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Soldiers and Slaves : American POWs Trapped by the Nazis' Final Gamble

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It has been sixty years, and all the stories of World War II are not yet told. Along with the big stories of horrors and triumphs, there are smaller ones on the same themes, and some of them were deliberately covered up or hushed up by the victors. Most of us didn't realize that captured American soldiers who should have been mere prisoners of war were actually shunted directly into the Holocaust and treated with the same sort of brutality meted out at the infamous camps like Auschwitz. In _Soldiers and Slaves: American POWs Trapped by the Nazis' Final Gamble_ (Knopf), Roger Cohen has brought forth a grueling and difficult story of American soldiers, many but not all Jewish, who were assigned to Berga, a concentration camp in eastern Germany, and worked as slaves, many to their deaths. Instead of becoming part of the history of infamy by the Nazis, the investigation done at the time was hushed up and the victims who lived did not get to testify against the officials in charge of the camp in the war crimes trials. Cohen's book represents a late but essential corrective.

The Nazis took thousands of American soldiers prisoner in the winter of 1944, and most went on to the more typical POW camps. Even in the closing days of the war, however, and even against Americans, the Nazis had not lost their particular hatred for Jews. About 350 of the captives were singled out for special transfer to Berga, as were about 350 others, many of them Jewish soldiers, but also others who had been branded as troublemakers at other camps, or those who just looked Jewish according to the prejudices of whatever goon was making the decision. The Berga workers included American POWs as well as Jewish prisoners from other camps like Buchenwald. They were often simply worked to death, digging what was to be, in one of Hitler's last mad plans, an underground facility to make synthetic fuel. They had to endure vicious guards, starvation, infected wounds from their mining work, and more; much of Cohen's book describing the treatment of the prisoners is heartbreaking to read. Berga was in operation for just 52 days at the beginning of 1945, and then there was a dreadful death march as the Germans kept losing ground in the war. Of the 350 prisoners, around a fifth died, a rate far higher than any POW camp in Europe.

The trials of the prisoners are in some ways not the saddest part of the book. The men who endured Berga did not get their story told and did not get to give their evidence in the war crimes trials of their brutal slave-drivers. Cohen has looked at the documents from an American war-crimes investigation from 1945, and found them thorough, with many official statements from prisoners. The records, however, became classified and even the existence of the camp was not acknowledged. Family members writing to an official shortly after the end of the war to find out what happened in Berga got a reply that said "... it has been learned that there was no German prisoner of war camp by that name." Prisoners who eventually got back to the US found that even the Veterans Administration could not believe that they were concentration camp survivors, and were denied disabilities. Many of the prisoners had to sign a "Security Certificate for Ex-Prisoners of War" which said that POW activities had to remain secret for the duration of the war and into peacetime. A brutal Nazi sergeant remembered as particularly vindictive was imprisoned for less than ten years by the Americans, partially because his victims didn't testify. An SS officer in charge, in contrast, was captured by the Russians in 1951, tried by them, and hanged. While the US Army never compensated the prisoners or gave them disability benefits for the time in the camp, a few years ago the survivors did get compensation under slave labor legislation from Germany. Cohen's dramatic, haunting, and elegantly written book will help ensure that this important story is not lost.

Wow!
Reading a lot of history (particularly about war) I often feels that nothing will shock me any more. Then I get a hold of a book like Roger Cohen's "Soldiers and Slaves" and find myself gasping in disbelief.
Here is a story of incredible bravery. Here is a story of incredible cruelty. Here is a story of the incredible ability to survive against all odds. Here is an incredible story.
Hitler's last major offensive of World War II in December 1944 resulted in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. Though the Germans ultimately lost the battle they exacted a huge toll in allied casualties and captives.
This is the story of how some of those captured -- particularly American Jews -- came to be swept up in the Nazi's Holocaust.
Cohen tells the story of the approximately 500 American POWs taken to the Berga prison camp in eastern Germany where many were worked or starved or beaten to death.
We are also introduced to a Hungarian Jewish family that was swept up in the latter stages of the Holocaust and how one teen aged son from that family ended up in Berga.
Cohen thus exposes readers to many aspects of the war: battle, capture, POW camps, the Holocaust, escape, sadism and the very unique story of Berga.
There are two things that makes "Soldiers and Salves" such a riveting read. One is the details. We learn exactly what people had and were deprived of. What they wore, ate, drank. What the weather was, what people spoke of and what they they yearned for. This leads to the second aspect of the book that is so integral to its success. The people. Cohen does what is essential in such a story by fully acquainting readers with the main characters. Through interviews, diaries and letters Cohen has come to understand the central figures of the story and passes that understanding on to the reader.
Meet William Shapiro a GI medic from the Bronx who long after the war suppressed his memories of the awful treatment he received and witnessed at Berga. Meet Hans Kasten a German American (whose life even before Berga is worthy of a book) who stood up to his captors, later escaped and sought revenge. Meet Mordecai Hauer the young Hungarian Jew, clutching desperately to life and with equal determination to his family's lives. Meet Erwin Metz, the sadistic sergeant a Berga who cruelly meted out punishment.
"Soldiers and Slaves" is an important addition to the ever burgeoning library of good non fiction on World War II.

