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The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America
The revelatory true story of the long-forgotten POW camps for German soldiers erected in hundreds of small U.S. towns during World War II, and the secret Nazi killings that ensnared fifteen brave American POWs in a high-stakes showdown.
“In the pantheon of American history, it’s very hard to find compelling, original stories, and even harder to find authors worthy of them. In The Fifteen, William Geroux delivers the goods.”—John U. Bacon, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Halifax Explosion
The American government was faced with an unprecedented where to house the nearly 400,000 German prisoners of war plucked from the battlefield and shipped across the Atlantic. On orders from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Department of War hastily built hundreds of POW camps in the United States. Today, traces of those camps—which once dotted the landscape from Maine to California—have all but vanished. Forgotten, too, is the grisly series of killings that took place within Nazi power games playing out in the heart of the United States.
Protected by the Geneva Convention, German POWs were well-fed and housed. Many worked on American farms, and a few would even go on to marry farmers’ daughters. Ardent Nazis in the camps, however, took a dim view of fellow Germans who befriended their captors.
Soon, the killings began. In camp after camp, Nazis attacked fellow Germans they deemed disloyal. Fifteen were sentenced to death by secret U.S. military tribunals for acts of murder. In response, German authorities condemned fifteen American POWs to the same fate, and, in the waning days of the war, Germany proposed an audacious fifteen German lives for fifteen American lives.
Drawing on extensive research, journalist and author William Geroux shines a spotlight on this story of murder and high-stakes diplomacy, and on the fifteen American lives that hung in the balance—from a fearless P-51 Mustang fighter pilot to a hot-tempered lieutenant colonel nicknamed “King Kong.”
Propulsive and vividly rendered, The Fifteen reminds us that what happens to soldiers after they exit the battlefield can be just as harrowing as what they experience on it.
“In the pantheon of American history, it’s very hard to find compelling, original stories, and even harder to find authors worthy of them. In The Fifteen, William Geroux delivers the goods.”—John U. Bacon, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Halifax Explosion
The American government was faced with an unprecedented where to house the nearly 400,000 German prisoners of war plucked from the battlefield and shipped across the Atlantic. On orders from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Department of War hastily built hundreds of POW camps in the United States. Today, traces of those camps—which once dotted the landscape from Maine to California—have all but vanished. Forgotten, too, is the grisly series of killings that took place within Nazi power games playing out in the heart of the United States.
Protected by the Geneva Convention, German POWs were well-fed and housed. Many worked on American farms, and a few would even go on to marry farmers’ daughters. Ardent Nazis in the camps, however, took a dim view of fellow Germans who befriended their captors.
Soon, the killings began. In camp after camp, Nazis attacked fellow Germans they deemed disloyal. Fifteen were sentenced to death by secret U.S. military tribunals for acts of murder. In response, German authorities condemned fifteen American POWs to the same fate, and, in the waning days of the war, Germany proposed an audacious fifteen German lives for fifteen American lives.
Drawing on extensive research, journalist and author William Geroux shines a spotlight on this story of murder and high-stakes diplomacy, and on the fifteen American lives that hung in the balance—from a fearless P-51 Mustang fighter pilot to a hot-tempered lieutenant colonel nicknamed “King Kong.”
Propulsive and vividly rendered, The Fifteen reminds us that what happens to soldiers after they exit the battlefield can be just as harrowing as what they experience on it.
394 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 18, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews
May 29, 2025
I had high hopes for this one, and it started really good, but the longer it kept going, the more interest I lost in the story. In some instances the author goes into great detail, like the establishment of the camps and the victims and perpetrators of the murders in the German POW camps in America. But then he leaves out details that could have been useful to the book, by example he only focuses on 4 of the 15 Americans in the story, and just names the others with the offenses they committed. There are also way too many historical inaccuracies made by the author, and this gets frustrating at times when obvious mistakes are made. In the end of the book went of track a little for me, the story is interesting, but it sometimes got lost in between a lot of filler and I struggled to get through it.
November 16, 2024
“There was nowhere else to put the Germans but in America. The British already were detaining more than half a million German and Italian prisoners in temporary pens. Britain, a tiny island nation, had no room to house tens of thousands of Afrika Corps men on a long-term basis. It had no spare troops to guard them and no surplus food to feed them. The United States had all of those in abundance." -William Geroux,The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America
I was interested in reading this book after a recent experience at the National Cemetery in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I was on a road trip passing through the city and decided to check out some interesting monuments. While exploring I ran across the grave of a Nazi general who died in 1945 buried right there in Chattanooga.
I couldn’t get my head around how a German high-ranking officer from WWII could be buried in southern Tennessee, USA, at the end of WWII. I whipped out Ye Olde Smartphone and researched it on the spot. Nazi General Karl Robert Max Bülowius (2 March 1890–27 March 1945) was captured by the Allies in Africa toward the end of the German North African Campaign. He was sent, along with 400,000 other German POWs, to the United States, which had agreed to house captured enemy troops.
Space was abundant in America, and extra space was something the Allies did not have in Europe. Hundreds of American towns became POW camp locations during WWII. As for Bülowius, he committed suicide in 1945 on American soil in a camp near Tullahoma, TN, when it became obvious that Germany would lose the war.
I am not sure how I lived so many decades on this planet without knowing that the United States housed so many POWs during WWII, but somehow I did. Part of that might be due to the extreme secrecy the United States government treated the camps with. They feared that the locals might object to having German POWs held in their midst in hastily erected camps scattered across the country.
As WWII progressed, a split was occurring more and more frequently within the German military ranks. The hardcore Hitler loyalists were pitted against Germans who believed that Hitler should negotiate an end to the war because Germany had no way to win. Erwin Rommel wasn’t the only German to be killed (in his case, “suicided”) for such thinking; many Germans were killed in American POW camps by other Germans as well. Forced suicide was one method, although stabbings and horrific assaults also claimed lives.
To try and establish control over a growing problem, clandestine tribunals were held by American authorities for German POWs who were brought to trial for some of the killings, and fifteen of those souls were sentenced to death for their roles in the murders. An outraged German leadership decided to reciprocate by sentencing fifteen American POWs to death in their own POW camps.
This book tells the story of the German POWs in the United States who were convicted of the murders of their countrymen in their respective prison camps, and also of the Americans who were sentenced to the same fate in German camps for various infractions.
The first half of this book is fascinating in the details of the German camps on American soil, and it is a riveting read. The later portion of the book covering the journey of the American POWs gets a little convoluted and hard to follow at times. A different way of documenting the story might have made those portions flow better.
Overall, the thing I kept coming back to was how little I knew about the massive number of POWs housed in America. This book does an excellent job of not only informing, but also engaging. The layers of war and humanity, and the dark side of both, are on full display.
This was a solid book and an interesting read. My many thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for the early copy for an unbiased review.
Releasing March of 2025.
I was interested in reading this book after a recent experience at the National Cemetery in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I was on a road trip passing through the city and decided to check out some interesting monuments. While exploring I ran across the grave of a Nazi general who died in 1945 buried right there in Chattanooga.
I couldn’t get my head around how a German high-ranking officer from WWII could be buried in southern Tennessee, USA, at the end of WWII. I whipped out Ye Olde Smartphone and researched it on the spot. Nazi General Karl Robert Max Bülowius (2 March 1890–27 March 1945) was captured by the Allies in Africa toward the end of the German North African Campaign. He was sent, along with 400,000 other German POWs, to the United States, which had agreed to house captured enemy troops.
Space was abundant in America, and extra space was something the Allies did not have in Europe. Hundreds of American towns became POW camp locations during WWII. As for Bülowius, he committed suicide in 1945 on American soil in a camp near Tullahoma, TN, when it became obvious that Germany would lose the war.
I am not sure how I lived so many decades on this planet without knowing that the United States housed so many POWs during WWII, but somehow I did. Part of that might be due to the extreme secrecy the United States government treated the camps with. They feared that the locals might object to having German POWs held in their midst in hastily erected camps scattered across the country.
As WWII progressed, a split was occurring more and more frequently within the German military ranks. The hardcore Hitler loyalists were pitted against Germans who believed that Hitler should negotiate an end to the war because Germany had no way to win. Erwin Rommel wasn’t the only German to be killed (in his case, “suicided”) for such thinking; many Germans were killed in American POW camps by other Germans as well. Forced suicide was one method, although stabbings and horrific assaults also claimed lives.
To try and establish control over a growing problem, clandestine tribunals were held by American authorities for German POWs who were brought to trial for some of the killings, and fifteen of those souls were sentenced to death for their roles in the murders. An outraged German leadership decided to reciprocate by sentencing fifteen American POWs to death in their own POW camps.
This book tells the story of the German POWs in the United States who were convicted of the murders of their countrymen in their respective prison camps, and also of the Americans who were sentenced to the same fate in German camps for various infractions.
The first half of this book is fascinating in the details of the German camps on American soil, and it is a riveting read. The later portion of the book covering the journey of the American POWs gets a little convoluted and hard to follow at times. A different way of documenting the story might have made those portions flow better.
Overall, the thing I kept coming back to was how little I knew about the massive number of POWs housed in America. This book does an excellent job of not only informing, but also engaging. The layers of war and humanity, and the dark side of both, are on full display.
This was a solid book and an interesting read. My many thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for the early copy for an unbiased review.
Releasing March of 2025.
