The popular sentiment I hear about the German's treatment of POWs is that Russians and other Eastern Europeans were treated quite terribly, while Americans and British POWs were treated relatively well. How true is this, how were POWs of other nations treated in Germany, and would conditions for less disliked nationalities be considered decent, considering the state of Germany later in the war?
Also, if a Western prisoner was a Jew or other disliked minority, were they sent to concentration camps instead of POW camps?
Thanks!
Even Western Jewish POWs were well treated because the Germans realized if they treated Western Allied POWs badly, they feared that the Western Allies would do the same for German POWs as well. The Germans viewed the Anglo-Saxons as not a threat, unlike the way they treated ethic Jews of Eastern European nations. Germany argued that since the the Western Allies signed the Geneva Conventions, they would be bound by the conventions to treat them well.
However, that is not to say the German treatment of Western Allied POWs were all peaches and creams. For example, after the "Great Escape" in 1944, which 76 Allied POWs who escaped from the German POW camp were recaptured, 50 of them were randomly picked by the SS and executed. The Commando Order which issued by Hitler stating that Allied commandos, properly uniformed or not, were to be shot without trial immediately if captured by German forces. Many Allied commandos died as a result of this order.
The Germans also argued that they did not apply the conventions to the Soviet Union because the Soviet Union didn't sign the Geneva Convention governing the treatment of POWs. The Germans viewed the Slavs as unfitting to their idealogy and therefore decided not to apply protection to them. This was legally unjustified because Article 82 of the 1929 Geneva Convention on POWs stated that:
The provisions of the present Convention shall be respected by the High Contracting Parties in all circumstances. In time of war if one of the belligerents is not a party to the Convention, its provisions shall, nevertheless, remain binding as between the belligerents who are parties thereto.
Therefore, Germany was bound to give the rights to signatories and non-signatories alike and they did not follow this rule whatsoever.