies treat Axis POWs well in WW2?

Russian treatment of German POWs was abysmal. US and British treatment was generally very good.Some SS members were shot by American soldiers when identified by troops after we discovered they were executing American POWs during the Battle of the Bulge.There is a conspiracy theory put forward by James Bacque in a 1989 book, Other Losses, that Eisenhower oversaw the killing of a million German POWs but it has been thoroughly discredited. It is basically made up. There was some mistreatment early on but eventually officials put a stop to it.We observed the letter of the Geneva Convention concerning treatment of POWs. Some POWs chose to stay in the US after the war, occasionally after marrying a local girl. There was a delay in returning many POWs to Europe after the war which is a technical violation of the Geneva ConventionGerman officers were normally hostile to the point of engineering work slowdowns and even murdering cooperative prisoners as traitors. When identified they were usually, but not always, punished or shipped off to a special camp in Alva, Oklahoma for the uncooperative.Non-commissioned officers and enlisted men could be pleasant at times, but the German Officers seemed to show the hatred in their eyes and were the threatening ones. A doctor (Dr. Clifford Traverse) was quoted as saying, "The glaring eyes of some German officers were permitted to watch me operate on one of their own. I was warned not to wear a necktie in the camp." The Okie Legacy: Vol 17, Iss 3 POW Camp In Alva, Woods, OklahomaA program was in effect to segregate the Nazis and Nazi sympathizers from the general camp population, that was never fully successful. The Nazi and their sympathizers that were segregated were sent to camps with higher security. They tried to keep the general population from wavering on the Party line, using fear and physical punishment to achieve this. The pressures were great and several of the POWs that committed suicide were thought to have done it under pressure. The "hard liners" carried out some "executions". One such case was at Tonkawa, where Johannes Kunz was "tried" and found "guilty of treason". His body was found in the compound the next morning. The five leaders of the group that had "tried" Kunz, were courts martialled by the US Army and executed at Fort Leavenworth Military Prison in Kansas. Any prisoner that could read or speak English had to be especially careful when reading an American newspaper or talking to an American. They could never be sure just who to trust, and above all, they had to survive. OK POW CampsMy wife’s parents knew some POWs who were working the local mine and found them to be friendly.Despite many "wild rumors" about how the Allies treated their prisoners, some Germans were pleased to be captured by the British or Americans—fear of being captured by the Soviets was widespread—because they disagreed with Nazism or their nation's conduct of the war. The prisoners were usually shipped in Liberty Ships returning home that would otherwise be empty, with as many as 30,000 arriving per month. While they risked being sunk by their own U-boats on the ocean, good treatment began with the substantial meals served aboard. Upon arriving in America, the comfort of the Pullman cars that carried them to their prison camps amazed the Germans, as did the country's large size and undamaged prosperity.The Office of the Provost Marshal General (OPMG) supervised the 425,000 German prisoners. They stayed in 700 camps in 46 states; a complete list may not exist because of the small, temporary nature of some camps and the frequent use of satellite or sub-camps administratively part of larger units. Other than barbed wire and watchtowers, the camps resembled standard United States or German military training sites; the Geneva Convention of 1929 required the United States to provide living quarters comparable to those of its own military, which meant 40 square feet (3.71 m²) for enlisted men and 120 square feet (11.15 m²) for officers.If prisoners had to sleep in tents while their quarters were constructed, so did their guards. The three admirals and 40 generals in custody were sent to a Mississippi camp, where each had his own bungalow with a garden.Government guidelines mandated placing the compounds away from urban, industrial areas for security purposes, in regions with mild climate to minimize construction costs, and at sites where POWs could alleviate anticipated farm labor shortages.The Geneva Convention's mandate of equal treatment for prisoners also meant they were paid American military wages. They could work on farms or elsewhere only if they were also paid for their labor, and officers could not be compelled to work. As the United States sent millions of soldiers overseas, the resulting shortage of labor eventually meant that German POWs worked toward the Allied war effort by helping out in canneries, mills, farms and other places deemed a minimal security risk.Prisoners could not be used in work directly related to the military work, or in dangerous conditions. The minimum pay for enlisted soldiers was $0.80 a day, roughly equivalent to the pay of an American private. In 1943 the government estimated that prisoner labor cost 50 to 75% of normal free labor. While language differences and risk of escape or unreliable work were disadvantages, prisoner workers were available immediately on demand and in the exact numbers needed. While prisoners on average worked more slowly and produced less than civilians, their work was also more reliable and of higher quality. Part of their wages helped pay for the POW program, and the workers could use the rest as pocket money for the camp canteen. (They were paid in scrip. All hard currency was confiscated with other personal possessions during initial processing