000			04108cam a2200445 a 4500
001			ocn624036846
003			OCoLC
005			20251028093324.0
008			100514s2010 tnua b s001 0 eng
010			_a 2010019337
035			_a(Sirsi) i9781572337282
040			_aDLC _beng _cDLC _dYDX _dYDXCP _dCDX _dRCE _dMIX _dYUS _dBDX _dAWC _dOCLCQ _dCHVBK _dOCLCO _dVF$
020			_a9781572337282 (hardcover : alk. paper)
020			_a1572337281 (hardcover : alk. paper)
024	8		_a40018667068
035			_a(OCoLC)624036846
042			_apcc
043			_an-us--- _ae-gx---
050	0	0	_aD 805 .U5 _bT455 2010
049			_aVF$A
100	1		_aThompson, Antonio S. _q(Antonio Scott), _d1975-
245	1	0	_aMen in German uniform : _bPOWs in America during World War II / _cAntonio Thompson.
250			_a1st ed.
260			_aKnoxville : _bUniversity of Tennessee Press, _cc2010.
300			_axiv, 178 p. : _bill. ; _c24 cm.
490	1		_aLegacies of war
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [159]-173) and index.
505	0		_aHousing the enemy : prisoner of war administration and camp construction -- Sprechen sie Deutsch? : from recruitment in the Third Reich to incarceration in the United States -- Igniting the powder keg : Nazi influence within the camps and the last acts of defiance among POWs -- Love thy enemy : coddling, segregating, and fraternizing with German POWs -- The devil is in the details : German POW labor and the American home front -- Idle hands : recreation and intellectual diversion behind barbed wire -- Exorcising the beast : the reeducation of German POWs in the United States -- Leaving a place called Amerika.
520			_aExamining the largest prisoner-of-war handling operation in U.S. history, this book offers a meticulous account of the myriad problems - as well as the impressive successes - that came with housing 371,000 German POWs on American soil during World War II. Antonio Thompson draws on extensive archival research to probe various ways in which the U.S. government strove to comply with the Geneva Convention's mandate that enemy prisoners be moved from the war zone and given food, shelter, and clothing equal to that provided for American soldiers. While the prisoners became a ready source of manpower for the labor-starved American home front and received small wages in return, their stay in the United States generated more than a few difficulties, which included daunting logistics and also violence within the camps. Such violence was often blamed on Nazi influence and control; however, as Thompson points out, only a few of the prisoners were actually Nazis. Because the Germans had cobbled together military forces that included convicts, their own POWs, volunteers from neutral nations, and conscripts from occupied countries, the bonds that held these soldiers together amid pressures of combat dissolved once they were placed behind barbed wire. When these "men in German uniform," who were not always Germans, donned POW garb, their former social, racial, religious, and ethnic tensions quickly reemerged. To counter such troubles, American authorities organized various activities including sports, arts, education, and religion within the POW camps; some prisoners even participated in an illegal denazification program created by the U.S. government. Despite the problems, Thompson argues, the POW-housing program proved largely successful, as Americans maintained their reputation for fairness and humane treatment during a time of widespread turmoil--Publisher's description.
650		0	_aWorld War, 1939-1945 _xPrisoners and prisons, American.
650		0	_aPrisoners of war _zUnited States _xHistory _y20th century.
650		0	_aPrisoners of war _zGermany _xHistory _y20th century.
650		0	_aSoldiers _zGermany _xHistory _y20th century.
650		0	_aGermans _zUnited States _xHistory _y20th century.
650		0	_aWorld War, 1939-1945 _xConcentration camps _zUnited States.
650		0	_aWorld War, 1939-1945 _zUnited States.
830		0	_aLegacies of war.
994			_aC0 _bVF$
999			_c134300 _d134300