April 10, 2025
There is a broader account to be told of the more than 400,000 German prisoner's of war (POWs) who were housed in the United States after the Africa Korps' loss. In July 1943, German POWs were placed in hurriedly built and/or sites repurposed for prisoner of war camps all over the United States.
Geroux's focus in The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America pertains to German-on-German violence within the camps. The Nazi POWs orchestrated other POWs to die by the own hand if deemed not loyal enough to the party and some men were brutally beaten to death.
Fifteen of these men were sentenced to death by hanging. Germany in retribution sentenced fifteen American POWs to death too. What follows is a riveting narrative story about diplomacy concerning POWs, foreign relations and communiques between America and Germany via neutral Switzerland, accounts from POWs given after the war, and what transpired immediately after the war.
Paint me impressed: Mr. Geroux wrote this excellent account after stumbling upon a historical marker in his state of Virginia designating that at the sight of his local library there once existed a German POW camp (Camp Ashby). I love this backstory to how he started the research and the writing of this book.
4.5 stars.
Geroux's focus in The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America pertains to German-on-German violence within the camps. The Nazi POWs orchestrated other POWs to die by the own hand if deemed not loyal enough to the party and some men were brutally beaten to death.
Fifteen of these men were sentenced to death by hanging. Germany in retribution sentenced fifteen American POWs to death too. What follows is a riveting narrative story about diplomacy concerning POWs, foreign relations and communiques between America and Germany via neutral Switzerland, accounts from POWs given after the war, and what transpired immediately after the war.
Paint me impressed: Mr. Geroux wrote this excellent account after stumbling upon a historical marker in his state of Virginia designating that at the sight of his local library there once existed a German POW camp (Camp Ashby). I love this backstory to how he started the research and the writing of this book.
4.5 stars.
January 8, 2025
There is a misconception that there are too many books on World War II. Yes, there is a ton of World War II literature and content. Yes, the History Channel leaned so heavily into WWII that it was being called "The Hitler Channel." While I can generally agree when another book comes out on a well covered topic, The Fifteen by William Geroux is something very different. It is proof that we need more books on the war because there are still stories left to be told.
Geroux presents the account of fifteen German POWs sentenced to death for murdering fellow prisoners. Lo and behold, Germany also comes up with a list of fifteen American POWs sentenced to death for much lesser offenses. Yes, this narrative thread can stand alone and be quite riveting. However, Geroux is already well-known for writing books about lesser known stories which shed light on a bunch of stuff you never knew before. (Side note: If you have not read Geroux's The Ghost Ships of Archangel yet, then please do so ASAP.) To prove my point, can anyone say how many German POWs were housed in the U.S. during the war? I have read a lot of books on the subject of World War II and had no idea it was 400,000. And that's just the beginning of the book.
Geroux also dives into other territory which is very illuminating. He explains the vast differences between the German soldiers (they weren't all Nazis) and chronicles the many mistakes the U.S. government made when the country was forced to take on the massive influx of men without being prepared. And then, there is the very uncomfortable subject of hostage diplomacy. There is so much to learn from this book, but Geroux also keeps it riveting right to the final pages. It's a must read.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Crown Publishing.)
Geroux presents the account of fifteen German POWs sentenced to death for murdering fellow prisoners. Lo and behold, Germany also comes up with a list of fifteen American POWs sentenced to death for much lesser offenses. Yes, this narrative thread can stand alone and be quite riveting. However, Geroux is already well-known for writing books about lesser known stories which shed light on a bunch of stuff you never knew before. (Side note: If you have not read Geroux's The Ghost Ships of Archangel yet, then please do so ASAP.) To prove my point, can anyone say how many German POWs were housed in the U.S. during the war? I have read a lot of books on the subject of World War II and had no idea it was 400,000. And that's just the beginning of the book.
Geroux also dives into other territory which is very illuminating. He explains the vast differences between the German soldiers (they weren't all Nazis) and chronicles the many mistakes the U.S. government made when the country was forced to take on the massive influx of men without being prepared. And then, there is the very uncomfortable subject of hostage diplomacy. There is so much to learn from this book, but Geroux also keeps it riveting right to the final pages. It's a must read.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Crown Publishing.)
May 21, 2025
It was strange to read in THE FIFTEEN: MURDER, RETRIBUTION, AND THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF NAZI POWS IN AMERICA that America's inner states, specifically South and South-West, weren't marked by WW2. The global war is raging, people - men, women, and children - are dying in millions, while American farmers in the countryside continue to plow the land as their ancestors had done. POWs were the first Germans they ever saw.
Using less-known facts, William Geroux draws an incredible picture of German POWs. For starters, many camps represented Germany-in-miniature, ripe with Nazi ideology and strict hierarchy, and any dissenters, belittling Hitler or talking about Germany's defeat, were silenced. THE FIFTEEN singles out captured Germans (obviously fifteen of them), sentenced to death for killing other Germans out of ideological convictions. There were no precedents of trials of POWs on American soil, thus, the Army officials had to invent the procedure from scratch. On the other hand, trials had to send a message to all German inmates that brutal killings and incitement to suicide (in two cases) couldn't go unpunished.
To parallel the story of the fifteen German POWS in America, the author chose eleven Americans who were captured by the Germans and merely survived the German POW camps. Their crimes in captivity, besides being the enemy, were insignificant, often falsified to make them eligible for the prisoner exchange for sentenced German POWs. During WW2 and today, it is called hostage diplomacy. In total, during the war, six prisoner exchanges went through neutral Sweden.
While German POWs received relatively fair proceedings, with a prosecutor, defender, and an interpreter, American POWs got a mock trial, in some cases, learning that they had been sentenced to death, only later. Americans followed the Geneva Convention to the letter; Germans followed it on the surface. Switzerland was a guarantor of the decent treatment of POWs on both sides. After hearing 'decency' and 'a camp' together, one may wonder how the murder of millions of Jews could have continued unabashed (in the book I'm currently reading, the author talks about 'the family camp' in Auschwitz, a deceit for the Red Cross. The camp even had a school and a kindergarten. The camp's whole population was killed every six months.)
Prejudices die hard. Despite people of color serving in the Army and fighting for their country, Black guards in the South had fewer rights than 'white' German prisoners. In the perversion of common sense, Black guards dined in the kitchen while Germans enjoyed their meals inside a restaurant.
The book's most terrifying part is the execution of fourteen Germans (one got a life sentence after all), precisely described: what each prisoner said, how their clothes looked, how they behaved. William Geroux played out these minutes in such horrifying detail that their impact lasts days after reading (I still remember how I listened to this chapter).
THE FIFTEEN suits those who know nothing about POW camps in Germany and America, and those who have some previous knowledge: the book captivates and draws into the absurdity of WW2.
While I listened to an audiobook, reading the actual book/ebook would be more beneficial. German surnames are hard to spell right in a review.
Using less-known facts, William Geroux draws an incredible picture of German POWs. For starters, many camps represented Germany-in-miniature, ripe with Nazi ideology and strict hierarchy, and any dissenters, belittling Hitler or talking about Germany's defeat, were silenced. THE FIFTEEN singles out captured Germans (obviously fifteen of them), sentenced to death for killing other Germans out of ideological convictions. There were no precedents of trials of POWs on American soil, thus, the Army officials had to invent the procedure from scratch. On the other hand, trials had to send a message to all German inmates that brutal killings and incitement to suicide (in two cases) couldn't go unpunished.
To parallel the story of the fifteen German POWS in America, the author chose eleven Americans who were captured by the Germans and merely survived the German POW camps. Their crimes in captivity, besides being the enemy, were insignificant, often falsified to make them eligible for the prisoner exchange for sentenced German POWs. During WW2 and today, it is called hostage diplomacy. In total, during the war, six prisoner exchanges went through neutral Sweden.
While German POWs received relatively fair proceedings, with a prosecutor, defender, and an interpreter, American POWs got a mock trial, in some cases, learning that they had been sentenced to death, only later. Americans followed the Geneva Convention to the letter; Germans followed it on the surface. Switzerland was a guarantor of the decent treatment of POWs on both sides. After hearing 'decency' and 'a camp' together, one may wonder how the murder of millions of Jews could have continued unabashed (in the book I'm currently reading, the author talks about 'the family camp' in Auschwitz, a deceit for the Red Cross. The camp even had a school and a kindergarten. The camp's whole population was killed every six months.)
Prejudices die hard. Despite people of color serving in the Army and fighting for their country, Black guards in the South had fewer rights than 'white' German prisoners. In the perversion of common sense, Black guards dined in the kitchen while Germans enjoyed their meals inside a restaurant.
The book's most terrifying part is the execution of fourteen Germans (one got a life sentence after all), precisely described: what each prisoner said, how their clothes looked, how they behaved. William Geroux played out these minutes in such horrifying detail that their impact lasts days after reading (I still remember how I listened to this chapter).
THE FIFTEEN suits those who know nothing about POW camps in Germany and America, and those who have some previous knowledge: the book captivates and draws into the absurdity of WW2.
While I listened to an audiobook, reading the actual book/ebook would be more beneficial. German surnames are hard to spell right in a review.
March 6, 2025
The Fifteen is a truly eye-opening book about German prisoners of war in America and American counterparts. POW camps were hastily built across the country during World War II to house the many thousands of German soldiers (Nazis and anti-Nazis) who couldn't be sent elsewhere.
