A Flood of Prisoners

This chapter focuses on the movement of captured German POWs from Europe and Africa to the United States. It explores the early agreements between the United States and the United Kingdom regarding POWs, including the British process of POW intake before handing them over to the United States, all of which impacted how many Germans arrived on U.S. shores. In preparation for the POWs the United States and the United Kingdom collaborated in the establishment of departments for espionage and interrogation. It explores the process of creating a number of new departments to manage these new fields of study, comparing the Allies’ policies of intake and interrogation and how those differences influenced the “state” of the POWs as they landed in America and their ability to adapt to the POW camps.