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TELLS HOW WAR PRISONERS ARETREATED HERE6ome of the German prisoners at the Gettysburg prisoner of war camp have been out of active duty i less than one month and some have; served as Nasi guards over Allied prisoners on (he European conti-! nent. Capt. Laurence Thomas, camp j commandant, stated in a talk Mon-1 day evening before the weekly dinner meeting of the Gettysburg Lions; chib.41Ruling out of the discussion some: restricted topics. Captain Thomas! described regulations under which) the German prisoners are handled, here and at other similar prison) camps in this country and abroad. jThe prisoners have thorough knowledge of the provisions of the I Geneva conference, the officer said.) and are quick to seek flaws in the! manner in which'its provisions are) followed. He explained that the international agreement requires that war prisoner be treated, fed and cared for in the same manner as are men of the same rank in the holding army.“They cannot be subjected to the curious and cannot be interviewed.!They can gain an interview with: the camp commanding officer by going through prescribed channels.Serve Labor Needs “The prisoners are not hard to handle. the captain asserted and indicated that the incident at the local camp last week was “q uckly j straightened out without difficulty. j He said the chief cause was ill-1 advised leadership from non-commissioned officers”The captain’s only reference to! the two escaped prisoners was to note with a. smile that the Gettys- ; burg camp hassnow dropped to third; place in the nation in number of! escaped prisoners with one camp losing five and another, three. The escape here was described as an unfortunate incident.Captain Thomas, who was a school superintendent Before re-entering military service, explained that the prison camp was placed here at the request of the War Manpower Commission and the Adams county can-ners. “The prisoner labor is not competitive and is not intended to be used where free labor is available. If no need for labor should exist here.- the-—camp—could disappear overnight” !Directed By WMC The WMC, he said, allocates the labor from the camp. Certificates of need must be provided through the WMC. “The Army has nothing to do with the assignment of the prisoners to factories, he added The prevailing labor scale ir the community in which the camp is operated is used as the basis for the prisoners’ pay. The prisoners cannot receive more than 80 cents per day under terms of the Geneva conference. Officers who are prisoners and non-commissioned officers cannot be required to work and i are.not kept in the same camp as enlisted me, he added.Captain Thomas said that during the two-week period in June the Gettysburg camp became the first to go on a “paying basis financially for the government with the government receiving the prisoners* pay in excess of the 80 cents per day-given each man.Scoffs Local Rumors The camp here originally was scheduled to remain until November 1 but with the pea canning season shortened by the dry weather and with a similar prospect in sight for the bean and tomato crops changes in plans may be necessary, the speaker indicated. He said that j when the food harvesting and can- j mng season is over the prisoners) may be transferred to pulpwood cutting work.Captain Thomas referred to the% i‘ many types of unfounded rumors ' which have been current m this: community about the camp” and spoke specially o! one frequently heard comment, “People say the prisoners are too well treated but we are bound to treat them with the same care and consideration given our own men because we are bound by the Geneva regulations We know our men are not receiving the same treatment in enemy prison camps Even if the Geneva rules were to be followed, they would not get the same treatment we deal out here because the standards of the Axis armies are so much lower than ours'Captain Thom a* was prefer *«! to clubmen bv Burets yr.*~ r,Pfefter
Newspaper Details
Gettysburg Star and Sentinel
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, US
Sat, Jul 22, 1944
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Gettysburg C.
PA, USA 22 Apr 2021
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