It is worth pointing out that all British-held German POWs were sent home in less time than German-held Polish, French and Serb POWs.
Cheers,
Sid.
Now that's a lame comparison or excuse,which country ever released POWs while the war was still raging.As usual Britain and others did not abide again by the Geneva Convention rules.
Now that's a lame comparison or excuse,which country ever released POWs while the war was still raging.
Actually, Germany did - with the Norwegian POWs captured in the 1940 campaign. So conceivably, they could have done the same with the French and the Poles and others. I agree you have a bit of a point there though.
It was termed a "point" rather than an "equation" precisely because any equation would have been weak.
The point is that Poles, French and Serb POWs were held for six, five and four years after their countries had been over run and defeated. Germans were held by the British for no more than 3 years after their country had been over run and defeated.
Why this occurred is open for discussion in the terms you suggest, but it remains a fact.
In the Polish case the Germans themselves made the release of Polish POWs impossible by refusing to recognise any form of Polish government, puppet or otherwise, with which to do any sort of deal. There was to be no peace with the Polish state because there was going to be no Polish state.
The closest equivalent to British-held German POWs is that of the German-held French POWs after 1940.
In the French case the Germans had peaceful relations with the internationally recognised government of France in Vichy and repeatedly promised in principle to Petain that they would release all French POWs. Indeed, they did release a couple of hundred thousand in return for French co-operation in 1941-42, but kept a million even though they was no conflict with the recognised French government. They did this in order to maintain leverage over Vichy France, not because the released POWs would have been much of a threat. (In this connection it is worth mentioning that it was largely French colonial forces that took part in the liberation of France. Metropolitan Frenchmen played only a small role because they were not conscripted even after liberation - except in Corsica.)
In the case of Yugoslavia the Germans released almost all except the Serb POWs taken in 1941. In this case they did have a puppet regime available and did release a number of Serb POWs to help form the Nedic government's armed forces. However, although they came to an informal arrangement with the Serb Chetniks in the field, the Germans did not trust them enough to release the remaining pro-Chetnik Serb POWs.
As the war progressed and more and more German manpower was mobilised, the Germans found many of the various continental POWs too useful on the farms and in industry to release them and economic considerations increasingly predominated.
My basic point is that three years is not historiacally an exceptional length of time to hold POWs after war's end, especially as it was only the few hard cases who were actually held that long by the British.
Lenin peacemaker - ha ha, Bolsheviks are peacefull- yeah, that must be acid.
Some soldiers were held in POW's camp very long without reason (my grandpa to end 1946), some soldiers was war criminals and nazi (Kesserling, Doenitz, Dietrich and many more) so no doubt they must be punished.
You wrote
"My basic point is that three years is not historiacally an exceptional length of time to hold POWs after war's end, especially as it was only the few hard cases who were actually held that long by the British. "
Not exactly true.
In the Bitter Lakes District of Abu Suer Egypt they were all kept
for the three years.
They were used as labour in the Suez district which made them
valuable source to be used. You can say they were hard cases
but that is only an justification for their length of time.
In my Father's case just one month could have made huge life altering
repercussions.
So far no one mentioned that the Soviets made a difference between German members of th Wehrmacht and Austrian. The Austrians where all send home in 1949 because they where the first victims of Germany.
Whoever in Austria talked Ivan into this, must have been a quite clever guy to make the russians belive this bullshit.
From the books of German POWs in Russia you find out that they where really pissed as the Austrians went home, and they where told they had to stay.
Out of convenience, the Allies, and not just the Soviets, chose to regard the Austrian government's suppression of the Nazi coup attempt of July 1934 as the first active resistance to Hitler. This allowed them to justify differentiating between Austrians and Germans during the post-war settlement.
I'v seemed to recall a few passages from articles i'v read that German POW's from the US being returned home,with the proper documents, were side tracked by the French and were sent to work in French mines.
If true was it "to get even" or kind of a way to give US a slap in the face?
"I must point out that my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite is the smoking of cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them". - Winston Churchill
My stepfather, a Polish prisoner of war was released by the Germans in 1940.
My Uncle, a German prisoner of war of the British returned home in 1949. He was in the army a total, I think of 5 days when captured in 1945 at the end of the war. He was in a POW camp at Harwich and worked on farms. In his spare time he knitted socks for the locals, as in his words, "Die armen Schlucker hatten ja nichts." (The poor sods didn't have anything). Can't say that he was a hard case with his fighting, or should I say his non fighting record & he certainly despised Adolf, although he did say that at least you were safe on the streets during the 3rd Reich as long as you minded your own business. He was still knitting socks in the late '70s when he died.
Interestingly he was able to say good bye to his wife before being shipped of to England, as he was held in a compound somewhere in the vicinity of Dusseldorf and got word out to her in Nurnberg. She walked from Nurnberg to Dusseldorf to say her good-byes and then walked back to Nurnberg. One thing I can say about my female relatives, they were and are tough as nails. i guess they had to be.
Was haben wir für dich gewollt
Du deutsches Vaterland?
- H Gehr IR 21./17.ID
