Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 1135 Prisoner of War Camp

The time came to 1918, the war had ended for half a year, and the Paris Peace Conference was still under negotiation.

The Allies led by Britain, France, and the United States submitted the "Draft Peace Agreement" to the German delegation three times, but they were all rejected by the German delegation because the conditions were too harsh.

As time went by, the German delegation had fewer and fewer chips, and the Allied Powers made fewer and fewer concessions. France and Belgium have begun to stand and rebuild, but Germany is still devastated.

After the Southern African Expeditionary Force withdrew from Europe, all the nearly 45 German prisoners of war captured during the World War were handed over to the British troops still in France for management. These include not only German soldiers on the Western Front during the World War, but also German soldiers who were sent to prisoner-of-war camps from other places after the German soldiers laid down their weapons.

If all 195 million people are handed over to the Southern African Expeditionary Force for management, it will be a huge human resource, but if it is handed over to the Allied Powers for management, it will be a huge burden.

The eating, drinking, and sleeping of 195 million people is simply a disaster for the current management level of the Allied Powers.

In order to better manage the prisoners of war, the Allies sent all the German prisoners of war to the Rhine River for detention. Along the 350-kilometer-long Rhine River, nearly 200 prisoner-of-war camps were densely distributed. At this time, the British Expeditionary Force had been disbanded, and the French The military troops were also abolished in large numbers, and only the United States still had sufficient troops, so the prisoner-of-war camps were mainly managed by the American troops.

The U.S. military’s management of the prisoner-of-war camps is very rough. Usually, the U.S. troops will use barbed wire to enclose a piece of land in any area along the Rhine River. This is the prisoner-of-war camp prepared by the U.S. military for prisoners.

It should be noted that there are usually no buildings, tents, or medical personnel inside the barbed wire. Each prisoner-of-war camp has only a deep ditch as a toilet, and nearly [-] people are held in it like a flock of sheep.

Typically, prisoners are deprived of any living supplies, including water, for the first three days of their arrival at the camp.

There was no basic water supply, clean drinking water was out of the question, and the wounded were not taken care of effectively. At the end of the World War, the German army’s material supply was not sufficient, and many German soldiers were malnourished. Therefore, unhealthy German prisoners of war often would die tragically within days of being sent to a POW camp.

Even if they can survive the first few days of entering the prisoner-of-war camp, the tragic fate of prisoners of war has just begun.

The food provided by the U.S. military to prisoners of war is not high-end canned food produced in southern Africa, but egg powder, milk powder, biscuits, chocolate, coffee, etc. produced in the United States.

These foods require a lot of drinking water to be fully absorbed by the body. When the drinking water supply is strictly controlled, such foods quickly suck up the moisture in the prisoners of war, and many people suffer from severe constipation.

Even if it is such food, the captives cannot get sufficient supply. Normal people need about 1200 calories a day to maintain life, and laborers need 2000-3000 calories. It can only provide about 400-900 calories, which cannot meet the basic needs of life.

After the prisoners entered the POW camp, the U.S. military did not provide them with a suitable place to live, not even the simplest tents. The per capita area in the POW camp was about 3 to 5 square meters. After several consecutive rainy days, the POW camp It turned into a big quagmire. Prisoners of war without suitable tools could only improve their living conditions by themselves. They used cutlery and cans as shovels to dig holes, and used cardboard from food packaging boxes as building materials. Dig a burrow out of the ground to protect yourself from the wind and rain.

These burrows are usually 1.5 to 2 meters below the surface, and the opening is about half a meter wide. The small burrows without support are extremely dangerous when it rains at night, and they often collapse due to water seepage. Many prisoners of war were buried alive in the holes. How many German prisoners of war died because of this, and no one has made relevant statistics, let alone tried to dig out the dead who were buried in the ground.

The living people are still too busy to take care of themselves, and they can't provide enough help to their companions.

As time went on, the conditions in the prisoner-of-war camp did not improve after entering winter.

The captives still live in the burrows they dug with their own hands, and the food they get every day is still so pitiful. Winter is coming, and the captives have no warm clothes, so they can only hide in the burrows like mice to survive.

At this time, what made matters worse was that the American flu had come back. The prisoner-of-war camps lacked basic defense materials. A large number of prisoners of war fell ill in groups. During the peak period, more than 150 corpses were transported away every day.

