Were Nazis Tortured in World War II?

[Jim O]

The full article is well worth reading. It's about treatment of German POW's during and after the war by US authorities and forces. Opinions and discussion please!

Were Nazis Tortured in World War II?
By Caleb Miller

Were Nazis tortured in World War II? How one ultimately answers the question of whether Nazi POWs were tortured in World War II depends on how one defines torture. It also depends on what one considers a "Nazi."

There were three main categories under which a "Nazi POW" held by American forces in WW II could fall: (1) a National Socialist Party or German-American Bund member, who was perhaps a suspected Nazi-sympathizer already living in the United States, captured by the F.B.I. shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, (2) a captured Nazi soldier who was sent to one of the Prisoner of War camps inside the United States, or (3) a Nazi soldier who was captured and held inside Europe after Germany was occupied by the Allies.

The German-Americans who were captured while living inside the United States – who may or may not have been national socialists or Nazi-sympathizers as suspected – were perhaps treated the worst in their initial capture. Texas A&M’s Arnold Krammer documents these break-ins in his book, Undue Process. The break-ins would happen early in the morning or late at night, and often separate families. The trials were often nowhere close to thorough, giving little if any chance to the accused German to defend his or her loyalty to America.

Yet, despite the questionable legality of the detainment in the first days of America’s involvement in World War II, there are no instances of detainees being tortured for information. Even diplomats, whom FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover deemed to be more threatening to America’s security than the thousands of detained German-Americans, were allowed to return to their countries (it was hoped that American diplomats in Axis countries would be allowed to leave as well).

In accordance with the Geneva Conventions, The Rules for Detainees (Instruction No. 58) stated:

Detainees must at all times be protected against acts of violence, insults, and public curiosity. Physical coercion must not be resorted to and, except in self-defense, to prevent escape or for purposes of proper search, no employee of this Service under any pretext shall invade the person of any detainee. No measures calculated to muiliate or degrade shall be undertaken.

In most cases, it would not have made sense to torture these German-Americans to gain intelligence anyway, since they had not been captured on the battlefield and would not have been knowledgeable about strategic targets in Europe or Africa. Though there were cases of Nazi-sympathizers being caught in the act of treason, as in the cases of German-American Bund leaders Dr. Otto Willumeit and Gerhard Wilhelm, who were caught and jailed for "transmitting U.S. defense secrets to Germany and Japan," there were many more German-Americans being detaind for no apparent crime whatsoever. An angry ex-wife or suspicious neighbor suddenly had the power to have a German-American locked up.

Hoover suspected that the Nazis had planted sleeper cells in the United States before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He thought this group would wait for a Nazi invasion of America before becoming active, perhaps even leading the Nazis to strategic military targets. This was what the Nazis had done in their invasion of Poland in 1939. But Krammer points out one problem with this suspicion was that the Nazis in Germany did not consider German Americans (or Germans living in any foreign country, for that matter) to be "authentic" Germans, no matter how supportive of National Socialism they may have been...


Full Article: Were Nazis Tortured in World War II?

For more discussion and background on this issue see also HNN Debate: Was Ike Responsible for the Deaths of Hundreds of Thousands of German POW's? Pro and Con.

[Helmut Von Moltke]

Intresting. 40 million Americans have German heritage. Just imagine the fright if the war was going the other way round!

I don't like the mentioning of 'Nazi' soldier though. Most soldiers of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS weren't members of the party.

K

[Jim O]

Originally Posted by Helmut Von Moltke

I don't like the mentioning of 'Nazi' soldier though. Most soldiers of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS weren't members of the party.

The author addressed this in a comment when it was pointed out to him a few days ago, shortly after his article was published.

[razorboy]

I grew up in northeastern Fairfax County, Va. - about 5 miles from a place called Fort Hunt..... My High School was named after it. It was one of the old forts that formed a ring around D.C., lots of concrete bunkers pointed at the Potomac that I understood as having been built during WW1. It's probably less than 15 miles from the White House as the crow flys. As a kid one of my neighbors was a an old guy who had been a wartime guard at the "Fort". He told me about the German POWs there and how some were interrogated by Army Intelligence and on some ocassions, FBI Agents.

He said that they were forced to "Spill the beans" (His words not mine) through various methods. According to him one of the interrogators favorites was an Onion, Garlic, Horseradish mixture packed into a gas mask, and the interviewee being forced to wear it...this generally produced vomiting - which is something you don't want to do in a gas mask. They were also forced to sit naked on steam radiators..not to good for your hind-parts or genitals. I understand that a "Christmas Edition" of the Sears Catalog placed on top of the head and beaten with a billyclub would "Scramble the brains" without leaving any lumps or cuts - should the Red Cross happen along.

The most famous of Fort Hunt's Guests were a few U-Boat personnel sent there that were featured in a History Channel (I Think) show on TV some time back. In the show they mentioned the radiator and gasmask "treatments" so I assume what my neighbor told me some 35 years ago was true.

So much for the Geneva Convention, Huh?

razorboy

BTW, German POWs were held at Fort Story, Va. (Va. Beach) too - but to my knowledge no interrogations or torture ocurred there.

[Geek44]

It would certainly make sense that some were tortured. Honestly, any idea that torture doesn't take place during war seems a little naive to me. Heck, I'm a pretty peace-loving guy but if I thought it would save lives...I'd bring my own onions and a gas mask.
Peace.

[razorboy]

Originally Posted by Geek44

It would certainly make sense that some were tortured. Honestly, any idea that torture doesn't take place during war seems a little naive to me. Heck, I'm a pretty peace-loving guy but if I thought it would save lives...I'd bring my own onions and a gas mask.
Peace.

I hear you Geek,
I keep both handy...... just in case.

razorboy

"Say Hello to my Little Friend"