the encyclopedic entry of Rheinwiesenlager

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Prisoner of War Temporary Enclosures (PWTE)
"Rheinwiesenlager"
World War II
prisoner-of-war camp
Operator:	Occupant:

April - September 1945
location:	Germany
number of camps:	19
prisoners:	~ 1,000,000 estimated
deaths:	3,000 - 10,000 estimated

List of Rheinwiesenlager

listing from north to south with official number

Most of the camps were established on the western side of river Rhine to prevent the imprisoned soldiers from returning to the German armies on the right side of the river.

Historical Situation

By March 1943, the general staff of the commander in chief Dwight D. Eisenhower realized that after the invasion in Europe and the victory over Germany, they would not to be able to feed the German military prisoners. Rather than adhere to the Geneva Convention of 1929, it was decided to treat the prisoners as "Disarmed Enemy Forces (DEF)". As captured former soldiers of a state that no longer existed, they could be denied the rights of prisoners of war guaranteed by the Geneva Convention. The German Wehrmacht employed a similar strategy in referring to imprisoned Italian soldiers as "Militärinternierter" in order to justify their use as forced labour.

Half of the German prisoners of war in the West were imprisoned by the US forces, half of them by the British. When the allied forces crossed the Rhine, the quantity of prisoners of war reached such numbers that the British could not accept any more prisoners in their camps. The US forces, forced to deal with the situation on their own, established the Rheinwiesenlager.

The construction of the camps

In the beginning, there were plans to bring the prisoners of war to Britain, where they would remain until capitulation, because there they could be better provided for. After the failure of the Ardennes offensive 250,000 German soldiers surrendered. After the breakdown of the Ruhr pocket another 325,000 were taken prisoner. After capitulation there were 3.4 million German soldiers in allied custody. With such large numbers of prisoners, it seemed more logical to keep them in Germany. The camps were founded in April 1945 and remained in existence until September 1945. There was a similar plan for the construction of all the camps. Open farmland close to a village with a railroad line was enclosed with barbed wire and divided into 10 - 20 camps each housing 5,000 to 10,000 men. Existing field paths were used as streets of the camp and surrounding buildings as the administration, kitchen and hospital. The prisoners of war, forced to surrender their equipment, had to dig holes in the earth by hand in which to sleep. Soon the camps were totally overcrowded. Camp Remagen, intended for 100,000, grew to 184,000 prisoners.

"Some of the enclosures resembled Andersonville Prison in 1864".

The "disarmed enemy forces"

The term "Prisoners of war (POW)" was not applied to circumvent international regulations that deal with the handling of POWs, instead the surrendered forces were termed "Disarmed Enemy Forces (DEF)". The Americans transferred the interior administration of the camps to German prisoners. Internal administration, police, doctors, cooks and work forces were all German prisoners of war. After some weeks those who were regarded harmless were released: Hitlerjungen and women. Later those professional groups, which were important for reconstruction, were released: farmers, drivers and miners. At the end of June 1945 the first camps in Remagen, Böhl-Ingelheim and Büderich were dissolved. This first wave of release stopped again. The SHAEF offered the French, who wanted 1.75 million prisoners of war for forced labour, to take over the camps. On 10 July 1945 the camps were given to France. In the British Zone the British took over on 12 June 1945. Those prisoners of war who were able to work were transferred to France, the rest released. At the end of September 1945 all the camps were dissolved. Only the camp Bretzenheim near Bad Kreuznach served until 1948 as a transit camp for prisoners of war coming home from France.

Conditions and deaths

Official United States statistics were just over 3,000 deaths while the German villages nearby reported 4,537. R. J. Rummel calculates a most probable figure of 6,000. Extremely high figures of up to a million are sometimes quoted, for instance, by James Bacque but there has been no corroboration and such large numbers of dead bodies would have been discovered and reported in the meantime since the camps were located near highly populated areas in Germany. The official German inquiry into the numbers of deaths was published by the Maschke committee (named after its head, Erich Maschke) which, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Displaced persons, Refugees, and War Victims (Bundesministerium für Vertriebene, Flüchtlinge und Kriegsgeschädigte) researched the history of German prisoners of war on a scientific level. According to their results camps with the highest mortality were:

Bad Kreuznach (Lager Galgenberg und Bretzenheim)
Sinzig near Remagen
Rheinberg
Heidesheim
Wickrathberg
Büderich

In these camps 5,000 of 500,000 inmates died. An analysis of the documents of the local administrations around the camps of Remagen yields similar results. Projected to a total of about 1,000,000 prisoners in all the camps there would have been at the most, 10,000 deaths and probably many less.

The lack of food and unhygienic conditions in these camps where the prisoners lived in open holes in the silty ground, were a severe danger to the lives of the imprisoned. The regular soldiers accustomed to the hard conditions of the war had fewer problems than the wounded, crippled, or the young or old members of the Volkssturm. It is said that Bretzenheim was the worst camp, where about 103,000 members of the Waffen-SS were imprisoned.

The camps were guarded by the 106th Infantry Division of the American army, which was supplied with additional transport units to bring food to the camps. These transport units were not sufficient and the division was incapable of organizing the camps. In April and May the US army had lost control of the situation. They did not even know the real location of some of the camps. There were many more prisoners than expected and later inquiries by the medical department of the US army cited thoughtlessness and misjudgment. The entire organisation of the camps was therefore left to the prisoners.

In addition to the imprisoned doctors, the 65th, 66th, 67th, 68th, and 69th Medical Groups were responsible for the medical care.

Dirty, wet, unhygienic conditions and malnutrition lead to common sickness. Epidemics were prevented by the Americans who supplied prisoners with soap and toilet paper, chlorinated the drinking water and used DDT. The food and water supplies were insufficient during April and May 1945. The situation slowly improved and by June 1945 there was a sufficient amount of food. In May and June all camps were provided with latrines, kitchens and hospitals.

In an August 1945 review it was noted that the 1200 to 1500 calories ration that the Disarmed Enemy Forces were receiving, - which was identical to that issued to the civilian German population - was inadequate. The study also revealed "evidence of very extensive malnutrition" of POWs and DEFs in the Rheinwiesenlager.

The International Red Cross was prevented from visiting prisoners. However, by the autumn of 1945 - a time when most camps had closed or where closing - the Red Cross was granted permission to send delegations to visit camps in the French and UK occupation zones, and to provide - very small - amounts of relief. On February 4, 1946 the Red Cross was allowed to send relief also to those in the U.S. run occupation zone.