Soldiers and Slaves by Roger Cohen is the story of 350 Americans, captured during the Battle of the Bulge, who end up in a Nazi slave labor camp. A major portion of this group were Jewish. The prisoners were sent from a Stalag, where the Jewish prisoners were separated from their fellow POWs. How these men were treated at Berga was a travesty. What was a greater travesty however was how the Americans allowed those who perpetrated these heinous acts to get away with what, considering how they treated their prisoners, amounted to nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Cold war concerns got in the way of justice. The men who were able to survive the camp and the horrific death march after they were forced from the camp by their Nazi guards were heroes in every sense of the word. Those who are alive today still suffer both physically and emotionally as a result of their experiences. Recently, another book on the same subject was published. Although that book was good, this one is a much more interesting read and I recommend it to any WWII buff.

"Soldiers and Slaves" is an excellent narrative on the American soldiers who were interned at the Berga an der Elster Arbeit Kommando. Not for the faint of heart, it describes the particular horror of a group of American prisoners, many Jewish, who were used as slave labor to carve out an underground synthetic fuel factory for the German war effort. This volume adds tremendously to the building documentation of American Prisoners of War during WWII. The volume presents the story of 350 men who were selected as slave laborers based on their Jewish faith, suspected Hebrew heritage, and prisoners considered troublemakers. They were transferred from Stalag IXB at Bad Orb, Germany to the slave labor camp at Berga. The theme pervasive throughout the book is that these men were selected for special treatment as part of Hitler's ethnic euthanasia program known as the Holocaust. This managed plan worked men, women and children on starvation diet in a carefully controlled manner that eventually resulted in death or selection for euthanasia.

Cohen offers comparison to establish this theme using Mordecai Hauer, a native of Budapest, Hungry who enters Hitler's death camps at Auschwitz and proceeds though the hellish system of Buchenwald, and finally to Berga. A good number of pages in the book are used to present the story of Hauer and his family. Some limited contrast to the plight of other American Prisoners of War is based on the treatment of these men in Stalag IXB at Bad Orb is also offered.

At this late date in the war, American Prisoners of War were on a starvation diet, and those who were captured after December 1944 had Red Cross Packages withheld. Late in the war, those Prisoners of War who were interned at Stalags and Arbeit Kommandos in the path of the Russian advance were put on the march. The men at Berga had suffered the additional privation of hard labor in the underground tunnels. That left them physically less able to withstand the rigors of the march. As with other columns on the march, many ended up placed on the "death cart."

Well researched, only a few flaws are seen in Cohen's work. The mention of the bombing of the rail yard at Limburg, Germany during the late evening of 23 December sights British Lancasters as the aircraft used to conduct the bombing -- a common misunderstanding about this event. Fifty-two Mosquito bombers from RAF Group 8 were actually used to conduct the raid. An interesting fact conspicuously omitted from Choen's work is the fact that the Kommandant of Stalag IXB was a cousin to SS-Obersturmführer (Lt.) Willy Hack, the Kommandant of Berga. This is a particularly damning piece of evidence in establishing collusion.

This subject and the presentation of how the camps brought about the most base nature of man should be taught in High School history programs. Future generations must understand not only the sacrifice given by members of the Armed Services in WWII but also work to prevent the spread of animal acts such as those perpetrated by the Nazi juggernaut. "Soldiers and Slaves" would be an excellent source.

As a recommendation to those who wish to further their investigation of the events surrounding Berga, Bad Ord, and the plight of the POW in WWII it is suggested that "Survival, Diary of an American POW in World War II" by Sam Higgins. "Survival" is the best narrative describing what it was like to be there. Also, "Healing the Child Warrior" by Richard Peterson examines the psychology of those who went through the camps. Both were held at Stalag IXB, Bad Orb.

