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English -> Sep 13, 1945 War Captives in U. S. to Be Gone by Spring

New York Times: Sep 13, 1945: pg. 5

War Captives in U. S. to Be Gone by Spring
Total of Prisoners Here 1s Put at 417,034
Special to The New York Times.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 - The last of the 417,034 German, Italian and Japanese prisoners of war still in the United States will be going back to their homelands by early spring according to the War Department. The schedule for shipping prisoners of war out o of this country has been stepped up since the surrender of Japan. By midwinter, all Italian service units, which have been doing special voluntary work, will be sent back to Italy. By early spring, all Italian prisoners novv numbering 49,784; the 362,170 German prisoners, and the 5,080 Japanese in this country will be cleared out.
The War Department previously was interested in keeping prisoners of war in this country because most of them were performing valuable labor, largely in agriculture and industry and at Army camps. The increasing rate of demobiliza-tion of members of our own armed In forces and the release of workers from industry during the reconversion has changed the picture entirely, according to Maj. Gen. Archer L. Lerch, the Provost Marshal General. More than 12,500 German and Italian prisoners, principally those who were sick and wounded, have been shipped from the United States since V-E Day. These in-cluded 11,554 Germans and 1,087 Italians.
During September, the War Department plans to return about 18,000 prisoners, including forty-nine complete Italian service units, composed of 229 officers and 8,400 enlisted men.
The Italian service units are getting preference in repatriation over other able-bodied prisoners because "they were the most cooperative prisoners of war held by the United States," General Lerch states. “Cooperative" Germans will go next, and the "non-cooperative" Germans will be the last to go.

[send by Charles Purvis on March 17, 2023]

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