Fortunately for the generals and the other officer prisoners, they had better-quality barracks than did the enlisted prisoners of war at Camp Mexia. The officers’ apartments were constructed using sheetrock, rather than the tar-paper walls the enlisted POWs were forced to endure, and while the officers shared quarters, there were only two officers assigned to an apartment and each man had his own bedroom. The generals were also regularly allowed to take strolls outside of the camp accompanied by an American officer, but only after giving their word of honor not to escape. Unfortunately for the generals, there was not much to look at outside the fence. According to Rudolf Fischer, a representative of the Swiss government who inspected the camp in September 1943, Camp Mexia “leaves much to be desired in the way of beautification. It has not been possible to get grass to take root and in high winds the camp is very dusty.”22
Despite the swirling dust and the oppressive heat and humidity of Camp Mexia, American commanding officer Colonel Thomas Bays fostered a very “cordial” relationship with his prisoners, including the newly arrived generals. Indeed, General von Vaerst applauded Colonel Bays’s gentlemanly approach, stating that the camp commandant was “always correct” in his manners. A camp inspector from the International Committee of the Red Cross who visited Camp Mexia in August 1943 also commended Colonel Bays’s leadership, noting that overall the prisoners’ morale was “excellent.”23
Colonel Bays strove to provide adequate recreation areas and facilities for the prisoners, including overseeing the construction of several tennis courts and the remodeling of some existing buildings into theaters equipped with raised stages and sloping seats; he even obtained a 35-mm movie projector and some radios for prisoner use. Bays also encouraged the development of a prisoner educational program that included plans for courses in architecture, political science, physics, chemistry, medicine, botany, and law, among others. Unfortunately, book shortages and censorship rules hindered attempts to get the school system up and running during the prisoners’ first few months at Camp Mexia. While these early obstacles were eventually overcome, the generals were transferred to Mississippi before they could take advantage of this program.24
In spite of Colonel Bays’s efforts to provide adequate facilities for the prisoners at Mexia, the generals, in particular, were dissatisfied. Admittedly, two main problems existed, the first being that no amount of minor remodeling could make Camp Mexia into a resort like Byron Hot Springs or an estate like Trent Park. The generals, miserable from the sweltering heat and comparatively unattractive surroundings, quickly compared their previous camps in England and California with their new, if temporary, home in Texas and found American treatment sadly wanting.
In Camp Mexia’s defense, it had not been intended as a long-term stay for the generals. Facilities specifically designed for these men had been under construction at Camp Clinton, Mississippi, since the generals had first arrived in America. Unfortunately, construction delays postponed the transfer of the generals to Clinton. The generals’ camp was originally slated to open on September 1, 1943, but that was delayed until the first week of October. But even had the generals been transferred as originally planned, the damage to American prestige, in the generals’ eyes, would already have been done. In fact, by the end of July, when the generals had yet to spend a full month in Mexia, the headquarters for the Eighth Service Command (which included Camp Mexia) sent the following telegram to the provost marshal general in Washington, D.C.: “German General Officers at Prisoner of War Camp Mexia, Texas, Protesting Present Accommodations. Recommend Transfer at Earliest Practical Date to Clinton, Mississippi.” All that Camp Mexia personnel could do was to assure the generals that accommodations more appropriate to their rank were being prepared for them.25
The subpar housing, the scorching sun of midsummer in Texas, and the dusty wind of Camp Mexia caused the generals a great deal of consternation. Yet the second main problem at Mexia and what may have galled the senior prisoners the most was the insolence, as they saw it, with which many of the American officers treated them. General von Vaerst, according to Rudolf Fischer of the Swiss legation, was “considerably perturbed by the treatment which he has received in the United States.” Von Vaerst claimed that the British treated general officer prisoners “more appropriately” than did the Americans. He complained to the Swiss legation that, with the exception of Colonel Bays, “he had not been treated with the chivalry and civility which he believed he had a right to expect.” The general was offended that “many American officers had not exhibited confidence in his word as a German officer and that the treatment accorded him was similar to that accorded to a criminal.”26
American treatment of von Vaerst and his fellow generals, as well as the rest of the German prisoner population in America, was founded almost entirely upon the dictates of international law in the form of the 1929 International Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, otherwise known as the Geneva Convention. The United States strictly adhered to the 1929 Geneva Convention in the hope that this would compel Nazi Germany to treat American soldiers held in German prisoner-of-war camps accordingly. The treaty required that POW camps be constructed to the same standards as military installations for the home nation’s own soldiers. In other words, the POW camps in America were required to offer German prisoners of war the same conditions as did American base camps for U.S. military personnel. American observance of the law went to such extremes that in some camps where not enough barrack space existed to house both prisoners and American guards, both had to live in tents and the barracks sat empty until more could be built and the problem rectified.27
This was certainly not the case with Camp Mexia, or any camp in the United States that housed German generals. General officer prisoners enjoyed their own furnished apartments, aides de camp and batmen to service their immediate needs, and forty dollars per month in salary without being required to work.28 They lived in enclosures segregated from the enlisted and noncommissioned officer compounds, and while the Geneva Convention required that they salute American officers, this requirement applied only to U.S. officers of equal or higher rank. Since few American generals ever wandered through U.S. prisoner-of-war camps and most American POW camp commanding officers were not general officers, the German prisoner-of-war generals rarely had to do anything except enjoy a life of leisure, however boring, while engaging in artistic pursuits and recreational activities or simply complaining about their living conditions.29
There is a difference, however, between providing a safe, comfortable environment with life’s basic necessities as required by international law and accommodating gentlemen in a manner to which they are accustomed to living. The German generals were aghast to discover that U.S. military installations offered American generals accommodations similar to theirs and that Camp Mexia met the basic housing requirements of the Geneva Convention. Furthermore, considering the lack of respect for aristocratic institutions that many of the American officers and guard personnel at Mexia apparently exhibited, the German generals likely felt more at home in an English prisoner-of-war camp than they did in the United States. Fortunately for them, their stay in Texas was brief. Unfortunately, they soon found an equally poor environment in Mississippi.