for return after the war as mandated by the Convention, as money could be used during escape attempts.) The government received $22 million in 1944 from prisoner wages, and that year it estimated that it had saved $80 million by using prisoners in military installations.Newspaper coverage of the camps and public knowledge were intentionally limited until the end of the war, in part to comply with the Geneva Convention and in part to avoid the fear of an enemy presence in such large numbers. While most citizens living near camps accepted the prisoners' presence, the government received hundreds of letters each week protesting their treatment. Many demanded that the POWs be immediately killed, a sentiment the regular casualty lists in American newspapers encouraged. The government had difficulty in persuading the public that treating the prisoners according to the Geneva Convention made it more likely that Germany would treat American prisoners well. Labor unions were the largest opposition to the use of the prisoner workers, citing the War Manpower Commission's rules that required union participation in worker recruitment whenever possible. Given the wartime labor shortage however, especially in agriculture, many valued their contribution; as late as February 1945, politicians in rural states asked the government for 100,000 more prisoners to work on farms.Twice each month each prisoner of war camp was required to fill out WD AGO Form 19-21 and mail it to the Office of the Provost Marshal General, Washington 25, D.C., Attention: Prisoner of War Operations Division.The report included the camp's name and address, the nationality of the prisoners, the total number of prisoners broken down by the number of officers, NCO's and privates, and the number of man-days worked by project in that camp during the reporting period. Sometimes additional remarks were included on the back of the form. For example, the additional remarks from Dos Palos POW Branch Camp for the period ending 12 February 1946 stated "1692 [German POWs] waiting for Repatriation CAMP CLOSED 12 February 1946.Life for the Germans in American POW camps was reportedly "firm but fair". There were insufficient American guards, especially German speakers [guards]. They mostly supervised the German officers and NCOs who strictly maintained discipline. The Germans woke their own men, marched them to and from meals, and prepared them for work; their routine successfully recreated the feel of military discipline for prisoners. Prisoners had friendly interaction with local civilians and sometimes were allowed outside the camps without guards on the honor system (Black American guards noted that German prisoners could visit segregated restaurants that they could not.), luxuries such as beer and wine were sometimes available, and hobbies or sports were encouraged. Alex Funke, a former POW at Camp Algona, wrote: "We all were positively impressed by the USA....We all had been won over to friendly relations with the USA." Indeed, unauthorized fraternization between American women and German prisoners was sometimes a problem. Several camps held social receptions with local American girls, and some Germans met their future wives as prisoners.“When I was captured I weighed 128 pounds. After two years as an American POW weighed 185. I had gotten so fat you could no longer see my eyes.”— A German prisoner of warMany prisoners found that their living conditions as prisoners were better than as civilians in cold-water flats in Germany. The prisoners were provided with writing materials, art supplies, woodworking utensils, and musical instruments, and were allowed regular correspondence with family in Germany. General officers received wine with their meals, and all prisoners ate the same rations as American soldiers as required by the Geneva Convention, including special meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, Unable to eat all their food, prisoners at first burned leftover food fearing that their rations would be reduced. Groups of prisoners pooled their daily beer coupons to take turns drinking several at a time. They also received two packs of cigarettes a day and frequently meat, both rationed for American civilians. (Cigarettes were sold in the prisoner canteen for less than outside the camp, so guards were sometimes amenable to being bribed with them.) One German later recalled that he gained 57 pounds (26 kg) in two years as a prisoner. Despite complaints to International Red Cross inspectors about the alleged inferiority of American white bread and coffee, prisoners recognized that they were treated better in the United States than anywhere else.Funke stated that "Nobody could become bored [as a prisoner]." Prisoners held frequent theatrical and musical performances attended by hundreds or thousands, including American guards and Red Cross inspectors. Movies were shown as often as four nights a week; if the camp did not have a projector, prisoners often pooled their savings to purchase one. The cinema served as an important reeducation and propaganda tool as well as entertainment, with Hollywood anti-Nazi films, cartoons such as "Herr Meets Hare", and the Why We Fight series used; American World War II films shown mostly dealt with the Pacific War. Near the end of the war approved German films from a list exchanged through the Red Cross became available.After the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, films of the atrocities of the Holocaust were shown to the prisoners, which engendered shock, anger, and disbelief; amazed and disbelieving prisoners nicknamed them knochen films ("films of bones"). After compulsory viewing of an atrocity film, 1,000 prisoners at Camp Butner dramatically burned their German uniforms. Prisoners at other camps called on Germany to surrender. In an idea seriously