Maggie's Farm

That was quite good.

Some random thoughts:

The video doesn't mention that fraternization between farmers and POWs was forbidden. Those making the rules thought that might create volatile situations where families that had sons overseas or had lost sons were hiring Germans to work, while it was also unknown how Germans would react to their American employers..

When Germans went out to work for a farmer they were given a sack lunch that was . . . how should we say it . . . inadequate? German POWs would eat these lunches at 9:30 or ten o'clock in the morning and when noon came they had nothing to eat. And the farmers' wives, looking out the window and seeing these young boys sitting around with nothing while they fed their men inside weren't going to stand for it. Because of the fraternization rule it started with them bringing plates to these men and as each side began to know each other, it quickly evolved into having them sit at the table with the family. The fraternization rule, while still on the books was then generally ignored. As the video shows, fraternization was a good thing.

There was a case out here of a young POW that went to work for a farmer and it was discovered that this POW and the farmer's still living grandfather came from the same town in Germany and even had a common school teacher and acquaintances .

POWs made 80 cents a day but the farmer had to pay about $6 a day for each man. The difference went to the POW camp for caring for and feeding the POWs.

The large farms cited in the video were the exception rather than the rule, but the point still stands. Work hard in America and you could do very well.

Although the video mentions mechanized corn pickers, picking corn was at the top of the list for the need for POWs for farm labor. Most corn was still picked by hand and with the young men gone, more hands were desperately needed to harvest the crop.

POWs were largely city boys and had to be trained to work as farm labor, but they were universally found to be quick learners and hard workers.

A curiosity: POWs would not sweet corn. They said it was schweinefutter (pig food) and they refused to eat it. An interesting cultural difference.

After the war, some farm families sent "CARE" packages to former prisoners that had worked for them, stuffed with necessities which were nearly impossible to find in post war Germany.

If farmers raised their own livestock, they were exempt from meat rationing. They were subject to leather, sugar and rubber rationing. They were allowed all the gasoline they could use. Gasoline was rationed to save rubber. Indeed, gas rationing was ended on Aug. 15, 1845, the day Japan threw in the towel.

As for feeding the German POWs, as I understand it, they were entitled to the same food American soldiers received. Because of that they got things that the American people did not. And yes, this would have been mighty unpopular with the general public had it been widely known. Was there a daily caloric limit for German POW rations? I don't know. BTW, when German prisoners were fed at family farm tables, the family was not compensated. They did that at their own expense.