Of particular importance and interest to me was the good treatment of the prisoners by Americans who didn't understand the capabilities of many of the Germans. The prisoners were at times revered by the public. At the hundreds of camps they had access to sports, craft projects, education and canteens and comparatively few attempted escape. But there was a deeply sinister side. Nazis ruled the camps behind the scenes and despised Germans who had American sympathies. Beatings, humiliation and even murder happened. The forced suicide case tugged at my heart. I learned more about hostage diplomacy, freedom food, "justice" meted out by Germans and Americans, work duties performed by the POWs such as herding cattle and food harvest, related murder prosecutions and sentences. Another story which stands out is of the incredibly clever prisoner who created a sundial which gave him a reason to live.
Though I have read countless books about WWII, this is unique in its subject and perspective. Richly told and thoroughly researched, it held my interest and made me smarter!
Of particular importance and interest to me was the good treatment of the prisoners by Americans who didn't understand the capabilities of many of the Germans. The prisoners were at times revered by the public. At the hundreds of camps they had access to sports, craft projects, education and canteens and comparatively few attempted escape. But there was a deeply sinister side. Nazis ruled the camps behind the scenes and despised Germans who had American sympathies. Beatings, humiliation and even murder happened. The forced suicide case tugged at my heart. I learned more about hostage diplomacy, freedom food, "justice" meted out by Germans and Americans, work duties performed by the POWs such as herding cattle and food harvest, related murder prosecutions and sentences. Another story which stands out is of the incredibly clever prisoner who created a sundial which gave him a reason to live.
Though I have read countless books about WWII, this is unique in its subject and perspective. Richly told and thoroughly researched, it held my interest and made me smarter!
October 30, 2025
surprise surprise - I did not know the author lived here in Va Beach (where I also reside) and I also go to the Central Library where Camp Ashby was located. Never knew or dreamt that Va Beach was home to one of the POW camps. I really can't remember who recommended the book but thank you. :)
I did like the way he focused in on the small details of a large POW operation here in the U.S. It was interesting to see the map/locations of the previous camps. Of course Fort Leavenworth was an obvious choice for a camp/prison and very familiar to us here in Va Beach with our large military presence.
With the huge numbers of POWs (over 400,000? - German, Italian and Japanese), the number 15 seemed trivial until you get into the details. I liked the way the author 'drilled' down into the fifteen (15) and helped them to become faces instead of numbers.
For most of the book, it read like a novel instead of non-fiction. Yes, the details can be overwhelming but the personal touches made the read enjoyable and fascinating.
I did like the way he focused in on the small details of a large POW operation here in the U.S. It was interesting to see the map/locations of the previous camps. Of course Fort Leavenworth was an obvious choice for a camp/prison and very familiar to us here in Va Beach with our large military presence.
With the huge numbers of POWs (over 400,000? - German, Italian and Japanese), the number 15 seemed trivial until you get into the details. I liked the way the author 'drilled' down into the fifteen (15) and helped them to become faces instead of numbers.
For most of the book, it read like a novel instead of non-fiction. Yes, the details can be overwhelming but the personal touches made the read enjoyable and fascinating.
February 7, 2025
While I have a couple of issues with this book, over all I think this book highlights a unique and interesting story regarding a series of murders in German POW camps in the US. These murders were perpetrated by hard-core Nazis on other German soldiers they felt deserved to die for "treasonous" offenses - sometimes no more than consistently critizing the Nazi regime. In a truly odd surprise, the Army officer who prosecutes the accused German POWs is non other than Leon Jaworski of (much) later Watergate prosecutor fame! Oddly enough, the author doesn't disclose this fascinating fact until the last several pages of the book, even though as soon as I read Jaworski's name for the first time, I suspected that was the case. In another strange twist, one of the German POWs that was executed as a result of Jaworski's prosecution was - and I kid you not - sentenced to death for throwing 2 cups (and missing!) at a fellow POW. In another trial, the "evidence" was all circumstantial and vague, but again the German POWs were sentenced to death and executed. The author describes these actions in a very matter-of-fact manner, and doesn't seem to question whether these sentences were extreme. Giving the benefit of the doubt, the trials and sentencings (which happened in secret), occurred late in the war when animosity towards the Nazis was (rightly) at its height.
Other than those couple of odd notes, I couldn't help feeling that perhaps by concentrating on the smaller story of the German POW camp murders, the author missed the larger story that at one point there was something like 400,000 German POWs in camps sprinkled in rural areas all over the US (North Dakota was the only state that didn't have one). The author briefly mentions at the end of the book that some of the German POWs didn't want to go back to Germany (especially in the Russian-held areas), and a number of them returned to the US later as immigrants. Even though I've read widely about WWII, I was totally unaware that such a large number of German POWs were in the US, and I think that's a story I'd like to hear more about.
So, overall, I found this book to be quite interesting, but if you're not strongly interested in WWII, or if you're not widely read on that subject, then this may be of much less interest to you.
Other than those couple of odd notes, I couldn't help feeling that perhaps by concentrating on the smaller story of the German POW camp murders, the author missed the larger story that at one point there was something like 400,000 German POWs in camps sprinkled in rural areas all over the US (North Dakota was the only state that didn't have one). The author briefly mentions at the end of the book that some of the German POWs didn't want to go back to Germany (especially in the Russian-held areas), and a number of them returned to the US later as immigrants. Even though I've read widely about WWII, I was totally unaware that such a large number of German POWs were in the US, and I think that's a story I'd like to hear more about.
So, overall, I found this book to be quite interesting, but if you're not strongly interested in WWII, or if you're not widely read on that subject, then this may be of much less interest to you.
April 30, 2025
I grew up close to one of the World War II German POW camps outside Clinton, Mississippi, where the prisoners created a hydraulic scale model of the Mississippi River basin under the direction of Army Corps of Engineers designers, so I knew about the use of wartime prisoners in the US. Geroux's book expanded that knowledge a great deal, though his focus is on the unrest in camps housing German POW's between pro-Nazi and moderate or anti-Nazi prisoners, which led to dozens of murders or forced suicides, and their subsequent prosecution by US authorities. This book is clearly well-researched and -documented (though Geroux speaks several times of German prisoners listening to transistor radios - the transistor was not invented until 1947), and the prose is lively and moves forward through its subject.
March 17, 2025
How often do you stop and read historical markers? William Geroux cites a newly implanted marker in front of his local library as in the inciting moment for his latest work of history The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi Pows in Americas. It details the establishment of the POW camp system in the United States populated by nearly 400,000 German soldiers whose arrival in July 1943, began shortly after the defeat of the Afrika Korps. The focus of the book is on a small number of German POWs who were involved in the murder of other POWs.
The book is comprised of 26 chapters, divided into four parts. The narrative unfolds as is typical for a historical study, a scene setting introductions establishing the argument of the book, and then a chronological unfolding of the narrative, beginning with biographies of key individuals.
As part of the Allies, the United States was the only feasible location for the large number of German POWS in 1943. However, their arrival was flawed from the beginning. Their were no efforts to de-indoctrinate or separate the more ardent Nazis from the general population, and the US oversight was lax allowing the Nazis to maintain control in the camps and threaten repercussions for families back in Germany. This only started to change following a series of murders of anti-Nazi within the camps.
When word reached Germany through Swiss intermediaries of the death sentence of the German POWS, German diplomats "found" an equal number of American POWs also under the threat of death. These were mostly trumped up charges, but the risks to life lead to long negotiations for a prisoner exchange. Geroux details the US soldiers caught up in this struggle, especially as Germany's defeat approach and Nazi Germany collapsed.
Geroux's work is a welcome addition to the writing on World War II, showcasing a previously understudied aspect, where the home front met the enemy.
Recommended for readers of military history, World War II and political negotiations during war.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
The book is comprised of 26 chapters, divided into four parts. The narrative unfolds as is typical for a historical study, a scene setting introductions establishing the argument of the book, and then a chronological unfolding of the narrative, beginning with biographies of key individuals.
As part of the Allies, the United States was the only feasible location for the large number of German POWS in 1943. However, their arrival was flawed from the beginning. Their were no efforts to de-indoctrinate or separate the more ardent Nazis from the general population, and the US oversight was lax allowing the Nazis to maintain control in the camps and threaten repercussions for families back in Germany. This only started to change following a series of murders of anti-Nazi within the camps.
When word reached Germany through Swiss intermediaries of the death sentence of the German POWS, German diplomats "found" an equal number of American POWs also under the threat of death. These were mostly trumped up charges, but the risks to life lead to long negotiations for a prisoner exchange. Geroux details the US soldiers caught up in this struggle, especially as Germany's defeat approach and Nazi Germany collapsed.
Geroux's work is a welcome addition to the writing on World War II, showcasing a previously understudied aspect, where the home front met the enemy.
Recommended for readers of military history, World War II and political negotiations during war.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
January 4, 2026
If you enjoy reading about World War II and believe you know just about every aspect of the conflict, try reading “The Fifteen” by William Geroux. It’s an aspect of the war of which I was generally unaware. Yes, I knew about German POWs in the United States, but I didn’t know anything about the 15 German POWs convicted of murder for the killing of fellow prisoners. Nor did I know anything about the 15 American POWs who were selected by German officials to serve as hostages to gain the release of their own condemned prisoners. I didn’t realize German POWs were at risk from hardened Nazis who severely punished fellow prisoners they deemed too cooperative with American guards.
Geroux has written a thoroughly researched book about all of this. I especially appreciated reading about the 15 American POWs who were selected as hostages. Had negotiation been unsuccessful, the POWs certainly would have been executed had the Nazi regime not collapsed.