considered but ultimately rejected by American military officials, a few prisoners even volunteered to fight in the war against Japan.Camps built libraries to organize their reading material and prisoners often purchased their own, but they never had enough reading material, with an average of one half book per prisoner. The YMCA printed thousands of copies of books for the camps, and even provided bookbinding material so camps could repair them due to frequent use. Camps had subscriptions to American newspapers, and every camp published its own newspaper with poetry and short stories, puzzles and games, listings of upcoming events, and classified ads. Camp authorities recognized the periodicals' value in serving as creative outlets and as accurate indicators of the prisoners' views. The tone of their articles varied; some promoted Nazi ideology and foresaw German victory. Even as Germany's defeat neared in early 1945, eight of 20 camp newspapers advocated Nazi ideology.Many future German CEOs benefited from education they received as prisoners in the United States. Educated prisoners such as future German cabinet member Walter Hallstein taught classes on their areas of expertise including German, English and other foreign languages, business, and mathematics. The systematically taught courses were so successful that in May 1944 the German Ministry of Education and the OKW sent through the Red Cross detailed procedures for students to receive credit at German high schools and universities. Some prisoners took correspondence classes through local universities, and German universities also accepted their credits after returning home.Krammer reported that "I've yet to meet a German prisoner who doesn't tell me that it was the time of their lives." Most Germans left the United States with positive feelings about the country where they were held, familiarity with the English language, and often with several hundred dollars in earnings. [$100 in 1945 would be $1400 today] The funds benefited the postwar German economy on their return. They had benefited from being held by a nation that largely did not hate German soldiers; a November 1943 poll found that 74% of Americans solely blamed the German government, not Germans, for the war. After repatriation about 5,000 Germans emigrated to the United States, and thousands of others returned later to visit such as Rüdiger von Wechmar, who lived in New York City for 14 years as the German Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Funke reported that the visitors did so "as convinced democrats" due to their treatment. German prisoners of war in the United States - Wikipediahttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3160405/America-s-forgotten-German-POW-camps-Life-inside-labour-camps-hundreds-Germans-sent-work-Tennessee-Texas-WWII-exposed-letters-hidden-cornflake-box.htmlGerman POWs on the American HomefrontThe Happiest Prisoners

Which military force in WW2 was the best to be captured by? If you had to choose a certain nation to be a pow of theirs which is the best bet for safety and being well treated?

America by far.Russian treatment of German POWs was abysmal. US and British treatment was generally very good.Some SS members were executed when identified by troops after we discovered they were executing American POWs.There is a conspiracy theory put forward by James Bacque in a 1989 book, Other Losses, that Eisenhower oversaw the killing of a million German POWs but it has been thoroughly discredited. It is basically made up. There was some mistreatment early on but eventually officials put a stop to it.We observed the letter of the Geneva Convention concerning treatment of POWs. Some POWs chose to stay in the US after the war, occasionally after marrying a local girl. There was a delay in returning many POWs to Europe after the war which is a technical violation of the Geneva ConventionGerman officers were usually hostile to the point of engineering work slowdowns and even murdering cooperative prisoners as traitors. When identified they were punished or shipped off to a special camp in Alva, Oklahoma for the uncooperative.Non-commissioned officers and enlisted men could be pleasant at times, but the German Officers seemed to show the hatred in their eyes and were the threatening ones. A doctor (Dr. Clifford Traverse) was quoted as saying, "The glaring eyes of some German officers were permitted to watch me operate on one of their own. I was warned not to wear a necktie in the camp." The Okie Legacy: Vol 17, Iss 3 POW Camp In Alva, Woods, OklahomaA program was in effect to segregate the Nazis and Nazi sympathizers from the general camp population that was never fully successful. The Nazi and their sympathizers that were segregated were sent to camps with higher security. They tried to keep the general population from wavering on the Party line, using fear and physical punishment to achieve this. The pressures were great and several of the POWs that committed suicide were thought to have done it under pressure. The "hard liners" carried out some "executions". One such case was at Tonkawa, where Johannes Kunz was "tried" and found "guilty of treason". His body was found in the compound the next morning. The five leaders of the group that had "tried" Kunz, were courts martialled by the US Army and executed at Fort Leavenworth Military Prison in Kansas. Any prisoner that could read or speak English had to be especially careful when reading an American newspaper or talking to an American. They could never be sure just who to trust, and above all, they had to survive.OK POW CampsMy wife’s parents knew some POWs who were working the local mine and found them to be friendly.Despite many "wild rumors" about how the Allies treated their prisoners, some Germans were pleased to be captured by the British or