Degree Name

MA (Master of Arts)

Program

History

Date of Award

8-2006

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Stephen G Fritz

Committee Members

Colin F. Baxter, William Douglas Burgess Jr.

Abstract

The United States held almost 500,000 enemy combatants within her borders during World War II. Out of those 500,000 men, 380,000 were from Nazi Germany. Nazi POWs were confined to camps built near small rural towns in almost every state. It was not something that was well known to the American public. Even less known was the American Military's effort, through reeducation, to introduce Hitler's soldiers to a new political ideology-democracy. This thesis will explore how the reeducation program was formed; examine the people, both German and American, who participated in it, and make a determination on whether or not it was successful. While Special Projects did not completely win over the majority of the German POWs, it was my finding that for the Americans to have done nothing when faced with such a situation would have been foolish.

Document Type

Thesis - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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