German POWs Were Starved by the US Army

By most accounts, German POWs were treated well by the US Army during World War II. Those sent to the United States had no chance to escape so were loosely guarded as they provided valuable farm labor and lived well. But something happened in 1945 that resulted in abuse and thousands of POWs died.

The Rheinwiesenlager, or Rhine Meadow camps in English, were a group of 19 camps built in Germany by the US Army to hold captured German soldiers during the last months of World War II as millions of German soldiers surrendered. German POWs were herded into outdoor pens and held for months with no shelter, toilets, or beds, while water and food were rationed. The horrible conditions led to the death of thousands. This led to controversy and a US Army investigation determined this abuse caused 3053 deaths. Later investigations by the new West German government claimed between 4000 to 27,000 German prisoners perished in these camps because of poor conditions.

In 1989, Canadian James Bacque authored a book titled: “Other Losses: An Investigation into the Mass Deaths of German Prisoners at the Hands of the French and Americans After World War II”. He had examined US Army records that showed over a million Germans listed as taken prisoner were never recorded as discharged and disappeared. Bacque assumed that most died in captivity due to intentional neglect.

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“Rheinwiesenlager”; Wikipedia; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinwi…

“The Rhine Meadows Camps – What Really Happened?”; Mark Felton; March 30, 2021;    • The Rhine Meadows Camps – What Really Happ…