German POWs Were Told America Was Broke. Then a Farmer Put Them on His Tractor.

Nazi leaders told Germans that America's economy had failed: millions out of work, the New Deal a failure. Then hundreds of thousands of German prisoners of war were sent to work on American farms, where the tractors outnumbered Germany's by about sixty-five to one, and where one prisoner, driving a Wisconsin farmer's tractor, sang as he worked. Books on German POWs in America (affiliate links, we may earn a small commission): Stalag Wisconsin, Betty Cowley: https://www.amazon.com/dp/187856983X?... Nazi Prisoners of War in America, Arnold Krammer: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1493049526?... Men in German Uniform, Antonio Thompson: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1572337281?... The Barbed-Wire College, Ron Robin: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691037000?... Listen to history audiobooks with an Audible free trial: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NB86OYE?... 0:00 A German Prisoner on an American Tractor 0:44 "America's Economy Has Failed" 1:26 A Country That Farmed With Horses 2:25 The Truck at the Camp 3:59 Sixty-Five Tractors to One 4:48 Old and New, Side by Side 6:01 Prisoners at the Controls 6:42 What Guggemous Said at Lunch 7:58 The Song in the Field Sources: https://www.archives.gov/publications... https://history.nebraska.gov/german-p... https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/1... https://esmis.nal.usda.gov/usda-esmis... https://www.bundesarchiv.de/themen-en... https://research.calvin.edu/german-pr... https://research.calvin.edu/german-pr... https://oralhistory.nmfarmandranchmus... Archival footage: U.S. National Archives, Prelinger Archives, Ford Motor Company collection, Die Deutsche Wochenschau; some scenes use illustrative footage of the period not the people named. How this episode was made: original research and script by WWII Box. Archival film from the U.S. National Archives and Prelinger Archives is re-edited to match the narration and combined with our own maps, document reconstructions and graphics. Sources are listed above.