Evening star., 1945-04-29
Nazi War Prisoners
May Be Put 10 Work
To Rebuild Europe
D the Associated Press

~ the Associated Press.
SUPREME ALLIED HEADQUAR-
TERS, PARIS, April 2s.-Less than
one-fourth of the 2,250,000 German
prisoners taken on the Western
Front have been put to work, but
IN these final weeks of the war the
Allies are considering a plan to
make them work and keep them
working, for years perhaps, in re-
building the Europe which they
ravaged.
1t may be that this plan Of en-
forced labor as Germany's major
reparation will not be dissimilar to
the plan already announced by the
Russians to make the Germans re-
store all they have destroyed how
ever long it may take.
Already from the liberated lands
OF Western Europe, France FORE
most among them, have come re-
quests for prisoner labor to till
fields, rebuild roads and mine coal
labor by the tens of thousands.
These are the essentials now, but
the rebuilding of towns and all the
rest 6f the huge task will come next
and probably soon.
Criticized as Slave Labor.
The plan has been criticized as
slave labor, but here where there is
so much to do and so few men and
so little mechanical means with
which to do it, it is vital labor. 1t
is widely regarded here that only
by sweat can Germany repay and
restore.
Prisoners probably present the
Allies with their most troublesome
over-suppIy.
In round numbers there are ap-
proximately 2,25O,0OO of them-and
OF that number more than 100000
nave been scooped up this month
alone, faster than they could be
put to work and almost faster than
they can be processed into huge
camps.
Long ago the Allies adopted the
policy of simply kicking out the
Volkssturm prisoners. They were
disarmed. told what was what and
sent back home. 1t would have
been folly even to feed them, what
with Europes present food needs,
much less paying them the dough-
boy rate-$60 or so a month while
they were being held-better money
than they probably earned before
their short-lived venture as civilian
soldiers.
Prisoners have come in so fast it
Is difficult even to account for
where they all are-but a great ma
jority of them are simply sitting
1t out in prison camps over here.
10000 Sent to U. S.
Some 10000 to 100000 have been
sent to the United States. Most
of the rest would like to join them.
Even the doughboys have scratched
their heads bit over published
accounts of the new hard-boiled
policy of feeding prisoners in
America which still provides menus
with oranges and salad and dress
ing. Doughboys eating food con-
centrate out of cardboard cartons
would like some of that, too.
What the German prisoners are
eating in these lands of hungry
people is nothing that would cause
the average Doughboy any envy.
Several hundred thousand pris-
oners, mostly those taken by the 21st
Army Group but including 100000
turned over by the Americans are
in England and Canada. Five
thousand have been turend over to
the French. The rest are either in
hospitals. in transit or just waiting.
A small minority are working in
hospitals and in the camps.
Needed Mostly on Farms.
But this situation is not going to
last long. The French have asked
for tens Of thousands to clear live
minefields that still are a terrific
hazard throughout France and re-
build roads that are one bottleneck