"So the current situation is that no one knows what happened in the prisoner-of-war camp on the Rhine River. The German government is negotiating with the Allied Powers and has no ability to help prisoners of war. As long as the "Peace Negotiations" are not signed, Germany and the Allied Powers will be at war. , the tragedy that is happening in the prisoner-of-war camp will not end." As the director of the Relief and Rehabilitation Agency, Stoudemire has a relatively full understanding of the situation in the prisoner-of-war camp.

"It's not surprising. Americans have a tradition in this regard. Just look at how they treat Indians, and you will know how low the bottom line of the United States is." Rock is not surprised at all. As a man for two generations, Rock knows I can't finish writing 300 million words of black material about Americans.

"What's interesting is that the U.S. military claims that they have implemented humanitarian management of the prisoner-of-war camps. The number of prisoners killed in the prisoner-of-war camps is similar to the normal level in Germany. There is really no bottom line." Stoudemire has now realized the true colors of the Americans, but these It cannot be said, after all, the United States is also a member of the Allied Powers, and the relationship between the United States and the British Empire——

Oh, it's hard to say!

"Approximately?" Rock seriously doubted that it would be hell if it was almost the same. After the end of the World War, 195 million prisoners were imprisoned in prison camps. Just count how many people died. Even if the Allied Powers did not count, Germany The government will always count.

"The Americans said this. You must know that they will also release some prisoners of war home, but how many people were released home and how many were buried on the banks of the Rhine. I am afraid that no one knows the real situation." Stoudemire Not optimistic. Now the United States claims that there are still about 150 million prisoners of war in the camp. It is true that some prisoners of war have been released home, but no one knows the exact number.

Even the current German government probably doesn't know how many German soldiers died during the World War, how many returned to their hometowns, and how many disappeared.

After all, the German Empire has been destroyed, and the Weimar government that was just established after the World War is facing such a devastated mess. Now the "Peace Agreement" has not been signed, and the Weimar government has not even been recognized by the Allied Powers. In this case, The efficiency of the Weimar government can be imagined.

Rock also had a headache. If he knew that when the Southern African Expeditionary Force was withdrawing, Rock would directly release all the prisoners of war under the control of the Southern African Expeditionary Force. This would at least reduce some tragedies.

Don't forget that the British government's attitude towards the German issue is extremely ambiguous.

On the one hand, Britain hopes to get more compensation from Germany, and on the other hand, it does not want to weaken Germany too much. Therefore, from the standpoint of Britain, it hopes that those German prisoners of war can return to their hometown as soon as possible.

As far as the French government is concerned, the more than 100 million prisoners of war in the prisoner-of-war camps represent more than 100 million young and middle-aged labor force. The French government estimates that they hope that all the prisoners of war will die in the prisoner-of-war camps, so that Germany will never lose the ability to wage war in the future.

"What did your Relief and Rehabilitation Agency do?" Rock was very interested in Stoudemire's work. In fact, it would be more appropriate to replace this job with Rock, but with Rock's identity at the end of the World War, it was obvious that Impossible to hold such a position.

To put it bluntly, the position of Director of the Relief and Recovery Agency is too low to be worthy of Rock's status.

"You just said, relief, revival—" Stoudemire rolled his eyes, and Rock was questioning the content of Stoudemire's work.

"How to revive?" Rock's purpose is definitely not to laugh at Stoudemire. Finding more opportunities for companies in southern Africa is Rock's ultimate goal.

The "relief" here is not charity. All the materials needed are purchased with the money of the British government and the French government. Of course, the same is true in Germany. If you have no money, you can exchange things. The aristocracy has existed for hundreds of years. Since the unification of Germany by Prussia in 1871, Germany has hardly been absent from any important war, so Germany still has its heritage.

As for "resurrection", the content of this part is more complicated. Rock is more interested in the post-war reconstruction part. Southern Africa can provide building materials, human resources, and funds needed for reconstruction. These are European desperately needed.

Not only Germany urgently needs it, but Britain, France, Belgium, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire all urgently need it. It can be said that apart from the United States, even Japan, which has made huge profits and paid little price, needs it. External capital investment.

No one thinks too much money.

"I have a plan that requires the participation of you, Henry, Sidney, and all of us. How about it? Are you interested?" Hug Rock's thighs tightly.

Stoudemire used to be Rock's thigh, but after more than ten years, Rock became Stoudemire's thigh.

"Of course, let's hear it." Rock is the representative of the most powerful capital in Southern Africa, and Rock's participation must be indispensable in such a matter.

(End of this chapter)