Melissa Amateis Marsh

Picked up on the same trip as Prisoners on the Plains. That book was anecdotal; this one is more chronological and historical. Prisoners on the Plains covered only the camp at Atlanta, Nebraska, while Nebraska POW Camps mentions the main camps at Atlanta, Fort Robinson, and Scotts Bluff, plus various temporary branch camps set up for specific farm tasks (usually harvests). Author Melissa Amateis Marsh mentions two situations where the United States might have violated Geneva Convention rules with regard to prisoners. One was the “Intellectual Diversion Program”, designed to “deNazify” German POWs. Under the Geneva Convention, prisoners were supposed to be allowed educational opportunities (and at first the US did this, including courses that were accepted for credit at post-war German universities). However, these educational opportunities were not supposed to be propagandistic, and that’s what the IDP did – arguably. The idea was to expose German POW students to American democracy and democratic ideas, creating a cadre of young Germans who would implement these when they returned to Germany. The IDP seems to have skated on the thin edge of propaganda; for example, students who expressed objections or “disrupted” the courses were segregated out. IDP instructors were told not to “whitewash” American history, but to divert class discussions away from problematical subjects like racial discrimination; possibly because many of the antiNazi prisoners were communists or socialists, the IDP emphasized capitalism and free enterprise. The program was classified as “secret”, presumably to prevent the German government from finding out about it and taking retaliatory measures. In the Fort Robinson camp, prisoners set up their own antiNazi group, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft zur Pflege der Politischen Aufkläerung (Working Association for Political Enlightenment). The founder of this group, Wolfgang Dorschel, was allowed to go on a trip to Fort Meade, South Dakota, to discuss the program, and noted how impressed he was with Mount Rushmore. Author Marsh suggests that the IDP would be an interesting topic for historical research but notes most relevant information has been lost.

The other Geneva Convention violation was more blatant. German prisoners went to work at the Cornhusker Ordnance Plant in Grand Island, Nebraska, where they built an assembly line for bombs – pretty clearly a violation of the Geneva Convention prohibition against prisoners doing direct military work. Apparently, the prisoners originally didn’t know what they were building; when they found out they went on strike – and were denied food in retaliation. They eventually went back to work and the bomb line was completed.

A shorter book than Prisoners on the Plains, with fewer anecdotes from former prisoners. Relevant illustrations of the camps, prisoners, and guards. Endnotes; no bibliography but the endnotes have references. A short index.… (mehr)