Essay
The Power of Determined Interests Groups: How Labor Unions, Farmers, Prisoners of War, and Journalists Influenced German Prisoner Camps and Italian Service Units in Washington and Oregon
07/31/2013
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/4485
Abstract
In 1944, Spokesman-Review journalist Margaret Bean reported on German prisoners of war working in the Malott, Washington farm community. Five hundred German prisoners occupied the Fort Lewis administrated branch camp in Malott for the central purpose of harvesting multiple crops. Bean explained to her Spokane readers the varied environments and personalities of the farm as she observed the branch camp and the Afrika Korps workers, who Bean romanticized as symbolic reminders of the “American boys” fighting in Europe. The two-page article first appeared as a simple report on the use of war prisoners in agriculture during World War II, but the underlying text summarized the complexity of war prisoner detainment in Washington and Oregon. Many Malott farmers temporarily employed prisoners for harvesting, made easily possible because labor unions barred prisoners of war from industrial contract work, thus giving farmers more laborers. Additionally, prisoners themselves controlled some of their labor and lifestyle, revealed through an anonymous German prisoner’s blunt refusal of getting his picture taken for the Spokesmen-Review and active reinforcement of his rejection by his commanding officer, all based on prisoner rights set forth in the 1929 Geneva Convention. Finally, the media as mesmerized, curious onlookers, such as Bean, devotedly reported on war prisoners, which drove and fed off of public interests. This complex situation did not just influence Malott, but reached across Washington and Oregon between 1944 and 1946. While the Washington and Oregon Prisoner of War program followed federal government policies, northwest interest groups such as labor unions, agriculture, media, and prisoner knowledge of Geneva Convention rights also influenced camp programs. Combined government policies and interest group motivations created a complex web of interrelated factors that affected the detainment of Germans and Italians.
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Details
- Title
- The Power of Determined Interests Groups: How Labor Unions, Farmers, Prisoners of War, and Journalists Influenced German Prisoner Camps and Italian Service Units in Washington and Oregon
- Creators
- Rachel Zeller (Author)
- Contributors
- LAURIE K MERCIER (Supervisor) - Washington State University, History, Department of
- Academic Unit
- WSU Vancouver Library Student Research Excellence Awards
- Identifiers
- 99900501847701842
- Copyright
- openAccess ; http://purl.org/eprint/accessRights/OpenAccess
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Essay
- Course Name
- History 469