Americans—fear of being captured by the Soviets was widespread—because they disagreed with Nazism or their nation's conduct of the war. The prisoners were usually shipped in Liberty Ships returning home that would otherwise be empty, with as many as 30,000 arriving per month. While they risked being sunk by their own U-boats on the ocean, good treatment began with the substantial meals served aboard. Upon arriving in America, the comfort of the Pullman cars that carried them to their prison camps amazed the Germans, as did the country's large size and undamaged prosperity.The Office of the Provost Marshal General (OPMG) supervised the 425,000 German prisoners. They stayed in 700 camps in 46 states; a complete list may not exist because of the small, temporary nature of some camps and the frequent use of satellite or sub-camps administratively part of larger units. Other than barbed wire and watchtowers, the camps resembled standard United States or German military training sites; the Geneva Convention of 1929 required the United States to provide living quarters comparable to those of its own military, which meant 40 square feet (3.71 m²) for enlisted men and 120 square feet (11.15 m²) for officers.If prisoners had to sleep in tents while their quarters were constructed, so did their guards. The three admirals and 40 generals in custody were sent to a Mississippi camp, where each had his own bungalow with a garden.Government guidelines mandated placing the compounds away from urban, industrial areas for security purposes, in regions with mild climate to minimize construction costs, and at sites where POWs could alleviate anticipated farm labor shortages.The Geneva Convention's mandate of equal treatment for prisoners also meant they were paid American military wages. They could work on farms or elsewhere only if they were also paid for their labor, and officers could not be compelled to work. As the United States sent millions of soldiers overseas, the resulting shortage of labor eventually meant that German POWs worked toward the Allied war effort by helping out in canneries, mills, farms and other places deemed a minimal security risk.Prisoners could not be used in work directly related to the military work, or in dangerous conditions. The minimum pay for enlisted soldiers was $0.80 a day, roughly equivalent to the pay of an American private. In 1943 the government estimated that prisoner labor cost 50 to 75% of normal free labor. While language differences and risk of escape or unreliable work were disadvantages, prisoner workers were available immediately on demand and in the exact numbers needed. While prisoners on average worked more slowly and produced less than civilians, their work was also more reliable and of higher quality. Part of their wages helped pay for the POW program, and the workers could use the rest as pocket money for the camp canteen. (They were paid in scrip. All hard currency was confiscated with other personal possessions during initial processing for return after the war as mandated by the Convention, as money could be used during escape attempts.) The government received $22 million in 1944 from prisoner wages, and that year it estimated that it had saved $80 million by using prisoners in military installations.Newspaper coverage of the camps and public knowledge were intentionally limited until the end of the war, in part to comply with the Geneva Convention and in part to avoid the fear of an enemy presence in such large numbers. While most citizens living near camps accepted the prisoners' presence, the government received hundreds of letters each week protesting their treatment. Many demanded that the POWs be immediately killed, a sentiment the regular casualty lists in American newspapers encouraged. The government had difficulty in persuading the public that treating the prisoners according to the Geneva Convention made it more likely that Germany would treat American prisoners well. Labor unions were the largest opposition to the use of the prisoner workers, citing the War Manpower Commission's rules that required union participation in worker recruitment whenever possible. Given the wartime labor shortage however, especially in agriculture, many valued their contribution; as late as February 1945, politicians in rural states asked the government for 100,000 more prisoners to work on farms.Twice each month each prisoner of war camp was required to fill out WD AGO Form 19-21 and mail it to the Office of the Provost Marshal General, Washington 25, D.C., Attention: Prisoner of War Operations Division.The report included the camp's name and address, the nationality of the prisoners, the total number of prisoners broken down by the number of officers, NCO's and privates, and the number of man-days worked by project in that camp during the reporting period. Sometimes additional remarks were included on the back of the form. For example, the additional remarks from Dos Palos POW Branch Camp for the period ending 12 February 1946 stated "1692 [German POWs] waiting for Repatriation CAMP CLOSED 12 February 1946.Life for the Germans in American POW camps was reportedly "firm but fair". There were insufficient American guards, especially German speakers [guards]. They mostly supervised the German officers and NCOs who strictly maintained discipline. The Germans woke their own men, marched them to and from meals, and prepared them for work; their routine successfully recreated the feel of military discipline for prisoners. Prisoners had friendly interaction with local civilians and sometimes were allowed outside the camps without guards on the honor system (Black American guards noted that German prisoners could visit segregated restaurants that they could not.), luxuries such as beer and wine were sometimes available, and hobbies or sports were encouraged. Alex Funke, a former POW at Camp Algona, wrote: "We all were positively impressed by the USA....We all had been won over to friendly relations with the USA." Indeed, unauthorized fraternization between American women and German prisoners was sometimes a problem. Several camps held social receptions with local American girls, and some Germans met their future wives as prisoners.