The German Pows In South Carolina (Studies in American History) - Hardcover
During World War II, explains Segal (Spanish, York Comprehensive High School, South Carolina and Winthrop U.) German prisoners of war were allotted to many rural communities in South Carolina as laborers mostly in agriculture and lumber, but also in a few manufacturing jobs and on some military bases to free civilian and army personnel for front-line duty. Some 8,000 to 11,000 prisoners were housed in camps in 17 counties across the state between 1943 and 1946, where US government policy was implemented locally by military administrators, civilian employers, and people of the community. She explores the development of policy and procedures, administration, the labor problem, life behind the wire, and the return home. The text is double spaced. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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About the Author:
Deann Bice Segal received an M.A. in History from Winthrop University and currently teaches Spanish at York Comprehensive High School in York, South Carolina and at Winthrop University.
Review:
"In her thoroughly researched and timely book, Ms. Deann Bice Segal gives us a glimpse of the 8,000 to 11,000 German Prisoners of war who found themselves incarcerated in South Carolina during the Second World War. These POWs, "the enemy among us" or the so-called "Supermen" of the 1940's were mysterious to the people of rural South Carolina who, as the war continued, needed laborers to assist in agriculture, the lumber industry and manufacturing. Ms. Segal tells us about the complex relationships that arose in southern communities and among American government agencies that, in wartime, developed policies for accommodating the prisoners who lived in the camps. The author goes further, however, than official documents and strengthens her analysis by including details from interviews with former POWs (such as German sailor Albert Brathe) and the residents of the Carolina towns which hosted the Germans. As Ms. Segal writes, her book examines "life behind the wire" (e.g., food and health care), the benefits to the state's economy, local adjustments to the foreigners, and the prisoners' impressions of the conditions in which they were held. All of this occurred, as the author stresses, in an era in which the Geneva Convention guidelines for POWs were relatively untested... This study is thoughtfully prepared and sharply presented. It gives the reader a grasp of America at war and the individuals who, on the home front, tried to sort through their own economic challenges as men far from their homeland adjusted to life "behind the wire" in rural South Carolina." - (from the Commendatory Preface) Joseph Edward Lee, Ph.D., Winthrop University"
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- PublisherEdwin Mellen Pr
- Publication date2005
- ISBN 10 0773462821
- ISBN 13 9780773462823
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages142
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