SHOT DOWN AT WAR: LIFE AS AN AMERICAN AIRMAN PRISONER OF WAR ON THE EASTERN FRONT DURING WORLD WAR II

Abstract

In 1945, the Germans forced over sixty thousand Allied POWs to evacuate camps on the eastern front in response to the Russian advance. A disproportionate number of men on the marches were airmen. They faced a lack of food, water, shelter, and danger until liberation. My relative Warren David Gribbons was one such American airman prisoner of war (POW) on the eastern front. Gribbons left my family his diary and memorabilia, which initially sparked my interest in the experience of airmen POWs. Allied airmen POW treatment was worse in 1945 than in previous years like 1944 because the systems in place designed to protect them like the 1929 Geneva Convention and International Committee of the Red Cross diminished under the collapse of the Third Reich. The treatment is best studied through the words of the POWs themselves in their diaries and memoirs since there is a lack of official documents by the International Committee of the Red Cross and War Crimes Trials that would normally capture the details and viewpoints. In addition to addressing information about Stalag Luft VI and Stalag Luft IV camps, the Allied airmen POW treatment in 1944 versus 1945 gives another way to understand the effects of the strategic bombing of Germany. The Allied POW treatment often was affected by the intensity and frequency of the bombings. The POW treatment is important for the accountability of German government violations from World War II.