It is well known that Nazi Germany operated a horrific network of concentration camps during World War II. However, many people are unaware that the US Army also imprisoned over a million Germans in a series of prisons at the end of the war, collectively referred to as Rheinwiesenlager.

Rheinwiesenlager, or "Rhine Meadow Camps," were built in 1945 to detain soldiers and personnel of the Wehrmacht who surrendered during the final days of the war in Europe. From April to September of that year, hundreds of thousands of German men and women were held in these camps to prevent a rebellion following the collapse of the Nazi Party.

Public DomainAn American soldier at Remagen, one of the Rheinwiesenlager camps housing thousands of German soldiers captured in 1945.

The US referred to the prisoners in these 19 facilities as "unarmed enemy forces," thus avoiding the obligations of the Geneva Conventions. This situation led to horrific conditions in the camps, and a report by the Army Medical Department compared Rheinwiesenlager to Andersonville Prison.

However, a German television special program published in 2020, The Horrors of the Rhine Meadow Camps, noted that many people at the time believed, "Germans are responsible for the worst crimes in the war; they cannot expect mercy."

Rheinwiesenlager: The Last Moves of a Lost War

By the spring of 1945, it was clear that everything was coming to an end for the Nazis. As millions of Allied soldiers surged into the Rhine region from the west, German SS and Wehrmacht forces were desperately making their last stands in Vienna and Berlin to slow the advance of the Soviet Red Army from the east.

During this collapse, millions of German soldiers left the Eastern Front and headed into Germany to surrender to American or British troops. Their hope was that the victorious Soviets would be less vengeful.

Flickr/ArmyDiversityAn American soldier guarding German soldiers captured in a forest. April 1945.

The influx of Germans became so great that the British stopped accepting prisoners, citing logistical issues. When the soldiers had nowhere else to go, the US began constructing primitive camps throughout newly occupied West Germany. These camps eventually came to be known as Rheinwiesenlager.

The US Army built 19 camps, surrounding large agricultural areas with barbed wire and constructing simple buildings to serve as kitchens, hospitals, and administrative offices. Each facility was divided into 10 to 20 sections that could accommodate 5,000 to 10,000 prisoners.

Between April and September 1945, between one million and two million German soldiers were held in these camps, and conditions were quite harsh.

A New Status for Prisoners

The Geneva Conventions and the 1907 Hague Conventions strictly regulate the treatment of prisoners during wartime. Captured enemy soldiers cannot be tortured or executed for fighting for their country. They cannot be displayed or publicly humiliated, overworked, or punished without cause.

The treaties are strict in their provisions: Each prisoner of war must be fed and housed in accordance with the standards provided for their guards. For example, if heating the prisoners' barracks is impractical, it is stated that the camp staff should also not have heated accommodations.

National Archives and Records AdministrationAn aerial view of a Rheinwiesenlager camp housing approximately 160,000 prisoners in April 1945.

However, during the construction of Rheinwiesenlager, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was the commander of the Allied Forces High Command at the time, decided that the surrendered German soldiers would not be classified as prisoners of war. Instead, they were referred to as "unarmed enemy forces."

As a result, they did not qualify for the protections of the Geneva Conventions. They were left to the mercy of the US Army.

'Horrific Conditions' in Rheinwiesenlager

When prisoners began arriving at Rheinwiesenlager in the spring of 1945, they quickly realized that even basic shelter was not provided. They were forced to dig holes to sleep on the ground. As noted in a report published by the US Army Medical Department in 1969, "Most of the time, prisoners were left uncovered and exposed to rain, snow, and mud in the last winter, and as spring progressed, they were exposed to heat, dust, or rain and mud."

Public DomainMost German prisoners did not receive barracks and had to dig temporary shelters in the ground.

Many of the Rheinwiesenlager camps were overcrowded. A camp with a capacity of 100,000 men was filled with 184,000 people. Initially, about 40,000 US troops were assigned to guard the prisoners, but they were so overwhelmed that some Germans were given extra rations to maintain order among the other prisoners and to prevent escapes.

This overcrowding also led to food shortages. According to a 1991 article by historian Stephen Ambrose published in The New York Times, some prisoners resorted to making "soup" from grass and water to survive.

"Some cages resembled Andersonville Prison in 1864," wrote the Army Medical Department.

The International Committee of the Red Cross claimed it was denied access to the camps, and when the organization was granted access, officials described the conditions as "horrific." However, despite these issues, the death rates in Rheinwiesenlager remained relatively low.

The End of German Prison Camps

Estimates of the number of German prisoners of war who died in the Rhine Meadow Camps in 1945 generally range from 3,000 to 4,500. However, one writer claimed that many more people died within the barbed wire.

In 1989, Canadian author James Bacque published his work Other Losses, claiming that nearly a million Rheinwiesenlager prisoners died from disease, starvation, and cold. However, as Ambrose wrote in The New York Times, Bacque's work is "fundamentally flawed in its most basic aspects. Bacque misuses documents; he misreads documents; he ignores contradictory evidence... and as a result of these and other shortcomings, he reaches conclusions and makes accusations that are clearly absurd."

Public DomainConditions varied from camp to camp, but even prisoners who could find a temporary tent had to share their small space with others.

Indeed, most prisoners in the Rhine Meadow Camps were released shortly after their arrival. Within just a few weeks, members of the Hitler Youth and women who served as administrative personnel for the Wehrmacht were released.

Shortly thereafter, workers such as farmers and miners were released to assist in reconstruction efforts. By September 1945, five months after the opening of Rheinwiesenlager, only one small camp remained closed, serving as a temporary holding station for German prisoners released from other facilities in France.

In conclusion, it is clear that the prisoners in Rheinwiesenlager were subjected to horrific conditions. However, while the exact number of Germans who died in these US Army camps will never be known, the death rate is far lower than that of Holocaust victims who suffered under Nazi persecution.