German POWs in North Africa - 1951?

I recently obtained a book about an exhibition at German museums of private photos by German soldiers, and one section included several photos from a POW camp in Tunisia from 1946-1951.
I didn't realise that POWs were kept this long by the western allies. Does anyone have any more information?

 

Sounds odd - the best I could find is this covering up to 1946......

Feldgrau.net • View topic - Other Little-Known Accounts by German Veterans


The Shadow of his Wings by Father Gereon Goldman was published in 1964 and republished in 2000 by the Ignatius Press. Goldmann served in the Waffen-SS and the Wehrmacht from 1939 until he was captured near Monte Cassino in February 1944. Incongruously, he was a Franciscan Novitiate who was called up for RAD service in September, then returned to the monastery until he was drafted for service in the Heer in August 1939 along with 200 other seminarians. The description of his wartime service runs over 130 pages. In an effort to break the ties to their faith, as well as for their refusal to swear the oath of loyalty to Hitler, Goldmann and the others were transferred to the SS Police Division

(snip)

After beng taken prisoner by the British, he is shipped to several French-run POW camps in Tunisia and Algeria, where he and his fellow German prisoners are treated rather barbarically (he dedicates some 100 pages worth describing this phase of his life). While in the camps, he fought to have a chapel erected for his fellow prisoners (he was ordained in a POW camp in May 1944), fought for better living conditions, and battled unregenerate Nazis who wanted to continue fighting even while in the camps. Ironically, he was singled out as a former SS man (he was ratted out by a fellow prisoner) and underwent over a year of maltreatment and abuse by the French, who staged a mock execution on his behalf. Finally repatriated in 1946, he went on to serve as a Priest in Germany, the Netherlands, and finally in Japan. His story is rather incredible, and would be hard to believe, if it weren't for photos he had taken every step along the way - as a RAD worker, as an SS Mann, as a Heer Unteroffizier, and as a Priest & prisoner. He was even awarded the EKII,

 

Mathsmal,

I have read about German POW's being detained in Russia (Siberia) until the 1950's, but not that the West held them so long.

Regards
Tom

 

The French were known to give some the option of joining the Legion for service in Vietnam, there are some good accounts in German of the barbarity with which German POWs were treated in the USSR, Yugoslavia and France as well as the disgrace of the American camps in 1945. The British by and large had a good reputation as being fair but hard.

 

quote from:

German POW

German POW’s continued to be held by the Allies for a number of years after the war had ended. The last POW’s held in Egypt returned to Germany in December 1948.

 

Thanks for the replies. With closer examination, it seems he voluntarily stayed on at a British camp in the role of photographer, after the other POWs were returned home - hence the longer stay!

 

Libyan Oilfields late sixties and early seventies

There were a number of guys with 'interesting backgrounds' - german/polish & yugoslav involved in numerous De-mining projects

PZULBA - Out of Africa (retired)

 

The French were known to give some the option of joining the Legion for service in Vietnam, there are some good accounts in German of the barbarity with which German POWs were treated in the USSR, Yugoslavia and France as well as the disgrace of the American camps in 1945. The British by and large had a good reputation as being fair but hard.
What disgraces in particular were you referring to? Although I am no expert on German POWs in the US during the war, I have read next to nothing that would be considered disgraceful regarding their treatment. Please direct me to what you know about this incident so I can learn more about it.

 

Try the book Other Losses as an example in English, there are also books in German dealing with German POW experiences. In terms of abuse of process the treatment of Waffen SS prisoners in the run up to the Malmedy trials could be classed as torture to achieve results wanted by the prosecutors.

Other Losses: An Investigation Into the Mass Deaths of German Prisoners at the Hands of the French and Americans After World War II: Amazon.co.uk: James Bacque: Books

 

I was equally intrigued, but a quick google of 'german pow usa mistreatment' brings back quite a few pages, many interesting ones
like U.S. (and French) abuse of German PoWs, 1945-1948 and also
German POWs WW11 as well as the usual wiki page which states: "According to Stephen E. Ambrose, of the roughly 1,000 US combat veterans that he had interviewed, roughly one-third told him they had seen US troops kill German prisoners.[55]

Towards the end of the war in Europe, as large numbers of Axis soldiers surrendered, the US created the designation of Disarmed Enemy Forces (DEF) so as not to treat prisoners as POWs. A lot of these soldiers were kept in open fields in various Rheinwiesenlagers. Controversy has arisen about how Eisenhower managed these prisoners[56] (see Other Losses)."






Please direct me to what you know about this incident so I can learn more about it.

 

Yes, I have read a bit on that subject before in the past, in various manuscripts. Not exactly our finest hour or the showing of our best manners at all. That "disarmed enemy" designation that Ike classified the surrendered Germans could have been administered a little better as well. Needless to say I was very disheartened when I first came across this information. I was reading and thinking "no way", but the more information that I read, the worse I felt.

At the first reading of Jedburgh22's post (#4), I was under the impression he meant the way German POWs were treated in the camps in the continental US during the war. Everything that I have read regarding their treatment there indicated relatively high living considering the circumstances. As a result, many former POWs returned to the US to visit the areas they were incarcerated, and many more immigrated to the US following the war and normalization of relations.

Thanks for the info and clarification on the matter.