I had first heard of Berga and the 350 American GI's - Jewish - but in many cases not, who were herded by the Nazis into the Berga camp on a PBS special last year - and my reaction was shock, anger, but even admiration - NOT for the Nazis but for that gallant German-American Captain who not only defied the Gestapo by refusing to turn over his Jewish personnel but tried to escape several times.

There have been stories - even other books written about Jewish-Americans, GIs but also in some cases civilians who were swept into the Third Reich by Hitler's advancing armies.This is the first history of how Americans faced firsthand the Holocaust by a mainstream publisher. While men like Erwin Rommel chose not to differentiate between Jews and Non-Jewish POWs; there were others, including those involved in the Bulge operation who chose to do so. The 350 prisoners at Berga were captured at the Bulge, where the Nazis were known to have committed atrocities en masse - the Malmedy Massacre against unarmed American POWs - and Belgian civilians nearby.

While more fortunate than their compatriots butchered by the SS Monster Peiper at the Malmedy crossroads, at least 70 of the Americans - Jews and Non-Jews alike, perished from starvation, exposure - and execution - at the Berga camp. The Americans too, came face-to-face with the horror of Hitler's extermination program, as they were placed in close promixity to starved, slaved Russian and Polish Jews who were also at Berga.

When the survivors were liberated they were told to keep silent, and worse, Berga ended up in the Soviet zone - and notwithstanding the Soviet's intense hatred of the Nazis - they chose NOT to expose what happened at Berga - after all, to the Russians they were only ZHIDS - and the Russkies too wanted the former Nazis on board with them to fight us in the Cold War. That is NO excuse however,for our government, especially in the face of Eisenhower's hatred of Nazism, to cover over the atrocities committed against AMERICAN GIs at Berga.

Roger Cohen has given us a history that while is appalling - is one that needs wide-exposure, as our GREATEST GENERATION is dying out and anti-Semitism is again rearing its ugly head. The stories of the brave Captain aforementioned; and of the individual Americans who stood up to the bestality of Nazism deserves to be placed in every American school and library.

The title and cover photo suggests this book is about US troops captured in the Battle of the Bulge particularly since the sub-title is "American POWs Trapped by the Nazi's Final Gamble." The cover photo is one frequently published as capured GIs of the 99th Division at Honsfield on the German/Belgian border in December 1944.

The book was "inspired" by a 2003 documentary piece BERGA: SOLDIERS OF ANOTHER WAR by New York's WNET PBS channel developed by Charles Guggenheim, an internationally acclaimed documentary filmmaker who was captured as part of the 106th Infantry Division in the opening stages of the Battle of the Bulge.

The book (I listened to the audio version) is more two stories, haphazardly woven together about Hungarian and other people of Jewish background with no connection to the US military and some GIs singled out by religious beliefs or assumed to be Jewish or troublemakers in POW camps all sent to work camps near Berga, Germany to dig tunnels and caves for protected industrial sites.

Savage treatment of captives in concentration and work camps is well known and this work provides more evidence of depravity and repeats, in new circumstances, unmet justice as the developing Cold War diluted much of the fervor for finding and prosecuting Nazi war criminals.

I think thr writer had a story of Hungarian victims and wanted to tell it. He should have, but not by using GI experiences as the tease.

If you are looking for military history and what happened to some Jewish GIs captured near the end of the war, maybe twenty percent of the book is about that with little at all about their experiences immediately before capture, a context for their role and the role of their units or anything else. The rest is about other victims, with dialog "enhanced" almost as fiction.

I felt deceived by the title and cover and would not have bought the audio book in lieu of a couple of Google searches, particularly the PBS website which contains interviews of dozens of GIs who did hard time at Berga. Better yet, PBS sells a DVD of its documentary for twenty bucks.

Let me start by saying that this is a tough book. Roger Cohen's book 'Soldiers and Slaves' goes into the untold story of the American POW's experience at the hands of the Nazi Germans. Not only are they POWs, but many of them are Jewish which as you can imagine, is not a good combination in front of the Nazis.

The story also goes further and talks about austrian and polish jews and their experiences at Aushwitz and Berga. It was disturbing to read the moment of truth when the jewish families were broken up by a flick of an SS's hand on whether they were to go work in the mines or go to their 'safety' of the crematoriums at Aushwitz. You can imagine the confusion that they must have felt as well as the thousands of broken hearts as families were split up in an instant never to see each other again.