If there is anything I might fault the book for is some of the superfluous information provided by the author when discussing overall Allied and German operations during the war. While it’s important to provide context for the POW issue, it could have been edited somewhat to improve the pace of the book.
Nevertheless, the book is educational and certainly well researched.
Geroux has written a thoroughly researched book about all of this. I especially appreciated reading about the 15 American POWs who were selected as hostages. Had negotiation been unsuccessful, the POWs certainly would have been executed had the Nazi regime not collapsed.
If there is anything I might fault the book for is some of the superfluous information provided by the author when discussing overall Allied and German operations during the war. While it’s important to provide context for the POW issue, it could have been edited somewhat to improve the pace of the book.
Nevertheless, the book is educational and certainly well researched.
March 21, 2025
This is a great example of showing that we are not taught everything in history class, whether in college or high school. The facts in this book will have you bewildered, frustrated, and spiteful. The author seems to have a personal stance against the U.S. and The Soviet Union, which is understandable. However, this book comes across as oddly sympathetic to the Nazi POWs and Nazis as a whole and their actions, crimes, and the punishments they received. This gave me the ick, and I don’t think it came across well. I do believe this book has a place in showing that the U.S. tries to hide in its history and that we need to showcase the good and bad that this country has done and not gloss over the dark parts.
January 6, 2026
Eye-opening, balanced account of justice for German prisoners of war confined in the U.S. during WWII. Geroux shines a light on this overlooked aspect of the war, exploring the difficulty of convicting ardent Nazis who murdered opponents of their Fuhrer as well as the ramifications for U.S. POWs held by Germany. The torture used to obtain one conviction is covered as well as the shortcomings of U.S. Army prosecutor Leon Jaworski in obtaining convictions of Black GIs. But the Watergate prosecutor provides the moral of the story: "All Germans of ordinary intelligence knew that Hitler's course was evil and wrong ... the metamorphoses that took place in the German people can occur elsewhere as well."
May 8, 2025
Reading a book with as much detail as this one is a bit like stepping back into a college level history class which may not be for everyone. But with WWII historical fiction being one of my favorite genres the title and concept of this book piqued my interest because I simply did not know we had German POW camps here in America.
Yes, I’ve heard about Nazis who came here and started new lives in hopes of eluding justice but this story, these facts were all new to me.
The book is well-written, just prepare to go slow as you work your way through almost 300 pages of research mixed with stories.
Yes, I’ve heard about Nazis who came here and started new lives in hopes of eluding justice but this story, these facts were all new to me.
The book is well-written, just prepare to go slow as you work your way through almost 300 pages of research mixed with stories.
May 27, 2025
This book was done very well. Thorough yet also very readable. 4 1/2 stars! I would have given it 5 if there were follow-ups on all of The Fifteen at the end. I learned a great deal about POWs in America, which I knew virtually nothing to begin with. I was inspired to research a tad more, especially about POW camps in my home state. Very Interesting!
May 14, 2025
Very well written story of the Nazi POWs in America during World War II. I had read a novel years ago about Nazi POWs working on farms in this country, so I wasn't unfamiliar with the subject. The book was extremely interesting and well worth reading.
March 21, 2025
Thank you Netgalley for the eARC!
William Geroux writes in a way that makes what you're reading not feel like a history book, but that you're watching a documentary. Chapters flow really well, and quotes are placed strategically to make the information you learned sink in better. This was a new topic for me, I was unaware the amount of POW we kept here in America during WWII. If you're interested in WWII you should add this to your personal library!
William Geroux writes in a way that makes what you're reading not feel like a history book, but that you're watching a documentary. Chapters flow really well, and quotes are placed strategically to make the information you learned sink in better. This was a new topic for me, I was unaware the amount of POW we kept here in America during WWII. If you're interested in WWII you should add this to your personal library!
May 1, 2025
This story was so easy to follow along to - and I learned so much about WW2 that I didn’t know. A very informative historical read!
July 23, 2025
This is probably one of the best books written about world war 2. i could not put it down. The author did a fabulous job.
April 27, 2025
In The Fifteen, William Geroux reveals a gripping and overlooked episode of World War II history: the German POW camps scattered across small-town America and the chilling murders that erupted inside them. As tensions between committed Nazis and moderate prisoners escalated, fifteen German POWs faced death sentences handed down by U.S. military courts—igniting a dangerous diplomatic standoff when Nazi Germany targeted American captives abroad. Through the experiences of fighter pilots, intelligence agents, and officers, Geroux vividly brings to life a wartime drama far from the front lines, alternating between the POWS in America and abroad. Geroux grounds his story in meticulous research and builds a compelling narrative that kept me engaged throughout. He successfully adds a fresh, powerful contribution to the vast collection of World War II publications. Although the book felt dense at times, especially in the legal details, it rewarded me with a fascinating look at a forgotten chapter of wartime history. The Fifteen offers a rich and rewarding read for WWII enthusiasts and anyone eager to learn about the dangers soldiers continued to face even after leaving the battlefield.
I am grateful to NetGalley and Crown Books for providing me with an advanced reader copy of William Geroux’s The Fifteen: Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America.
I am grateful to NetGalley and Crown Books for providing me with an advanced reader copy of William Geroux’s The Fifteen: Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America.
July 16, 2025
This is an interesting slice of history, but “Gack” I have to say again at massive errors. Other lowish reviewers weren’t kidding, but didn’t enumerate. I shall, and shall rate lower than them.
In a HUGE WTF, Geroux talks about "a series of telegrams from the American ambassador in Berlin, Jerome Klahr Huddle."
First, this was WWII. The US had NO diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany after the declaration of war. Leland Burnette Morris was the charge d'affairs on Dec. 11, 1941 and we had no resident ambassador, or even an appointed ambassador who had been recalled. ALL diplomatic personnel in Germany were exchanged to the US via Lisbon in 1942. Second, while Huddle was a career State Department person, his one ambassadorship was to Burma, and after WWII. He was consul in Cologne 1926-30, and consul general in Warsaw 1930-35, but almost no information after that until 1947. He had done some State work in Germany around 1938 on Jewish visas or something is the only other info I could find.
In a second WTF, Geroux talks about Patton and the Po Valley campaign. No, Patton was in western Austria and the western tip of Czechoslovakia, but not in Italy. Louis Biagnoni, born in Tuscany, may have accompanied troops from Lucian Truscott's Fifth Army, but nobody from Patton's command.
In a third WTF, Geroux has Col. Henry Spicer, one of the American POWs court-martialed with a death sentence on trumped-up charges, "in 1952 [flying] P-80 fighter jets to to Europe to intervene if the Soviets attacked the cargo planes hauling supplies in the Berlin Airlift." Really? 1952, you say?
Beyond these three whoppers?
The book has a number of minor but easily avoidable errors, such as “180th Division” when “regiment” is surely meant (180th Regiment was part of the 45th, or Thunderbird, Division, which is referenced later in the story). That one’s just not acceptable. For a writer who’s done previous military work, the unit confusion isn’t acceptable.
Elsewhere, Geroux mentions traveling “south” from Italy to Austria. He talks of “transistor” radios when they hadn’t been invented.
Seeing these errors, and also knowing that there were no two-star reviews, despite all the two-star ratings, despite the interest of the main story, I knew I had to two-star review this book, because of untrustworthy authorship.
In his nearly 20 pages of notes on sources, Geroux says Huddle's telegrams come from an "RG-59" not listed in the index, but noted as part of State Department files. How he makes the title error, then, as State surely did not identify him as such, I have no idea. No source at all is listed for the Patton claim.
It's a shame, because the core story is interesting. The US, not following British experience, does not “screen” German POWs, and many of the early captives from the Afrika Corps, among both officers and noncoms, were ardent Nazis, who essentially became “kapos” in German POW camps inside the US. Several are eventually tried for murders or forced suicides in the camps, convicted in military tribunal-type court marshals that offer shades of Shrub Bush after 9/11, though better than what Nazi Germany did in retaliation.
Besides the main story, there’s other interesting sidebars. Leon Jaworski's railroading prosecution contrasts with his refusal to seek an indictment of Nixon. The fact that he withheld evidence from the defense in a court-martial of Black GIs during WWII is not "interesting," but infuriating and disgusting, and one I hadn't read about before. An interrogator named “Schmidt,” apparently unable to be identified by real name by Geroux, uses methods that, while not as bad as waterboarding, were at least as bad as sleep deprivation and other things under Shrub Bush.
One US camp guard killing more POWs than Nazi kapos who were hanged killed is also interesting. The very few POWs who not only escaped but remained on the lam well after the war ended are interesting.
The absurdity of German POWs eating in white sections of Deep South restaurants while being moved, while their black guards faced Jim Crow, also interesting. (And infuriating, but that one was known to me.)
But, these other things aren’t expanded upon. (And, if they had been, they might have involved errors anyway.)
On the other hand, the "guts" of the story, Germany's even more flimsy courts-martial after they got word of the US actions, followed by talk of prisoner exchanges if the US executed nobody, followed by advancing Allied armies liberating American POWs, is only 70 pages. The "closing the ledger" chapter, primarily about the Americans' postwar lives, but also about later prisoner exchanges, US housing of prisoners and the escaped and other German POWs postwar, is less than 20.
So, that’s 80 pages. Extracting the guts of the convictions? You got 45 pages earlier in the book, for 125 pages total.
And since there are no two-star reviews, though there are several two-star ratings, I have rectified that.
