No Surrender by Christopher Edmonds

Author:Christopher Edmonds
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-08-25T16:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

IN GERMAN CAPTIVITY, prisoners were segregated not only by branch of service but by rank. There were dozens of Mannschaftslager (“Stalags”) for private soldiers and NCOs, and Offizierslager (“Oflags”) for commissioned officers. Life as a POW for an officer was far different from life for anyone under the rank of lieutenant. Sergeants, corporals, and privates were segregated and sent to separate camps. Noncoms were sent to camps designated with an A, while privates and privates first class were sent to camps designated with a B. Furthermore, the Geneva Convention allowed for different treatment of noncoms and enlisted men: officers and noncommissioned officers were not obliged to work as prisoners, but the Nazis could put privates to work.

Roddie and many of the others had committed to memory the protections they were supposed to be granted as POWs. The War Department had issued all men a pamphlet titled If You Should Be Captured, These Are Your Rights. “When you are questioned,” the pamphlet instructed, “by no matter what enemy authority, you must give only your name, rank, and serial number. Beyond that, there is no information [that] the enemy can legally force from you. Do not discuss military matters of any sort with anyone.”

Roddie W. Edmonds Family

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