On June 3, 1943, U.S. Army Service Forces Headquarters authorized the construction of “General officer prisoner of war compounds at Clinton, Mississippi, and Monticello, Arkansas.” Washington designated Clinton for German general officers and Monticello for Italians. The directive called for each compound to hold up to thirty-one generals and as many as thirty-two lower-ranking officers who could serve as aides-de-camp. It also called for future expansion to accommodate a total of fifty-one generals and fifty-six aides of the appropriate nationality in each location.30
American authorities initially strove to provide what they believed to be superior accommodations for their general officer prisoners. Like the officers’ compound at Camp Mexia, the generals’ compound at Clinton off
ered more amenities than did the enlisted men’s quarters. During construction in July 1943 the initial camp commandant, Colonel Charles C. Loughlin, arranged to have the total area of the generals’ compound enlarged by moving the north fence line about one hundred yards farther out. This allowed the compound to include “a small brook and grove of trees which would add to the beautification of this area.” Once completed, the generals’ compound consisted of eighteen residential buildings. The ranking general officer enjoyed his own small house, composed of a living room and dining room, two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bath. Fifteen other houses, built in a fashion similar to the ranking officer’s home, each accommodated two lower-ranking generals who shared quarters. The two additional barracks in the compound housed the generals’ aides-de-camp.31
The generals’ homes were well furnished. The living room of each house contained a polished wooden desk, two wooden chairs, and a matching settee, all of which were upholstered in red leather. A table and other smaller furnishings were also provided to complement the living rooms. The Provost Marshal General’s Office also allowed German prisoner-of-war officers to have radios and newspapers, provided they met the approval of U.S. government censors. The YMCA and the International Committee of the Red Cross provided additional books, recreational equipment, and supplies for hobbies and artistic endeavors. One of the earliest German generals to arrive at Camp Clinton was reported to have been a talented artist who adorned the walls of his living room with his own watercolor creations.32
The generals’ compound also included an officers’ club and a canteen where all of the officers could purchase toiletries and food items in addition to eating the daily meals provided by the camp. The generals, like all German POWs in American camps, were allowed to purchase two bottles of beer per day and the meals provided for the generals consisted of the same quantity of field rations as those provided for American officers and enlisted men. For help with domestic chores, Clinton’s stockade commander, Major Harry Miller, assigned each general his own orderly, chosen from among the camp’s enlisted prisoner population. These prisoners tended to the generals’ daily needs, doing tasks such as laundry, cleaning, and fetching supplies, leaving the officers who served as the generals’ aides to deal with weightier tasks. In case these facilities and services were unsatisfactory, the generals could send official messages or complaints to the camp’s commanding officer by placing written statements in a mailbox located in the compound. These messages were then routinely carried by one of the camp guards to the commandant’s office.33
The first generals to arrive at Camp Clinton were Gotthard Frantz and Ernst Schnarrenberger. They boarded a train at Ft. George Meade, Maryland, the typical point of arrival for German prisoners of war coming to the United States from England, and arrived in Clinton, Mississippi, on October 7, 1943. They were quickly joined by the senior officers from California, whose transfer by train from Camp Mexia had finally been authorized on October 5. These generals arrived a few days after Frantz and Schnarrenberger, likely owing to delays in preparing the men for transfer and the travel time required to traverse the four hundred miles from north Texas to central Mississippi by rail. These seven prisoners, six generals and one colonel, and their lower-ranking aides would be the sole occupants of Camp Clinton’s officers’ compound for over eight months, until the British began sending other generals from Trent Park to Mississippi in the spring and summer of 1944.34
The transfers of these senior prisoners and their initial adjustment to life at Camp Clinton appear to have been effected fairly easily. This may be due, in part, to the quality of the guards initially assigned to the camp. An inspection report issued by the Provost Marshal General’s Office, dated July 18–19, 1943, praised the “excellency [sic]” of the 458th and 459th Military Police Escort Guard (MPEG) Companies stationed at the camp. These American military police had been stationed there since July 4, 1943, in preparation for the arrival of the first enlisted prisoners near the end of the month. The 487th MPEG Company arrived in September to help prepare the camp to open the newly completed officers’ compound. All of these guard units had been specially trained to handle German general officer prisoners before their arrival in October.35