And, I did so without any spoilers about any of the POW trials in either the US or Germany.
And, given all the military errors above? Don’t read this guy’s other books.
Soy Boy the History Nerd five-starred it, which shows you how bad it is, including that an Army tanker missed military errors.
==
I think the main reason this is so highly rated is that so many Merikkkans are totally unfamiliar with the German POWs being interned in mass numbers in the US. So, with that, most readers don't know to fact-check Geroux. (Soy Boy just doesn't do fact-checking, whether because he's intellectually lazy, or because it would ruin clickbait reviews, I don't know.)
Me?
There was a German camp in my current county of residence in North Texas, though not big enough to make the book. I've been to Concordia, Kansas, and already knew the basics of that camp, though I've never putzed around where it actually was.
And that's part of why, beyond the errors themselves, this book is so disappointing, It could have been much, much better.
In a HUGE WTF, Geroux talks about "a series of telegrams from the American ambassador in Berlin, Jerome Klahr Huddle."
First, this was WWII. The US had NO diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany after the declaration of war. Leland Burnette Morris was the charge d'affairs on Dec. 11, 1941 and we had no resident ambassador, or even an appointed ambassador who had been recalled. ALL diplomatic personnel in Germany were exchanged to the US via Lisbon in 1942. Second, while Huddle was a career State Department person, his one ambassadorship was to Burma, and after WWII. He was consul in Cologne 1926-30, and consul general in Warsaw 1930-35, but almost no information after that until 1947. He had done some State work in Germany around 1938 on Jewish visas or something is the only other info I could find.
In a second WTF, Geroux talks about Patton and the Po Valley campaign. No, Patton was in western Austria and the western tip of Czechoslovakia, but not in Italy. Louis Biagnoni, born in Tuscany, may have accompanied troops from Lucian Truscott's Fifth Army, but nobody from Patton's command.
In a third WTF, Geroux has Col. Henry Spicer, one of the American POWs court-martialed with a death sentence on trumped-up charges, "in 1952 [flying] P-80 fighter jets to to Europe to intervene if the Soviets attacked the cargo planes hauling supplies in the Berlin Airlift." Really? 1952, you say?
Beyond these three whoppers?
The book has a number of minor but easily avoidable errors, such as “180th Division” when “regiment” is surely meant (180th Regiment was part of the 45th, or Thunderbird, Division, which is referenced later in the story). That one’s just not acceptable. For a writer who’s done previous military work, the unit confusion isn’t acceptable.
Elsewhere, Geroux mentions traveling “south” from Italy to Austria. He talks of “transistor” radios when they hadn’t been invented.
Seeing these errors, and also knowing that there were no two-star reviews, despite all the two-star ratings, despite the interest of the main story, I knew I had to two-star review this book, because of untrustworthy authorship.
In his nearly 20 pages of notes on sources, Geroux says Huddle's telegrams come from an "RG-59" not listed in the index, but noted as part of State Department files. How he makes the title error, then, as State surely did not identify him as such, I have no idea. No source at all is listed for the Patton claim.
It's a shame, because the core story is interesting. The US, not following British experience, does not “screen” German POWs, and many of the early captives from the Afrika Corps, among both officers and noncoms, were ardent Nazis, who essentially became “kapos” in German POW camps inside the US. Several are eventually tried for murders or forced suicides in the camps, convicted in military tribunal-type court marshals that offer shades of Shrub Bush after 9/11, though better than what Nazi Germany did in retaliation.
Besides the main story, there’s other interesting sidebars. Leon Jaworski's railroading prosecution contrasts with his refusal to seek an indictment of Nixon. The fact that he withheld evidence from the defense in a court-martial of Black GIs during WWII is not "interesting," but infuriating and disgusting, and one I hadn't read about before. An interrogator named “Schmidt,” apparently unable to be identified by real name by Geroux, uses methods that, while not as bad as waterboarding, were at least as bad as sleep deprivation and other things under Shrub Bush.
One US camp guard killing more POWs than Nazi kapos who were hanged killed is also interesting. The very few POWs who not only escaped but remained on the lam well after the war ended are interesting.
The absurdity of German POWs eating in white sections of Deep South restaurants while being moved, while their black guards faced Jim Crow, also interesting. (And infuriating, but that one was known to me.)
But, these other things aren’t expanded upon. (And, if they had been, they might have involved errors anyway.)
On the other hand, the "guts" of the story, Germany's even more flimsy courts-martial after they got word of the US actions, followed by talk of prisoner exchanges if the US executed nobody, followed by advancing Allied armies liberating American POWs, is only 70 pages. The "closing the ledger" chapter, primarily about the Americans' postwar lives, but also about later prisoner exchanges, US housing of prisoners and the escaped and other German POWs postwar, is less than 20.
So, that’s 80 pages. Extracting the guts of the convictions? You got 45 pages earlier in the book, for 125 pages total.
And since there are no two-star reviews, though there are several two-star ratings, I have rectified that.
And, I did so without any spoilers about any of the POW trials in either the US or Germany.
And, given all the military errors above? Don’t read this guy’s other books.
Soy Boy the History Nerd five-starred it, which shows you how bad it is, including that an Army tanker missed military errors.
==
I think the main reason this is so highly rated is that so many Merikkkans are totally unfamiliar with the German POWs being interned in mass numbers in the US. So, with that, most readers don't know to fact-check Geroux. (Soy Boy just doesn't do fact-checking, whether because he's intellectually lazy, or because it would ruin clickbait reviews, I don't know.)
Me?
There was a German camp in my current county of residence in North Texas, though not big enough to make the book. I've been to Concordia, Kansas, and already knew the basics of that camp, though I've never putzed around where it actually was.
And that's part of why, beyond the errors themselves, this book is so disappointing, It could have been much, much better.
August 27, 2025
I want to predicate my review of this book with my own personal history involving a POW camp. Probably when I was about 7 years old ( born in 1948 ) my parents took me to nearby Algona, Iowa to see the Creche that had been constructed by German POW's. As I recall, the display was open for Christmas and housed at the fairgrounds. I was impressed by the beauty and size of the manger scene, but did not understand fully exactly how it came to be built. Virtually all of my uncles on both sides of the family had served in WWII. The only exemptions were two farmers with children who helped to feed the country and Europe. All returned home safely except for one who was a tail-gunner who was brought down over Berlin. I thought they walked on water!!!! I have been a WWII history addict ever since. This was reinforced by reading "The Diary of Anne Frank" when I was about 12. So what was the source of this nativity display: Camp Algona was built in about three months and operated from April 1944 to February 1946. During its tenure it housed about 10,000 German POWs. The complex in Algona served as a base camp that had 34 branch camps stretching across Iowa and into Minnesota and Nebraska. The prisoners were kept active and healthy by putting them to work on farms, in canneries, nurseries and plants; detasseling corn, cutting timber and building structures. Many of the prisoners had skills they had developed in their home countries. Every effort was made to have them use those skills, but they were not to take the jobs of Americans. Instead, they formed a labor force that was used to fill the gaps created by Americans going off to war. They were paid for their work and could purchase items at canteens run by the prisoners. The first German prisoners arrived at Camp Algona in April 1944. One of them was Eduard Kaib (pronounced “Kibe”), an architect in his homeland and a non-commissioned officer in the German Army. As the Christmas season approached, Kaib became restless and homesick. Kaib was a religious man and was a gifted craftsman. To pass the time, he decided to build a small nativity scene, making the figures out of soil that were baked in an oven to harden them and make them sturdy. He then placed them delicately in a 12-foot platform he had built. The display caught the attention of Camp Commander Lt. Col. Arthur Lobdell, who noticed the figures in the display Kaib had set up in the prisoners’ quarters. Lobdell was so impressed that he invited Kaib to his office.. By the end of their conversation, Lobdell asked Kaib if he would consider building a larger nativity scene. As a non-commissioned German officer, Kaib was not required to work outside the camp, so he would have the time to do the project. The religious scene was completed for Christmas 1945 and is now on display at the Camp Algona Museum, dedicated to preserving the history of the Prisoner of War camp that existed in Algona, Iowa from 1943-1946. There were two recorded escapes from Algona. The first time the men were picked up in a nearby town. The second time (same men involved) they didn’t even get out of the camp. They had hidden inside the camp waiting for a chance to escape but were found before they were able to get outside the camp. In the past few years I was able to access this book from the Hennepin County Library here in Minneapolis: Signs of Life - Lebenszeichen : the Correspondence of German POWs at Camp Algona, Iowa, 1943-46. In 2022 a film was produced about the camp: Silent Night in Algona. Director - Anthony Hornus Writer -DJ Perry Stars - Curran Jacobs, Cassie Dean, Samuel Peterson. There was a novel about the interactions among local families and the POW's that I read in the last couple of years, but I cannot remember or find a title. I could not find any record of deaths in Camp Algona. ****I read at least 50 WWII history books every year among my 600 total reads. I read with a very critical eye, and find error in subject matter ( especially ) and grammar to be annoying . That said, page 8. "vast quantities of guns and war MATERIAL of all kinds." Material and materiel are nouns that refer to