Navigating POWs: The U.S. Experience in WWII

August 7, 1943. Off the coast of Venezuela, a Nazi U-boat is under siege. For nine days, it’s hunted by Allied aircraft across the Caribbean, until its engines fail and its commander gives the order: abandon ship. Forty-three German sailors plunge into shark-infested waters, and are pulled out by their enemy - the United States.

The Germans think the worst is behind them. Instead, they’re headed for a POW camp in the American heartland, where life will actually be pretty comfortable. They play soccer, harvest corn, eat well… until things turn violent. 

How did Nazi prisoners of war end up murdering each other on U.S. soil? And what does American justice look like when applied to the enemy?

Special thanks to William Geroux, author of The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America.

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