Rheinwiesenlager
Sign in to saveAlso known as Rhine meadow camps
The Rheinwiesenlager (; ) were a group of 19 camps built in the Allied-occupied part of Germany by the U.S. Army to hold captured German soldiers at the close of the Second World War. Officially named Prisoner of War Temporary Enclosures (PWTE), they held between one and almost two million surrendered Wehrmacht personnel from April until September 1945.
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 82 inbound references to Rheinwiesenlager, and connects out to prisoner of war, Allied-occupied Germany and Bretzenheim.
It is catalogued under topics including 20th century in Rhineland-Palatinate, Aftermath of World War II in Germany and Former military installations of the United States in Germany.
Vinony links it to 9 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Located in
- Allied-occupied Germany
- Location
- Western Europe
- Image
- Remagen enclosure.jpg
Show 3 more facts
- commissioned by
- United States Army
- native label
- Rheinwiesenlager
- occupant
- Disarmed Enemy Forces
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Encyclopedic overview
11 sectionsContents
- Background
- Location of ''Rheinwiesenlager''
- Camp construction
- Operations and management
- Conditions and death rates
- Postwar conclusions
- See also
- References
- Citations
- Bibliography
- External links
The Rheinwiesenlager (; ) were a group of 19 camps built in the Allied-occupied part of Germany by the U.S. Army to hold captured German soldiers at the close of the Second World War. Officially named Prisoner of War Temporary Enclosures (PWTE), they held between one and almost two million surrendered Wehrmacht personnel from April until September 1945.
Prisoners held in the camps were designated disarmed enemy forces, not prisoners of war. This decision was made in March 1945 by SHAEF commander in chief Dwight D. Eisenhower: by not classifying the hundreds of thousands of captured troops as POWs, the logistical problems associated with accommodating so many prisoners of war mandated by the Geneva Convention governing their treatment were negated.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Rheinwiesenlager” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
Available in 9 languages
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