Even Nazi prisoners of war in Texas were shocked at how black people were treated in the South.
In Texas, some of the Germans actually befriended Americans of all colors.
Heather Gilligan
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Oct 26, 2017
Prisoners forced to watch news reels of Nazi atrocities expressed surprise at the realization that they had been instruments in the perpetration of genocide.
One morning in the spring of 1943, years before the end of World War II, Huntsville, Texas woke up to a startling sound: the clip-clapping boots of Nazi soldiers in formation, singing German marching songs as they made their way through the dusty streets of the small town.
Those soldiers were among the first prisoners of war sent to POW camps in the United States. The townspeople watched as barracks went up, surrounded by barbed wire and chain link fences, and wondered what, exactly, they were in for. Americans had only been in the war for a year when POW camps were being built, and residents of Huntsville had little time to prepare for the reality of thousands of Nazi prisoners taking up residence just eight miles from the town limits.
In fact, the United States entered the prisoner of war business very reluctantly in 1941, and then only at the insistence of the British. The Allies were winning the North African front of the war, and capturing soldiers they could not house. The British wore down the United States after months of efforts and a few frosty notes from Whitehall. “It is very hard to understand on this side why…it should prove so difficult even to get an agreement in principle,” complained one frustrated writer. The U.S. begrudgingly accepted their share of POWs in 1942, starting with 50,000 soldiers from the African front.
POW camps would spread out across the country in subsequent years, throughout the South, Southwest and Midwest, cropping up in California, New Jersey, West Virginia, and North Carolina. By the time the war ended, about 500,000 captured soldiers were housed in the United States, and 380,000 of those were German prisoners of war.
German POWs sit for mealtime at a camp in Hearne, Texas. (Arkansas National Guard Museum)
Huntsville was the first camp to open, built from scratch and fully outfitted to comply with Geneva Convention requirements for warm and hygienic living quarters, access to medical treatment, provisions for libraries and other intellectual activities, and open spaces that encouraged physical activities. Prisoners also had to be housed in a climate similar to where they were captured, which was why so many captured in North Africa ended up in Texas.
By the time they arrived at Camp Huntsville, the German POWs were thrilled. They’d already been dazzled by traveling to the prison in luxurious Pullman cars. Both the cityscapes and the rural beauty of the United States amazed them. “From New York to Texas, you saw the whole countryside. Cars driving. Buildings lit up….I came to wonder — how did we ever think we would beat the U.S. at this war?” former
POW Heino Erichsen mused decades after the war ended.
Men like Rudolf Thill, who was transported to Huntsville in 1943, found sparkling facilities behind the chain link fences and rows of barbed wire. Enlisted men lived in bunk rooms. Officers had their own quarters. They ate food that the townspeople could only dream of during rationing, with items like milk, meat, and butter appearing on their daily menus. Angry local residents dubbed the camps “The Fritz Ritz.”
https://timeline.com/nazi-prisoners-war-texas-f4a0794458ea
I believe I read a story about the Nazi soldiers feeling so embarrassed, that many got up and moved to the back of the train so that African-American soldiers could sit up front. I'm trying to find that story. I think Jesse Jackson told this story. I haven't found the link, but undoubtedly that story was more than likely true. SMDH @ this country. We've improved some things as far as racism is concerned, but we're woefully WAYYYY behind still in improvement in race/racial relations et al., as some police are still murdering African-Americans, for merely jay-walking, and the guy wasn't even jay-walking. To have to still be scared of policemen when you drive is horrifying. I'm talking about myself being a woman, African-American and Native-American.
Deputies argued over whether to stop Black man for jaywalking before fatally shooting him.
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. - New video shows two Orange County Sheriff's deputies assigned to the department's homeless outreach program arguing about whether or not a Black man had jaywalked and if it was necessary to stop him prior to a confrontation that ultimately ended the man's life.
On Wednesday, the Orange County Sheriff's Department released "critical release incident videos" of the Sept. 23 shooting of Kurt Reinhold, a 42-year-old father of two.
https://www.foxla.com/news/deputies-argued-over-whether-to-stop-black-man-for-jaywalking-before-fatally-shooting-him
But I'm not surprised one bit, especially because I've mentioned several times here that my late parents (Mom would be 96 and my late father 103)
KNEW slaves, and both knew different slaves, and the stories they told them that they told me & my siblings still make me nearing 60 want to sob to this very day, and sometimes those stories haunt me in my dreams.
= new reply since forum marked as read
). 
