| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 222 words from this article are provided below; about 370 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

"Die Schwarzen waren unsere Freunde": Deutsche Kriegsgefangene in der amerikanischen Gesellschaft, 1942–1946 ("The blacks were our friends": German prisoners of war in American society, 1942–1946). By Matthias Reiß. (Paderborn, Ger.: Schöningh, 2002. 371 pp. € 40.90, ISBN 3-506-74479-8.) In German.

This book focuses on the multiple ironies generated by the presence during World War II of increasing numbers of German prisoners of war (POWs) in the racial structure of a United States segregated by law and custom. As conquered enemies, representing a regime that came close to incorporating absolute evil, the Germans stood in principle beneath even the lowest rungs of the American order. Germans were also, particularly in the South, widely used for the kinds of agricultural labor associated with blacks and organized on "black" lines, in large work gangs. On the other hand, as clearly identifiable members of the dominant ethnic community, they were regularly treated as "whites" in situations involving segregated facilities such as restaurants, toilets, and railroad cars. According to Matthias Reiss, German prisoners eventually were so readily accepted by the American civil population that the POW camps increasingly became a means less of protecting Americans from their enemies than of keeping the two groups apart, preventing the Germans from utilizing fully the privileges that accrued to them because of their skin color.

. . .

There are about 370 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.