“When I was captured I weighed 128 pounds. After two years as an American POW weighed 185. I had gotten so fat you could no longer see my eyes.”— A German prisoner of warMany prisoners found that their living conditions as prisoners were better than as civilians in cold-water flats in Germany. The prisoners were provided with writing materials, art supplies, woodworking utensils, and musical instruments, and were allowed regular correspondence with family in Germany. General officers received wine with their meals, and all prisoners ate the same rations as American soldiers as required by the Geneva Convention, including special meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, Unable to eat all their food, prisoners at first burned leftover food fearing that their rations would be reduced. Groups of prisoners pooled their daily beer coupons to take turns drinking several at a time. They also received two packs of cigarettes a day and frequently meat, both rationed for American civilians. (Cigarettes were sold in the prisoner canteen for less than outside the camp, so guards were sometimes amenable to being bribed with them.) One German later recalled that he gained 57 pounds (26 kg) in two years as a prisoner. Despite complaints to International Red Cross inspectors about the alleged inferiority of American white bread and coffee, prisoners recognized that they were treated better in the United States than anywhere else.Funke stated that "Nobody could become bored [as a prisoner]." Prisoners held frequent theatrical and musical performances attended by hundreds or thousands, including American guards and Red Cross inspectors. Movies were shown as often as four nights a week; if the camp did not have a projector, prisoners often pooled their savings to purchase one. The cinema served as an important reeducation and propaganda tool as well as entertainment, with Hollywood anti-Nazi films, cartoons such as "Herr Meets Hare", and the Why We Fight series used; American World War II films shown mostly dealt with the Pacific War. Near the end of the war approved German films from a list exchanged through the Red Cross became available. After the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, films of the atrocities of the Holocaust were shown to the prisoners, which engendered shock, anger, and disbelief; amazed and disbelieving prisoners nicknamed them knochen films ("films of bones"). After compulsory viewing of an atrocity film, 1,000 prisoners at Camp Butner dramatically burned their German uniforms. Prisoners at other camps called on Germany to surrender. In an idea seriously considered but ultimately rejected by American military officials, a few prisoners even volunteered to fight in the war against Japan.Camps built libraries to organize their reading material and prisoners often purchased their own, but they never had enough reading material, with an average of one half book per prisoner. The YMCA printed thousands of copies of books for the camps, and even provided bookbinding material so camps could repair them due to frequent use. Camps had subscriptions to American newspapers, and every camp published its own newspaper with poetry and short stories, puzzles and games, listings of upcoming events, and classified ads. Camp authorities recognized the periodicals' value in serving as creative outlets and as accurate indicators of the prisoners' views. The tone of their articles varied; some promoted Nazi ideology and foresaw German victory. Even as Germany's defeat neared in early 1945, eight of 20 camp newspapers advocated Nazi ideology.Many future German CEOs benefited from education they received as prisoners in the United States. Educated prisoners such as future German cabinet member Walter Hallstein taught classes on their areas of expertise including German, English and other foreign languages, business, and mathematics. The systematically taught courses were so successful that in May 1944 the German Ministry of Education and the OKW sent through the Red Cross detailed procedures for students to receive credit at German high schools and universities. Some prisoners took correspondence classes through local universities, and German universities also accepted their credits after returning home.Krammer reported that "I've yet to meet a German prisoner who doesn't tell me that it was the time of their lives." Most Germans left the United States with positive feelings about the country where they were held, familiarity with the English language, and often with several hundred dollars in earnings. [$100 in 1945 would be $1400 today] The funds benefited the postwar German economy on their return. They had benefited from being held by a nation that largely did not hate German soldiers; a November 1943 poll found that 74% of Americans solely blamed the German government, not Germans, for the war. After repatriation about 5,000 Germans emigrated to the United States, and thousands of others returned later to visit such as Rüdiger von Wechmar, who lived in New York City for 14 years as the German Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Funke reported that the visitors did so "as convinced democrats" due to their treatment. German prisoners of war in the United States - WikipediaLife inside the US labour camps where hundreds of Germans were sentGerman POWs on the American HomefrontThe Happiest Prisoners

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