MNH 2/12/02

U.S. POW POLICIES DON’T CHANGE

I remember it so well; the French prisoner of war returning from the fields unobtrusively dropping a hand full of candies, and the three of us, three little German girls, scampering to pick up the caramel bonbons. It was the only candy I got during the war. You might ask, how come a prisoner had candies when we, the Germans had none. The candy came from Red Cross packages which the Germans duty bound by the Geneva convention handed over to the prisoners of war under their control. (This was not the case with the Russian POW since Stalin, approached by the Germans wanted no part of the Geneva convention).

I have another memory. It was about two weeks after the war. Now the Germans were the prisoners and the Americans the keepers. The German prisoners were kept in the open without shelter on Hamp's field for about three or four days. Shelter was available, a big unused barn, and it was right there on the field. Just like Stalin Eisenhower wanted no oversight by the Red Cross. He simply changed the status of the captured German soldiers by changing the name from POW to DEF, disarmed enemy forces. Tenth of thousands of German POW were held for weeks and months on end along the fields near the Rhine with inaedequate rations and no shelter. The death rate was horrendous. The Red Cross having been given access to POW camps administered by the Germans found nothing amiss in these camps. It might come as a surprise to you that Sep.. l944 the Red Cross was at Auschwitz. And yes, the concentration camp inmates did receive Red Cross packages. When a Red Cross convoy was on the way to relieve the suffering of the German POW under American control it was turned around. Americans are prone to make moral judgments according to the side on which you are fighting. If you are on the American side you are automatically good, if you are on the opposing side you are morally bad. Your moral standing can quickly change, since American friends from yesterday can almost overnight become the American enemy of today. Eisenhower considered the Germans and their soldiers morally bad and therefore they deserved to suffer. The Talbian fighters, friends of yesterday, are now American enemies and have suddenly become an evil lot. Bush, like Eisenhower thinks a name change is all that it needs. By calling these Taliban fighters held in wire cages (6 by 8) illegal combatants the Bush administration feels free to ignore the Geneva convention. When the German POWS suffered and died in the mud of the Rhine fields, nobody paid any attention. But now the International community is watching and does not like what it sees.