Disarmed Enemy Forces
Disarmed Enemy Forces (DEF, "disarmed enemy armed forces") is an American name for the large mass of members of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS who were only captured after the unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945. The Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War was initially not applied to them because, by definition, they were not prisoners of war.
The corresponding British term was Surrendered Enemy Personnel (SEP).
Origin of the term
As early as March 1943, there were fears in the USA that after a victory they would not be able to feed the German prisoners of war. Therefore it was decided in the staff of Commander-in-Chief Dwight D. Eisenhower not to classify the prisoners as prisoners of war, but as Disarmed Enemy Forces , as arrested former soldiers of a no longer existing state apparatus. In terms of nutrition and medical care, they were therefore not on an equal footing with the garrison troops of the US Army under the Geneva Convention , but with the displaced persons and the German civilian population.
The German Wehrmacht had created a similar new term for captured Italian soldiers in September 1943: military internees . These were also not considered prisoners of war and were used for forced labor.
Fate of the Disarmed Enemy Forces
The bulk of the Disarmed Enemy Forces were soon released, especially members of the Volkssturm and the Hitler Youth as well as the wounded and sick.
German military units were kept intact so that they could be used as auxiliaries for the US armed forces - some of them were used in various allied service groups. Prisoners were also handed over to France by the US Army , where they were used for forced labor (e.g. clearing mines). Most of those affected were held in the so-called Rhine meadow camps and in former concentration and forced labor camps.
Individual evidence
- ^ Rüdiger Overmans : The Rhine meadow camps 1945 . In: Hans-Erich Volkmann (Ed.): End of the Third Reich - End of the Second World War. A perspective review . Published on behalf of the Military History Research Office . Munich 1995. ISBN 3-492-12056-3 , p. 277.
- ↑ Heinz-Ludger Borgert, Walter assailants, Norbert Wiggershaus: service groups and West German defense contribution - Considerations Prior to arming of the Federal Republic of Germany. Boppard am Rhein, 1982, ISBN 3-7646-1807-8 .