Q: Someone please refresh my memory. I remember my professor saying that the German and Axis forces were more than willing to surrender to the Allies (with the exception of the Soviet Union) because they recognized the Geneva Convention standards on the treatment of P.O.Ws. How were the Allied troops (more specifically American GIs) treated by the Germans (or any other European Axis powers) who caputred them?
A: hello Germany and Italy generally treated prisoners from the British Commonwealth, France, the U.S. and other Western allies, in accordance with the Geneva Convention (1929), which had been signed by these countries.Nazi Germany did not extend this level of treatment to non-Western prisoners, such as the Soviets, who suffered harsh conditions and died in large numbers while in captivity In German camps, when soldiers of lower rank were made to work, they were compensated, and officers (e.g. in Colditz Castle) were not required to work Only 8,348 Western Allied (British, American and Canadian) prisoners died in German camps in 1939-45 (3.5% of the 232,000 total). So it can be deduced that the allied prisoners werent generally badly treated compare this to the russian pows .... 5.7 million captured , with 3.3 million of these prisoners (57.5% of the total captured) dying during their captivity The japanese camps were terrible, according to the findings of the Tokyo tribunal, the death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1% (American POWs died at a rate of 37%), seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians