The National WWII Museum (USA) [ http://www.ddaymuseum.org/] located in New
Orleans, Louisiana will be holding a special exhibit starting November 11,
2012 through July 7, 2013, Guests of the Third Reich: American POWs in
Europe http://www.guestsofthethirdreich.org/home/. There is an interactive
map depicting the locations of selected European POW camps.

Over 120,000 out of 16 million Americans serving in WWII spent time as
prisoners of war (POW). While the Nazi's "generally adhered " to the Geneva
Convention, those American troops captured in the Pacific by the
Japanese -- 27, 465-- were not protected by the same restraints--over 40
percent died. Wartime circumstances and the leanings of individual camp
leaders dictated the fates of those held captive in Europe--92, 820 men
lived to tell their experiences. About 1,100 or 1 percent of the Americans
held as POWs by the Nazi's perished. These approximately 93,000 Americans
were anything but "guests" of the Nazis.

In the exhibit there are several panels that explain how, for the most
part, Jewish-American POWs, many of whom either didn't designate a religion
on their dog tags or ditched them before capture, were not separated from
their comrades and sent to concentration camps. [I had a family member taken
and kept with his comrades and Stalag IVB in Mulberg]. There were
exceptions. In January 1945, the commandant at Stalag IXB rounded up 350
prisoners based on name or physical characteristics, and shipped them to the
Berga concentration camp.

To read more about the exhibit the Wall Street Journal posted an article on
November 7--it is available at this url only for one week >from the date of
publication of the article: click here to access: http://tinyurl.com/bdgsuqh
original url:
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970204349404578103031712916830-lMyQjAxMTAyMDAwODEwNDgyWj.html?mod=wsj_valetleft_email

Jan Meisels Allen
IAJGS Vice President
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee