Men in German uniform: German prisoners of war held in the United States during World War II.

摘要

This dissertation argues that the U.S., bound by the Geneva Convention of 1929, effectively created a successful administrative infrastructure and housing system with virtually no planning prior to 1942. Each chapter in this work demonstrates how the U.S. overcame major obstacles to create a program that set a national precedent and high international standards by providing treatment that met and even exceeded Convention requirements. The U.S. struggled to maintain these standards even though success was not ensured and the attempt was more difficult than the possible alternatives. The administrative system that handled the program, criticized for being a large and cumbersome bureaucratic network, operated as a system of checks and balances ensuring compliance with the Geneva Convention and War Department policy. Even when the problems of nationality or ideology arose within the camp the U.S. did not resort to force or violence to stifle these problems, but took the more expensive path of screening and segregating these men. When problems arose in developing the labor program, negotiating contracts, and dealing with recalcitrant POW laborers, U.S. officials once again took the difficult path of ensuring a fair and swift outcome to the problem. These solutions often had to go through several channels and revisions, but this slight delay can be overlooked since the solution, once decided upon, could be applied to most future difficulties rather than just the trouble at hand. In fact, the recreation program provides near irrefutable proof that U.S. officials went above and beyond the requirements of Geneva in its treatment of German POWs. The Geneva Convention contained few provisions regarding recreation and religious facilities, yet the War Department and its cooperating agencies provided, in many ways, more opportunities for these men behind barbed wire than existed in the Third Reich. One could ask were these difficulties worth it? U.S. history and national pride demanded it, international law required it, and American POWs in German hands needed the nation to uphold these obligations. The positive treatment of POWs led some German soldiers to surrender to the U.S. and led to more productive workers among the prisoners.