What Shocked German POWs Most About America Wasn't the Food

In 1944, a Black corporal in the United States Army was told he could only eat in the kitchen of a railroad lunchroom, while two dozen German prisoners of war sat down at the tables and were served. In April 1944, the Army printed his letter in its own magazine. At its peak in May 1945, the United States held 425,871 Axis prisoners of war in roughly 700 camps. This is what those men saw when they crossed America, why it was not the food that shocked them, and what the American soldiers watching them wrote down. 00:00 The letter 01:04 The problem nobody planned for 03:49 What they saw through the window 06:10 The ration rule 08:52 Eighty cents a day 11:02 The thing they could not explain 14:42 What came after READ THE DOCUMENTS YOURSELF Trimmingham's letters to Yank (April 28 and July 28, 1944): https://teachingamericanhistory.org/d... Bert Babero's letter, February 13, 1944: https://www.pbs.org/perilousfight/soc... Geneva Convention of 1929, full text (Article 11, rations): https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_cent... German prisoners of war in the US (Arnold Krammer, TSHA Handbook): https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/e... Executive Order 9981: https://www.archives.gov/milestone-do... SOURCES Yank, The Army Weekly, April 28, 1944 and July 28, 1944 Robert McLaughlin, "A Short Wait Between Trains," The New Yorker, 1944 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, July 27, 1929 BOOKS BEHIND THIS EPISODE Paid links: we earn a commission if you buy through the Amazon links below. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Arnold Krammer, Nazi Prisoners of War in America (1979; paperback 1996): https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812885619?... FOOTAGE AND PHOTO CREDITS Film: The Negro Soldier (1944), War Department; Wings for This Man (1945), Army Air Forces Film: Tunisian Victory (1944), British and American service film units Film: Normandy Invasion, US Coast Guard (1944) Film: War Comes to America, Why We Fight series, US Army (1945) Film: Troop Train (1943) and Food for Fighters (1943), US Office of War Information Film: Henry Browne, Farmer (1942), US Department of Agriculture; Your Job in Germany (1945), War Department German prisoners at Camp Wallace, Texas, 1943: US Army Signal Corps photos SC 184879, SC 184881, SC 184882, SC 184884, SC 184888 German prisoners picking corn near Hoopeston, Illinois, 1944: US Army, National Archives NAID 142663454 A soldier of the 12th Armored Division guarding German prisoners, April 1945: National Archives NAID 535840 Black soldiers in training formation: National Archives NAID 531155 Fort Huachuca, Arizona, 1942: US Army Signal Corps, National Archives NAID 531152, 531153 and the 93rd Infantry Division series Cpl. Carlton Chapman, tank machine gunner, France, 1944: National Archives NAID 531221 Army Nurse Corps nurses: National Archives NAID 535782 Mess line, Naval Ammunition Depot, Hastings, Nebraska: US Navy, National Archives NAID 283488 Executive Order 9981: National Archives Library of Congress, FSA/OWI Collection: Jack Delano, bus station and cafe, Durham NC; John Vachon, drinking fountain, Halifax NC; Russell Lee, water cooler, Oklahoma City; Marion Post Wolcott, railway station, Mileston MS; Esther Bubley, bus terminals, Memphis TN and Rome GA; Pullman porters; trainman, Chicago; Times Square; diner, Clinton IN Entrance sign, Lewis Mountain, Shenandoah National Park: National Park Service Geneva Convention of 1929, original: Swiss Federal Archives, via Wikimedia Commons Yank, The Army Weekly masthead: US Army Maps drawn by The Muster Roll from Natural Earth public domain data. Film, German prisoners in a US camp mess hall: United News newsreel 95 (1944), National Archives German prisoner of war camp from the air, Dade City, Florida, December 18, 1944: National Archives NAID 23936579 All government archival material is in the public domain. Some atmospheric illustrations in this video are AI-generated. They never depict a real person or a specific real event. Found an error? Tell us in the comments. Corrections get pinned. The Muster Roll: military history from the primary record. Subscribe:    / @themusterroll