resources. Material refers to goods and substances used to make something, or something’s constituent substances. Materiel refers to military equipment. In this case the wrong word was used. Page 11 - something of which I was vaguely aware but had not seen it stated. Eisenhower refused to meet with the surrendering leader of the Afrika Korps, Hans-Jürgen Bernard Theodor von Arnim much to the latter's chagrin. The author states that Eisenhower made it his policy not to meet with any German general until the Nazis had surrendered. Page 12. The author speaks of attacks upon U. S. territory. Many people are not aware that we were shelled by U-boats ( not just shipping was attacked ), two groups of German terrorists were dropped on the east coast to do such tasks as sabotage water supplies, or that incendiary balloons were used to kill and hopefully start forest fires... I was aware of all of these events, but the author skips the physical invasion of American territory (OOPS) ... Japan attacked Alaska during World War II through the Aleutian Islands campaign, marking the only military campaign on North American soil in the war. The campaign occurred between June 3, 1942, and August 15, 1943. It involved a series of military actions by Japan against the Aleutian Islands, specifically targeting the islands of Attu and Kiska. The Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands is often referred to as the "Forgotten Battle". ( apparently by our author as well ). Fierce combat resulted, with a total of 3,829 U.S. casualties, with 549 killed, 1,148 wounded, and another 1,200 suffering severe injuries from the cold weather. Also, 614 Americans died from disease and 318 from miscellaneous causes, mainly Japanese booby traps or friendly fire. The Canadian military, including the 13th Infantry Brigade of the 6th Infantry Division, played a significant role in the operations against the Japanese in Alaska. (If you want to know more, try: The Thousand-Mile War: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians by Brian Garfield.) For those of you who do NOT believe that Canada should become the 51st state, this is ONE OF THE BEST WWII BOOKS that I have read: The Good Allies: How Canada and the United States Fought Together to Defeat Fascism during the Second World War Tim Cook, ) Page 13. Speaking about the 1929 Geneva Convention: "All the major powers in World War II had signed except for Japan and the Soviet Union." ERROR... The Japanese representatives SIGNED the Geneva convention, but the government never ratified the agreement and Japan did not honor statements about the treatment of POW's. The Germans treated American, British and other allied prisoners largely in agreement with the convention. This was totally untrue for the Soviet POW's ( or Untermenschen, e. g. Poles) who the Nazis murdered quickly or slowly through abuse. page 15 German POWS were transported with Winston Churchill on the Queen Mary. I am not surprised. This great ship was stripped, camouflaged and called the "Grey Ghost" as she was the fastest vessel on the ocean. The Queen Mary transported 2.2 million passengers and more than 800,000 soldiers during WWII. I stayed aboard her in Long Beach. Wonderful experience and great museum. Now the author refers in several chapters to German POW's working with their TRANSISTOR " radios in the POW Camps. NOT!! *Following the invention of the transistor in 1947* revolutionized the field of consumer electronics by introducing powerful, convenient hand-held devices—the Regency TR-1 was released in 1954 becoming the first commercial transistor radio. It became the most popular electronic communication device of the 1960s and 1970s. ( I remember getting my first transistor radio when I was about 12 in 1960. **Mr. Geroux the Nazi POWS were not playing with their transistor radios. I don't know what to trust you to be true!! Page 43. " 1,073 German prisoners escaped from camps in the United States." Every resource on the web place the number at over 2,000 escapees. Since you do not annotate sources in a professional manner, it is difficult to verify the nature and quality of your data. I can find NO SOURCE in your notes for this number. ( In my decades of teaching at the college level, I never would have accepted a research paper with THE DEPLORABLE DOCUMENTATION OF SOURCES OF THIS BOOK. If you want to be regarded as a legitimate writer of HISTORY, put numbers at the end of referenced "facts" with a list of specific sources with page quoted. ) Page 46 The Americans "ignored the British example of carefully screening the captured men to gauge the extremity of their political views." We didn't even look for the SS tattoos!!! page 47"The quality of the American guards .. also helped the Nazis". I just watched a documentary "Held in Minnesota: Untold WWII POW Stories" Pioneer PBS. There were no murders in the Algona camps system because Nazis who threatened other POW's were sent to isolated ancillary camps. ( DUH!! ) Obviously gook commanders!! Page 50. "By July 1943 reports of violent incidents in the camps piling up..... the army directed camp commanders to transfer ardent Nazis, but unfortunately nothing or little was done at the camps discussed in this book as the commanders were "dumber than a box of rocks". Page 51 "A post-war army survey listed 211 violent incidents.." On October 19 guards found Felix Tropschuh hanging. It was ruled a suicide until other POW's stated that ardent Nazis forced him to hang himself when they found his diary which expressed doubts about Nazism.. Could have been prevented!!!! Page 54 - the army did not charge anyone for his murder. Chaapter 6 Kunze murdered - Jaworski assigned to prosecute... Chapter 7 Hugo Krauss murdered... "Most Americans had no idea that a nationwide network of camps held nearly 400,000 German POW's." This number will change multiple times at the whim of the author. King Kong in a cage - William Schaefer. James R. Schmitz. Each get a chapter.. Page 98. The British had stopped flying daylight missions because of heavy losses per author. It was the policy of American bombers to fly daylight missions and the British to fly at night. This was not a change in 1943. Perhaps by hubris, the Americans thought the B-17 could stand up better to fighter planes. We also had the Norden bombsight which assisted strategic daylight bombing. The British had been bombed at night throughout the Blitz, so it is difficult to blame them for believing that turn-about was fair play even if more civilians died.... Page 112 Franz Kettner at Camp Concordia asked to be placed in protective custody. "the transfer order got misrouted and delayed" Murder by army incompetence and lack of proper concern. Werner Dreschler - Naval Intelligence used him as a stool pigeon to gain information at Fort Hunt. He was transferred to Camp Papago Park and placed among men from whom he had previously tried to learn naval secrets. Can we spell SNAFU?? Dead at the hands of 7 Germans less than 6 hours after arriving at the camp. Murder by army incompetence and lack of proper concern. Hans Geller, Camp Chaffee - beaten to death by Nazis less than 2 weeks after the death of Dreschler. "Geller's murder was the fourth in POW camps, along with two forced suicides in Camp Concordia, in a little over five months." "the United States Government was gravely concerned". ABOUT TIME. (meanwhile back at the non-existent TRANSISTOR radios) Jaworski vows to solve murders. Meanwhile "Great Escape" happened at Stalag Luft III. Contrary to popular belief, *no Americans escaped*. 47 escapees from Canada, Norway, Poland, France and more countries were shot on order from Himmler. Horst Gunther found hanging at Camp Aikin. ( more non-existent transistor radios ) Two killers named. Gauss and Straub - murderers. a new SNAFU - The army had "unwittingly assigned two Gestapo agents to one of its main anti-Nazi camps at Fort Devens in Massachusetts." At Camp Hearn the army had placed Nazis in charge of the post office where they could gather intelligence on POW's who were not pr0-Nazi. SNAFU Eleanor Roosevelt tried to get FDR to do something about the camps. He ordered the army to "reeducate" the POW's which could be a violation of the Geneva Convention. Stimson orders execution of Camp Tonkaka killers. Jaworski was winning death sentences for the army, but the navy was not getting anyone to talk about the death of the U-boat stool pigeon Dreschler. So what does the bastion of democracy do, we turn into the Gestapo. They burned them on hot water pipes, smothered them using gas masks, and then had the Germans sign a document that their confessions were not forced. The tribunal all sentenced the 7 men to death. Now we had 15 German POW's to kill. (Hence the title ) OSS agent Louis Bagiaoni is transferred to Mauthhausen to be on of the German 15. The author reports that this man heard screams continually from the crematorium. A bit surprising because in most killing concentration camps only dead bodies were delivered to the ovens after being gassed. Would have been a very slow killing process to kill a few bodies at a time. The gas chambers allowed the Sonderkomandos to remove gold teeth and search cavities for valuable after death and before cremation. John Rathbone, Seymour Bolten, Pat Teel and George Durgin begin the process of being the 15 for exchange. Stimson urges FDR to confirm the death sentences, he reluctantly does. Colonel Archibald King, an "expert on the Geneva Convention" did not think the U-boat men deserved mercy because they were tortured. (MAYBE HE SHOULD HAVE READ THE GENEVA CONVENTION A LITTLE CLOSER ) Notice of the 15 death sentences are sent to Germany which begins to ask questions and assemble their bargaining chips. There continued to be "suicides". RIGHT, SUICIDES. page 174 "Daniel COSTELL estimated 167 clandestine killings in the camps." WHO THE HELL IS DANIEL COSTELL - ACTUALLY HE IS A MIXED MARTIAL ARTS FIGHTER, BUT PROBABLY NOT AN EXPERT ON WWII. In the index this name is Daniel Costelle. The latter spelling is correct as he wrote: Les Prisonniers Nazis en Amérique. I am sure our idiot consulted the french version. WHY BOTHER TO SPELL NAMES CORRECTLY??? WHY FOCUS ONLY UPON THE DEATHS LATER INVOLVED IN THE POSSIBLE EXCHANGE??? 