The story talks about how the POWs were forced to work long brutal shifts in the mines to build synthetic fuels (the last nazi gamble to be able to get more fuel and energy in the last months of the war). They had no helmets, they had no gloves and they were given little water and one or two pieces of bread. Those that died were discarded. Those that were sick and not able to work, were discarded. By discarded, I mean, executed.

It is great story of survival and of others standing up to the atrocities committed against them. It is a heartbreaking story of the POWs and european jews struck down and without hope as they were literally worked to death every single day. Hope kept many alive and cruelty and hate sent many to their deaths.

It was striking to see how many held out hope until they continued to see their people struck down, shot, beaten and cast aside. You can sense the glee that many of these Nazi soldiers had in punishing and killing the jewish people.

The trials of the nazi leaders responsible for some of these atrocities are brought up and examined. Punishments were light overall for a variety of reasons. Though the book finishes with the discussions of the trials, the heart of the book, to me, is the bravery and the determination of these soldiers and these ordinary people that somehow kept on surviving even with all odds stacked against them. It shows the ruthlessnesses of the nazis that is difficult to even comprehend. It was a dark time for this world.

What a compelling read! In all wars there are stories of atrocities. Some are well known and some not so well known. The author takes us to a virtually unknown Nazi run prison/work camp of WWII. 'Berga' is a name that should be synonymous to 'fear,suffering, punishment and death. Anger will overtake you as you read this remarkable work. Your anger will increase as you learn how and why this terrible part of history was largely ignored and 'swept under the rug' by most, including our own government, mainly for political reasons that might be 'uncomfortable' as the Cold War appears on the horizon.
This is a story that is literally screaming to be told. At the end of most books we just overlook the directories, notes, etc. Go a few pages further and you will find the names of the 350 men that were unfortunate enough to be brought to this camp. Read them, one by one, as you ponder what you have just read about the horror they went through: a horror that many of them carried with them the rest of their lives.

"Soldiers and Slaves", by Roger Cohen, is billed as the story of captured American soldiers who were forced to work for Nazi Germany in slave camps. While the book does cover this, Cohen also included the story of Hungarian Jews who were forced to share a common fate in Berga, Germany.

The story of the American soldiers began with their capture during the Battle of the Bulge. Once the soldiers were captured, Cohen describes how they were shepherded across Germany to stay out of reach of the ever advancing American lines. As the German labor pool shrank, the German Army made a fateful decision to use some of these prisoners to augment the workforce. It was these men who would travel to Stalag IX-B outside of Berga.

The Hungarian Jews were rounded up in their hometowns and sent to various concentration camps. The Germans moved these prisoners across Eastern Europe as the Russian army advanced. These men and women would end up in a different camp outside of Berga.

Cohen used a combination of personal interviews and documents from the National Archives and Records Administration. While the personal stories may have lost some of the accuracy over 5 decades, the personal debriefs included in the archives were written immediately after the prisoners were repatriated. Therefore, there is little doubt to the veracity of the stories of horror and depravation these men and women were forced to live through.

Cohen also includes the fates of the Germans responsible for the atrocious treatment of the prisoners. He also offers opinions as to why the United States did not press harder for the full investigation into these atrocities immediately after the war.

I highly recommend this book for the reader looking to learn more about the personal stories of the victims of the Holocaust.

"Soldiers And Slaves: American POWs Trapped By The Nazis" Final Gamble" By Roger Cohen. Alfred A. Knopf, New York 2005.

Roger Cohen has written a book that is an indictment of the Nazi guards and the Nazi work camp system at the small town of Berga, in what was to become East Germany. At the back of the book, he then writes an indictment of the American system of justice which allowed some of the meanest and most nasty German guards to get off with a minimal sentence. The Soviets, on the other hand, quickly and efficiently hanged one of the worst German guards at Berga. See the photo of Willy Hack, facing page 149. (By the way, things are hung, while men are hanged.)

What made the concentration camp at Berga different from many of the other Nazi camps was the presence of American Army POWs. Most of these victims had been selected because they were Jewish or because they looked Jewish. Others had been selected because they were troublemakers. The story about these American POWS makes up about half the book.

The other half of the book deals with the sufferings of the Hungarian Jews who were also unlucky enough to have been shipped to Berga. As other Amazon reviewers have noted, there is a question as to why the story of the Hungarian Jews was included in this book, nominally on American POWs. Despite the excellent writing, I found myself wanting to skip over the Hungarian story to get back to the American story. The story of the German-American, Hans Kasten, was particularly interesting.