Kleiner Führer durch Amerika - a small book for German Prisoners of War

[Marksman]

A few days ago i got this very nice and interesting book from a friend.

 

Theís books were given to german POWs in the United Stade to give them informations about the country. Its very nice written.

 

The german Soldier made some notes as well - he even draw his way trought the states on the map.

 

 

 

 

Stefan

[Marksman]

more

[Marksman]

more

[Marksman]

more

[Marksman]

more

[Marksman]

and his map

[Rakkasan187]

Stefan,

 

This is an incredible find.. I see that he came through El Paso, Texas.. There were several POW sub camps outside of Fort Bliss, TX.

 

Very nice find..

 

Leigh

[Brig]

Very interesting book...even better that you can actually read it. I, on the other hand, am very bad at German

[gwb123]

There was a very active effort to re-educate German POW's, with the idea that if they could be pulled away from Nazi ideology they could contribute to rebuilding a democratic state after the war. This is probably a product of that program.

[sundance]

Pretty neat. I wonder how long he was in the states to cover that much ground?

[Marksman]

Thank you all,

 

here some more informations:

 

He arrived in the States on June 1943

 

June 29th - Camp Phillips, ???? Kansas - near Wichita

 

January 11th 1944 - Camp Warner, Utah - near Salt Lake City

 

April 12th 1944 - Camp Ford, Californien - near ????

 

October 1944 - Camp ????, Oklahoma

 

March 1945 - Camp Hubart (?), Carol Hill Oklahoma

 

April 1945 - Camp ????, Carol Hill Oklahoma

 

December 20th 1945 - Camp Polk, Luisiana

 

January 22 1946 - on the road to New York

 

January 29 1946 - on Victory Class Ship

 

February 5 1946 - arived at Le Havre France

 

He was several times abused/ battered by the Frensh - The Red Cross assist his relase in 1949 - same year he goes home to his family

[siege1863]

I have the identical publication that belonged to a German POW held at Camp Como in Mississippi. It is identified the same way inside the cover. Tucked between the pages is what appears to be a woodblock printing of a 1944 Christmas card with the name of the camp. This was one of the "pro-America" publications made available to the prisoners as part of the re-education program.

[fstop61]

That's really a cool book-I'm curious on why it took so long for his release. Thanks for posting.

[siege1863]

Because of an on-going shortage of labor, the POWs in the US were not repatriated in any great numbers until early 1946. Even then, most were retained by the British and French, not seeing home until 1947 or later.

[willysmb44]

Not to mention how long the Russians held onto theirs...

[Marksman]

Yes my grandpa was a pow in russia - he was captured on may 1st 1945 south of berlin - he comes Home december 22 1950

 

Thanks all who write. Pow are always interesting

[siege1863]

Here is more from my POW collection...

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/85800-scarce-manuals-for-pow-camp-administration/?hl=bedig&do=findComment&comment=627059

[siege1863]

And another RARE piece...

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/42637-historic-german-pow-capture-record/?hl=capture

[siege1863]

And a display...

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/20448-clinton-pow-camp-display/?hl=%2Bcamp+%2Bclinton

[willysmb44]

I would expect someone like that would have visited the southeast as there were plenty of camps down there.

Florida, for example, had hundreds of POW camps and the Germans were allowed to go off on their own into the local towns in some cases.

I've always wondered how the luckier of them must have felt once they got to where they were going and realized they were going to be treated far better than they must have anticipated...