15 OUT OF 167. NOT EXACTLY AN EXHAUSTING STUDY OF GERMAN DEATHS IN AMERICAN POW CAMPS. Lt James Schmitz and Col. Henry Spicer, and Franklin Coslett and Sgt Thomas Snowden join the German 15. On December 29 & 30 the Germans sentence 6 more Americans to death: Lt. John Joseph Walsh, Staff SGT. Edward G. Walsh, Staff SGT. Marvin T. Martin, Staff SGT. Angelo Nicosia and Private Willard Davis- I could find only 5 names in this chapter. List Chapter 20: "Lt James, M. Greyfield, Lt. Franklin Cosolet, the two Walsh's and Martin" - but that is only 5. If you add Lt James Schmitz, Col. Henry Spicer, Davis and Snowden then you have 9, not 6. I SUGGEST THE READER TO NOT EXPECT FACTS TO MATCH FROM CHAPTER TO CHAPTER - JUST GO WITH THE FLOW AND ASSUME THERE ARE PROBLEMS EVERYWHERE. Stimson postpones the executions and asks to review torture involved in confessions. Military subordinates lie about abuse. POW's moved to Colditz. page 230 list of possible exchange 15: Bagioni, Coslett, Davis, Greyfield, Martin, Nicosia, Schaefer, Schmitz, Snowden and Edmund and John Walsh. THAT IS 12 NAMES. POW's "rumored" to be sentenced to death: Col. Henry Spicer and lieutennants John Rathbone and George Durgin. That would make 15 for exchange. Patton's catastrophic raid on Camp Hammelberg to rescue his son-in-law. Liberated: James Schmitz, Snowden and Davis. Germans accept 15 for 15 exchange, but the state department stated only 11 Americans had been sentenced to death. 11? 12 on list?? First mention of Wilbur McKee an army doctor on page 229. FOOLISH CONSISTENCY.... What happened to Frank Teel?? Coslett freed by Canadians on April 14. April 16 Germans state 16 more Americans were sentenced to death. No names. Germans reveal they no longer know the location of the exchange Americans. Spicer, John and Edward Walsh, Martin, Nicosia, McKee, Durgin and Bagioni freed. The army had "lost track" of Snowden. He had been liberated. That is 9 No one knew who James Greyfield was. That is 10. State Department decided all 15 Americans were safe (BECAUSE?? ) and initiated action to kill the 15 German POW's. Where are Rathbone, Coslett, Schmitz, Davis, and Coslett???? LACK OF RESEARCH BY AUTHOR OR ANOTHER SNAFU? (SOURCE DOCUMENTATION: page 25 "Whittingham's source APPEARS to have been". SO GLAD WE ARE CONFIDENT OF OUR UNDOCUMENTED SOURCES!! The Utah prisoner of war massacre - at midnight on July 8, 1945, at the POW camp in Salina, Utah. Nine German prisoners of war were murdered and nineteen prisoners were wounded by American private Clarence V. Bertucci, who was on guard duty in the camp. After a night out, Bertucci returned to camp around midnight to assume his night duty at the guard tower. Bertucci subsequently loaded the .30-caliber M1917 Browning machine gun on the tower and fired at the tents of the sleeping prisoners. (Book mentions murders but does not give the name of the guard. ) Page 271 TRANSISTOR RADIO. PAGE 277. "IN ALGONA, IOWA, AN ELABORATE SIXTY-FIVE PIECE NATIVITY SCENE BUILT BY GERMAN PRISONERS IN 1945 STILL ATTRACTS TOUSANDS OF VISITORS EVERY CHRISTMAS SEASON" MY ALGONA STORY IS IN THE BOOK AFTER ALL!!! BUT NOT IN INDEX!! The author discusses the return home for Coslett, Spicer, Bagioni, Schmitz, and Schaefer. I guess the others did not count.... Our POW policies were responsible for the deaths addressed in this book. Interesting subject written by an author who does not supply accurate sources and has contradictory information on page after page. The number of POW's in America changes multiple times. Names are misspelled. Only read the book knowing that the truth may not be here. VERY DISAPPOINTED!! Kristi & Abby Tabby
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 14, 2025
This book was a new topic for me for I was unaware of the number of German POWs that were kept in the United States during WWII. There was over 400,000 German POWs in camps throughout the United States, North Dakota being the state that didn't have one.
The book highlights the interesting story of murders that went on in these German POW camps. These murders were started by hardcore Nazi sympathizers. I was intrigued by the Germans’ claims that killing a traitor was an act of duty, not murder. Many of these POW sympathizers were consistently criticizing the Nazi regime must go. Many kangaroo courts were set up by prisoners to deal with these traders. The prisoners themselves would execute these POWs trying to hide it from the American government. When the American government found out about these cases it was up to Leon Jaworski (future Watergate fame) to prosecute the instigators. This is where I felt Gerox came across sympathetic to Nazi POWs as far as their actions, crimes and punishment. Many German defendants were badly roughed up, but on the other hand, the POWs were often treated better than Black American soldiers—deserved to win.
The second half of the book goes into fifteen prisoners sentenced to death and tried to work out a deal to exchange American POWs held in Germany, but it was never worked out. In retribution, the Nazis sentenced 15 American POWs to death. Reversing course, the U.S. tried to negotiate an exchange after all, and Geroux’s already impressively multipronged narrative pivots with alacrity to describing the torture the condemned American POWs endured before their nick-of-time rescue by the Red Army as the war was winding down. This part was interesting, but the negotiations and judicial bogged me down and were dry.
Overall, I believe America tried to do the right thing for its masses of German prisoners and largely succeeded. The United States treated its prisoners of war better than any other major power in World War II. I was drawn to the story partly because no one has ever fully told it before. Parts of the book were good, but I lost interest and slogged through the second half.
The book highlights the interesting story of murders that went on in these German POW camps. These murders were started by hardcore Nazi sympathizers. I was intrigued by the Germans’ claims that killing a traitor was an act of duty, not murder. Many of these POW sympathizers were consistently criticizing the Nazi regime must go. Many kangaroo courts were set up by prisoners to deal with these traders. The prisoners themselves would execute these POWs trying to hide it from the American government. When the American government found out about these cases it was up to Leon Jaworski (future Watergate fame) to prosecute the instigators. This is where I felt Gerox came across sympathetic to Nazi POWs as far as their actions, crimes and punishment. Many German defendants were badly roughed up, but on the other hand, the POWs were often treated better than Black American soldiers—deserved to win.
The second half of the book goes into fifteen prisoners sentenced to death and tried to work out a deal to exchange American POWs held in Germany, but it was never worked out. In retribution, the Nazis sentenced 15 American POWs to death. Reversing course, the U.S. tried to negotiate an exchange after all, and Geroux’s already impressively multipronged narrative pivots with alacrity to describing the torture the condemned American POWs endured before their nick-of-time rescue by the Red Army as the war was winding down. This part was interesting, but the negotiations and judicial bogged me down and were dry.
Overall, I believe America tried to do the right thing for its masses of German prisoners and largely succeeded. The United States treated its prisoners of war better than any other major power in World War II. I was drawn to the story partly because no one has ever fully told it before. Parts of the book were good, but I lost interest and slogged through the second half.
October 29, 2025
William Geroux's "The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America" shines a light on a little-known aspect of World War II: the housing of nearly 400,000 German prisoners of war in the United States. The US government built around 700 camps (175 main camps and 511 branch camps) to house the POWs, mainly in the South and Southwest. The prisoners, protected by the Geneva Convention, were well-fed and housed. Many worked on American farms to ease the workforce shortage caused by the war. The German prisoners enjoyed working on the farms and interacting with Americans.
However, a problem soon developed. Hardcore Nazis established themselves as camp leaders and made it clear they took a dim view of fellow Germans befriending their captors. These camp leaders also made it clear that disparaging the Third Reich would not be tolerated. Any prisoner who spoke out against Hitler and the German government would face punishment. Beatings were common, but sometimes beatings got out of hand and resulted in killings.
The US government found fifteen of the worst diehard Nazis guilty of murder, sentenced them to death, and sent them to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for execution. When the German government learned of this action, it declared that fifteen American POWs with death sentences would face execution in retaliation. Swiss diplomats did their best to keep both governments apprised of ongoing prisoner exchange negotiations.
Geroux does an excellent job of writing about this story of murder and high-stakes diplomacy involving America, Switzerland, and Nazi Germany. Readers curious about this piece of World War II history should seek "The Fifteen."
However, a problem soon developed. Hardcore Nazis established themselves as camp leaders and made it clear they took a dim view of fellow Germans befriending their captors. These camp leaders also made it clear that disparaging the Third Reich would not be tolerated. Any prisoner who spoke out against Hitler and the German government would face punishment. Beatings were common, but sometimes beatings got out of hand and resulted in killings.
The US government found fifteen of the worst diehard Nazis guilty of murder, sentenced them to death, and sent them to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for execution. When the German government learned of this action, it declared that fifteen American POWs with death sentences would face execution in retaliation. Swiss diplomats did their best to keep both governments apprised of ongoing prisoner exchange negotiations.
Geroux does an excellent job of writing about this story of murder and high-stakes diplomacy involving America, Switzerland, and Nazi Germany. Readers curious about this piece of World War II history should seek "The Fifteen."
April 27, 2025
My uncles ran a smaller German POW camp in the Sacramento delta during WWII, working the men as farm laborers. What little I heard about the camps were all sunny stories about how the Germans really loved being here in America. Which meant that I highly suspected there was a darker story there somewhere.
This is the darker story... (Though their camp was not one of the ones featured in the book.) And I do appreciate that if you squint your eyes a little and flip the story so that you're potentially talking about American POWs killing traitors working with the Germans, your whole perspective changes. That maybe it wasn't so bad to kill a traitor. Though it's not hard to be indignant about the Nazi behavior (both German POWs and German government) described in the book.
But history is a common story (more or less based on what really happened) we write about ourselves after the fact. And as you read the conclusion of the book, especially these lines...
... we are going to be judged so harshly for letting the American fascists destroy democracy.
