The Contributions of the International Red Cross the lives of Allied POWs imprisoned in  Germany during WWII

The role of the International Red Cross based in Geneva Switzerland and its subsidiaries, the American Red Cross, British Red Cross and Canadian Red Cross during WWII was essential to the survival of POWs incarcerated by the Germans, Their amazing contributions to the health and warfare of Allied POWs in German POW camps in World War II not only improved their lives but ultimately saved many of them from starvation and malnutrition. The Red Cross’s impact lives on today.

During World War II over 100,000 US soldiers and air men were captured by the Germans and incarcerated in German POW camps.  Of these POWs, 28,000 were airmen of the 8^th Air Force. Most were placed in various POW camps called “Stalags” around Germany. Although Germany had agreed to the Geneva Convention guidelines regarding the treatment of POWs, in reality the this did not happen.

The most critical job of the Red Cross was to get food to the POWs who without their food parcels would have suffered malnutrition and possible starvation without them. The International Red Cross played a vital role in POW life in WWII, particularly in Europe where they were permitted to distribute more than 27 million food parcels to allied prisoners of war. The packages were assembled in a mass effort by more than 13,000 volunteers in distribution centers around the United States, Canada and Britain.

POWs were intended to receive one Red Cross parcel per week. The packages, containing nonperishable foods like biscuits, raisins, coffee, powdered milk and canned beef and fish, along with amenities like cigarettes and soap, were transported by trucks to German POW camps around the Reich. They were received by POW representatives in the camps for fair and orderly disbursement. As war conditions worsened for the Germans and bombing of German supply roads increased, the ability to get aid packages to the POWs dwindled. These care packages were a crucial part of POW survival, helping to sustain both body and soul during captivity or many would have died of malnutrition and starvation. The Red Cross’s impact save thousands of lives.

Food parcels ready for transport to Allied POWs in German Prison Camps stacked in Geneva Switzerland Red Cross Headquarters What was in a Red Cross Food parcel delivered to Stalag Luft 1?

One food parcel was meant to feed one POW for one week. Each box was opened at the Camp by the Germans to make sure there was no contraband material hidden in them. The Germans also punctured each can with a bayonet to prevent the POWs from storing food for possible escapes. In my father’s letters he mentioned that he and three other men shared their rations each week and they took turns cooking each week.

At Stalag Luft 1 the food boxes came weekly until January 1945 when fewer Red Cross deliveries could get through to them. As the war worsened for Germany, caring for their POWs was not a priority and food box deliveries dwindled until by February 1945 the POWs were sharing one box between two men, then four men shared a one box until March when no boxes were food was delivered at all. Many Stalag Luft 1 prisoners interviewed after the war called this “THE STARVING TIME” when there was very little food to eat.

Although Germany had initially agreed to treat the POWs within the Geneva Convention guidelines from 1927, in reality they did not provide much food, My father indicated they received one half loaf of dark bread per week that was sometimes made of sawdust and hard like a hockey puck that had to be toasted to eat. They received potatoes and root vegetables from the Germans including rutabagas and beets but they were many times rotted and in winter frozen and just dumped into the camp. They received some kind of oily butter from their captors but interestingly it was inedible, yet a good source of oil for lighting. With a makeshift wick the POWs could get some light in their barracks to play cards on the long winter nights of darkness of northern Germany. During the winter of 1945 my father said all they had to eat were rotten frozen rutabagas and occasionally some bread. By April the Red Cross was able to a shipment of food boxes to Stalag Luft via Sweden to Lubeck and truck transport to the camp, At the end of the war when Stalag Luft 1 was liberated and the German guards gone, patrols of POWs scoured the town of Barth and all its storage facilities for supplies for the camp and found a warehouse with over 25000 Red Cross food parcels stashed inside. It was apparent to the starving POWs that the food had been withheld from them during the “starving time” from February to April 1945.
During the war, my mother on the Homefront was teaching high school and she and her students raised money specifically for the Red Cross to be able to make food boxes for my father and other POWs incarcerated in Germany. She kept a close watch on any information about conditions at my fathers prison camp and received the monthly newsletter from the Red Cross with information about what life was like for him.