'One Long Night' Tells Harrowing History Of Concentration Camps

Well said 1SG (Join to see)

Hooah!

Hooah!

Wordplay. They differ only to a matter of degree. Whether it's called an internment camp or concentration camp is largely immaterial. These camps served the same purpose.

During the second world war the United States and Britain were allied with the Soviet Union which maintained the largest Gulag, aka concentration camp system in the world having fed tens of millions through them to their death from 1917-53.

In 1945 the United States found itself with literally tens of thousands of former Soviet citizens in thier p o w camps, those who had served in the German Wehrmacht. The Soviet Union was given permission to fly hundreds of nkvd officers to the United States we're many thousands of these people were actually liquidated on site and the remainder processed for return to the Soviet Union. This was quite a sordid Affair and little known in the West.

The British followed this with operation keelhaul in Austria beginning in June of 1945.

War and its aftermath are hell.

Thank you both for your replies. I spent 9 years as a Medical Service Corps officer with Enemy Prisoner of War units. I studied the Geneva Conventions on treatment of captives, and studies the US Army FM 27-10 (Law of Land Warfare) on the same subject. I helped write initial SOP for treatment and care of detainees at Gitmo in 2002 along with gathering medical intel and helping to manage detainee and good guy care there for the first six months of operation. I fulfilled similar duties in Iraq in 2004-2005, and spent time at Abu Ghraib prison after the scandal there helping to clean up the mess. I worked with ICRC physicians and Iraqi Ministers of Human Rights to help get things right. No one cares more or does more with regard to captives than the United States. We can all be proud of that. Lumping us in with the worst of the worst is unfair at best. It is easy to second guess things like the Japanese internment camps. By today's PC standards that was on par with Auschwitz, but in reality is was a necessary evil in order to protect the American people from potential insurrection. It worked. There were no major sabotage or insurrection during WWII by Japanese Americans, and many served valiantly in WWII in the European Theatre. Sometimes right and wrong take a back seat to what's necessary for survival, and that's exactly what war is, a test of survival. Remember, it was a Japanese "tourist" (Imperial Japanese spy) who took detailed photos of Pearl harbor prior to the Japanese attack. That information created one of the most deadly attacks in modern warfare history. Internment camps were a small price to pay for victory.

I think its inappropriate to compare Nazi Concentration Camps (most of which were also death camps - even if all they did was work and starve people to death) to prisoner of war camps in the US. Even the "internment camps" for the Japanese were luxurious compared to what prisoners of the Nazi's endured. American POW's of WWII were sent to a section of Dachau which was basically a death camp. Many died over the course of just months due to overwork, malnutrition and extreme cold. Comparing camps from the US to Nazi Germany is insanely inaccurate. "The Office of the Provost Marshal General supervised the 425,000 German prisoners. They stayed in 700 camps." The US followed the Geneva Convention of 1929; "provide living quarters comparable to those of its own military". "The three admirals and 40 generals in custody were sent to a Mississippi camp, where each had his own bungalow with a garden." Be assured, not one single American POW was treated like that. "The Geneva Convention's mandate of equal treatment for prisoners also meant they were paid American military wages." It's sometimes maddening to see how ridiculous American's can be when it comes to "civil rights." "Part of their wages helped pay for the POW program, and the workers could use the rest as pocket money for the camp canteen". That sounds really rough. So just in case they didn't get enough to eat at chow time, they had money to get more at the "canteen"."While most citizens living near camps accepted the prisoners' presence, the government received hundreds of letters each week protesting their treatment. Many demanded that the POWs be immediately killed, a sentiment the regular casualty lists in American newspapers encouraged. The government had difficulty in persuading the public that treating the prisoners according to the Geneva Convention made it more likely that Germany would treat American prisoners well." How wrong they were! The same mentality is true today. Why do govt officials think treating GITMO detainees like kings, is what we must do because that's why Islamists hate Americans. We need to carefully check the facts to be sure we know what is really going on.

SSG Diane R. - Here is an example of an American "Concentration" camp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUaDRFmRuhU . Here is an example of a German "Concentration Camp" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KCKagd6Ihk