This is the darker story... (Though their camp was not one of the ones featured in the book.) And I do appreciate that if you squint your eyes a little and flip the story so that you're potentially talking about American POWs killing traitors working with the Germans, your whole perspective changes. That maybe it wasn't so bad to kill a traitor. Though it's not hard to be indignant about the Nazi behavior (both German POWs and German government) described in the book.
But history is a common story (more or less based on what really happened) we write about ourselves after the fact. And as you read the conclusion of the book, especially these lines...
Leon Jaworski wrote three books in which he reflected on his experiences prosecuting Nazis and their followers. He wrote that the German people had failed a moral test by allowing the Nazis to take over their country at a time “when all Germans of ordinary intelligence knew that Hitler’s course was evil and wrong,” and subsequently “were willing to accept the fruits of an evil goal instead of repudiating it.”
... we are going to be judged so harshly for letting the American fascists destroy democracy.
July 26, 2025
During World War II, the majority of Americans were unaware that German POW's were being held in camps throughout the United States. Today, it's a subject barely discussed even though hundreds of thousands of them were sent here at the time. This often-ignored aspect of the war, however, is the basis for this outstanding book.
"The Fifteen" refers to 15 Germans who participated in the murders of fellow prisoners, primarily because they labeled them as traitors to the Nazi cause. In most cases, the victims were beaten and murdered by a gang, although there were a few forced suicides as well. I thought that book would primarily be about the crimes and subsequent court cases, prosecutions, and death penalty sentences. (One lead prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, later became the special prosecutor in the Watergate case.) In any event, the book takes a sudden turn when Geroux introduces American soldiers held in POW camps in Europe. When the Nazis got wind of the death penalties for their own soldiers, they manufactured trumped up charges against 15 American soldiers and sentenced them to death as well. This was, of course, all part of a plan to trade the harmless American soldiers for the 15 murderous Nazis.
The book is well-researched and creates a sense of tension as we wonder what will befall the Americans so close to the end of the war. It's a fascinating, largely untold story that is well-worth reading.
"The Fifteen" refers to 15 Germans who participated in the murders of fellow prisoners, primarily because they labeled them as traitors to the Nazi cause. In most cases, the victims were beaten and murdered by a gang, although there were a few forced suicides as well. I thought that book would primarily be about the crimes and subsequent court cases, prosecutions, and death penalty sentences. (One lead prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, later became the special prosecutor in the Watergate case.) In any event, the book takes a sudden turn when Geroux introduces American soldiers held in POW camps in Europe. When the Nazis got wind of the death penalties for their own soldiers, they manufactured trumped up charges against 15 American soldiers and sentenced them to death as well. This was, of course, all part of a plan to trade the harmless American soldiers for the 15 murderous Nazis.
The book is well-researched and creates a sense of tension as we wonder what will befall the Americans so close to the end of the war. It's a fascinating, largely untold story that is well-worth reading.
May 18, 2025
Before discovering this book, I had never heard of this particular story, but once I did, it opened my eyes to a wealth of new ideas. The author, William Geroux, conducted exceptional research, meticulously uncovering nearly every possible detail to create an informative and compelling narrative.
Many of the topics explored in the book made me reflect deeply, especially its depiction of how German POWs were treated compared to African Americans. Shockingly, in many cases, Nazi prisoners received better treatment than Black citizens, highlighting the deep racial inequalities of the time. The insights provided were both eye-opening and thought-provoking, expanding my understanding of a lesser-known aspect of World War II history.
While I thoroughly enjoyed learning from this book, one aspect of the storytelling did make it a bit challenging to follow. The narrative frequently alternated between the experiences of American soldiers held as POWs and the conditions within the camps, occasionally switching to yet another American POW’s story. At times, this structure made it difficult to retain details about each individual, and I found myself wishing for a more streamlined approach that balanced the personal accounts with the broader camp dynamics.
Despite this, I greatly appreciate Geroux's dedication to sharing this important story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who believes they already have a comprehensive understanding of World War II history—it’s likely that, like me, many will discover a fascinating piece of the past they had never known.
Many of the topics explored in the book made me reflect deeply, especially its depiction of how German POWs were treated compared to African Americans. Shockingly, in many cases, Nazi prisoners received better treatment than Black citizens, highlighting the deep racial inequalities of the time. The insights provided were both eye-opening and thought-provoking, expanding my understanding of a lesser-known aspect of World War II history.
While I thoroughly enjoyed learning from this book, one aspect of the storytelling did make it a bit challenging to follow. The narrative frequently alternated between the experiences of American soldiers held as POWs and the conditions within the camps, occasionally switching to yet another American POW’s story. At times, this structure made it difficult to retain details about each individual, and I found myself wishing for a more streamlined approach that balanced the personal accounts with the broader camp dynamics.
Despite this, I greatly appreciate Geroux's dedication to sharing this important story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who believes they already have a comprehensive understanding of World War II history—it’s likely that, like me, many will discover a fascinating piece of the past they had never known.
November 25, 2025
Great Book
Great book. Incredibly informative about issues not normally covered. Written in a style that is easy to read. The audio version is well narrated by Author Morey. Well researched*.
Although, as noted in the book, many German POW’s brought the NAZI philosophy with them when they were captured, it’s worth noting that there were over 371,683 German, 49,784 Italian, and 5,080 Japanese prisoners interned in 500 POW camps across the United States. There was not a single act of sabotage or violent crime against an American citizen. The POWs were assigned to work on American farms and business’s allowing them to stay afloat and freed up Americans to fight in the war.
*Some reviewers had a concern over the term “Transistor Radio”. German POW Hugo Krauss’s mother had sent him a radio. The radio plays a role in getting Hugo killed. A search of the Kindle version comes up with no hits for transistor or transistor radio, but I noted that narrator Morey used the term on page 270. Irregardless of how the term transistor got into the story, I feel its insignificant to the amount of information presented and seems like a poor indicator of lack of research.
Great book. Incredibly informative about issues not normally covered. Written in a style that is easy to read. The audio version is well narrated by Author Morey. Well researched*.
Although, as noted in the book, many German POW’s brought the NAZI philosophy with them when they were captured, it’s worth noting that there were over 371,683 German, 49,784 Italian, and 5,080 Japanese prisoners interned in 500 POW camps across the United States. There was not a single act of sabotage or violent crime against an American citizen. The POWs were assigned to work on American farms and business’s allowing them to stay afloat and freed up Americans to fight in the war.
*Some reviewers had a concern over the term “Transistor Radio”. German POW Hugo Krauss’s mother had sent him a radio. The radio plays a role in getting Hugo killed. A search of the Kindle version comes up with no hits for transistor or transistor radio, but I noted that narrator Morey used the term on page 270. Irregardless of how the term transistor got into the story, I feel its insignificant to the amount of information presented and seems like a poor indicator of lack of research.
May 30, 2025
A wandering writing style makes it challenging to track the participants. Contains many pieces of information that I had not seen anywhere in other writings covering the POW experience. My interest stemmed from my Father’s duty as an MP handling POW transport from Europe to the US. After an early stint as a combat MP during the time of the Normandy invasion. He was never a big reminiscer of his war time experiences but he did react strongly to a question about the SS. His fellow MP’s were convinced that some “accidental” deaths were murders among the POW’s but they could not prove it to the standards of American military justice or civil courts. The MP’s also suspected that some SS had allowed themselves to be captured with the intent of punishing certain POW’s in the camps.
There are some inaccuracies. One notable one relates to some escapees in New Mexico attacking civilians in a small town. My Father had first hand knowledge of the attacks, as he had been part of the escort MP’s of a new group of POW’s delivered to that camp.
Regrettably the well researched tome gets out of its area by commenting on any US actions since WWII handling War on Terror captives.
There are some inaccuracies. One notable one relates to some escapees in New Mexico attacking civilians in a small town. My Father had first hand knowledge of the attacks, as he had been part of the escort MP’s of a new group of POW’s delivered to that camp.
Regrettably the well researched tome gets out of its area by commenting on any US actions since WWII handling War on Terror captives.
May 1, 2025
Really interesting and engaging read about Nazis POWS killing other German POWS at American camps during the war. I had not known that the US hosted 400,000 German POWS during the war, many of whom worked on American farms. Nearly every state had hastily built camps for the prisoners.
Germans were allowed to organize themselves and have their own leaders--and those leaders inevitably were hard-core Nazis who expected continued allegiance to Hitler and remained convinced of Germany's ultimate victory, in spite of the increasing evidence to the contrary.
When 15 Germans are sentenced to death for their roles in brutal murders of fellow inmates, Germany responds by quickly condemning 15 American POWS to death, mostly for trumped-up charges. A prisoner exchange gets stalled as the chaos of the last months of the war disrupts communication channels and diplomacy.
I'll leave the outcome to the interested reader, and I recommend this book that brings to light a mostly-forgotten chapter of US history.
Germans were allowed to organize themselves and have their own leaders--and those leaders inevitably were hard-core Nazis who expected continued allegiance to Hitler and remained convinced of Germany's ultimate victory, in spite of the increasing evidence to the contrary.
When 15 Germans are sentenced to death for their roles in brutal murders of fellow inmates, Germany responds by quickly condemning 15 American POWS to death, mostly for trumped-up charges. A prisoner exchange gets stalled as the chaos of the last months of the war disrupts communication channels and diplomacy.
I'll leave the outcome to the interested reader, and I recommend this book that brings to light a mostly-forgotten chapter of US history.
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