Despite American preparation and training, the first problem arose only a few days after the generals arrived. Gustav von Vaerst, as the highest-ranking general, became the camp spokesman for the officers’ compound. In this capacity, he notified the U.S. War Department in a letter dated October 13, 1943, that the aides of two of the “generals,” Carl Köchy and August von Quast, had not been transferred with them. Von Vaerst’s letter, sent through Camp Clinton’s new commanding officer, Colonel James L. Mc-Ilhenny, requested that the two aides, Captain Albert Giesecke and Lieutenant Gerhard Runge, be immediately transferred to Clinton from Camp Mexia, Texas. The dispute centered on von Quast’s rank. While von Vaerst referred in his letter to “Colonel in General von Quast,” American officials still insisted that von Quast was simply a colonel. Consequently, the War Department responded to von Vaerst’s letter almost three weeks later by declaring that von Quast was “a colonel and not a general officer, and, therefore, is not entitled to an aide.” Their reply explained that von Quast himself had been sent to Camp Clinton only because he served as an aide to von Vaerst and not because of any impending promotion.36 The War Department eventually acquiesced in the transfers of Giesecke and Runge, but not until July 1944.37
Other problems between the generals and their captors in Mississippi soon followed. Like their colleagues in England, the generals at Camp Clinton requested permission to take walks outside of the camp. While British authorities at Camp No. 11 required the generals to sign “paroles,” written oaths not to escape once outside the fence, American authorities initially objected to allowing the generals out of the camp at all. Major General G. V. Strong, director of military intelligence for the War Department, stated that “due to the numerous cases of brutality toward American prisoners by the Germans” he did “not feel that a relaxation of treatment on our part [was] warranted.” General Strong did not specify the cases of brutality to which he was referring, but his objection to offering the generals parole was obviously intended as a punitive measure.38
The American general and his colleagues quickly had a change of heart, however, and offered the German general officers at Camp Clinton an opportunity for parole similar to that offered by the British. The Americans demanded that certain conditions be met, however, including the requirements that each general must sign his own individual parole form, “all paroles must be for a specified period of time” and include the written consent of the senior German officer, the paroled generals must be “accompanied by an American officer,” and the generals could not travel farther than five miles from the camp or enter any populated areas.39
Surprisingly, after finally receiving permission from the U.S. War Department to walk outside the confines of Camp Clinton, the generals refused to sign any parole forms promising not to escape. Consequently, while their aides took weekly walks with American officers in the Mississippi countryside, those who would not sign the forms remained in the camp. Seven months later, in May 1944, a camp inspector reported that the generals were still requesting permission to walk outside the camp without having to sign the parole form and these requests were still being denied.40
Other routine misunderstandings or simple oversights occurred. Yet, alarmingly, a series of reports filed by camp inspectors from the Swiss legation and the U.S. War and State Departments revealed the development of much more serious concerns, which had arisen by early 1944. Dr. Edward Feer of the Swiss legation, the protecting power charged with ensuring that American officials followed all of the provisions of the Geneva Convention, visited Camp Clinton for three days in February 1944. He was accompanied by Bernard Gufler, chief of the Internees Section of the U.S. State Department’s Special War Problems Division. Whereas the War Department acted as the custodian of prisoners in the United S
tates, the State Department took responsibility for the foreign relations aspects of the operation. Gufler and the Internees Section oversaw this task.41
The two men filed a damning report of American treatment of the prisoner-of-war generals, insisting that “immediate attention” to this issue by American authorities was “imperative.” Feer and Gufler first called attention to the generals’ lack of sufficient clothing. During the winter of 1943–1944, the prisoners had only their thin khaki Afrika Korps uniforms, designed to be worn in hot, desert service. They had not even been issued more appropriate underwear. The only garments Clinton authorities provided “were of abnormally large size and fitted only the tallest” of the generals. Furthermore, the shoes provided for the generals by the camp administration were “in such a worn out and dirty condition that their acceptance was refused [by the generals] as inconsistent with the high rank of the prisoners.”42
Similar complaints were issued about the bedding. The cotton comforters provided for the officers had been previously used and were dirty and torn. The Swiss inspector stated that “on cold and windy days the officers [were] literally freezing.” Making matters worse, when the officers attempted to alleviate their discomfort by ordering desired items from American mail order firms, a privilege allowed the prisoners as long as they could pay for the items from their monthly salaries, the orders were processed extremely slowly by camp personnel. Indeed, the inspection report claimed that “only ten per cent of all the orders placed during the last four to five months [had] been carried out.” The Swiss inspector concluded in regard to the clothing situation that “the German generals at Camp Clinton and the accompanying officers [were] worse off than the enlisted men in any American P.O.W. camp visited so far.”43
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