Arbeit macht frei: - Fredrick Töben

Forbidding German POW’s Native Salute
Major Claude C Wilde,
Commander, Prisoner of War Camp
Fort Sam Houston,
San Antonio, Texas
May 5, 1945
My dear Major Wilde:
A newspaper report of May 2 stated that you ordered German prisoners
of war to renounce their native German military salute under penalty of
death by starvation.
While I realize that you yourself gave the order under orders, I wonder
whether you could give me information on the following three points or
refer me to the department which can. The questions are:
1) Is forbidding prisoners of war the use of their native and customary
military salute in accordance with the Geneva Conventions on handling
prisoners?
2) Is starving prisoners of war for refusing to drop their country’s salute in
accordance with the Geneva Regulations or other international code?
3) Have the military or governmental authorities in germany forbidden
our soldiers our American salute?
As a college teacher and frequent writer and lecturer I ought to have the
answers to these points, and I would greatly appreciate it if you could help
me in this matter.
Very sincerely yours,
Austin J App, Ph.D.
Time Magazine
330 East 22 nd
Street
Chicago 16, Ill.
January 24, 1945
To the Editor:
* * *
In your January 15 issue you rightly ask ‘what for?’ What are we fighting
for?
If for three years the senators, generals, the columnists, and the cabinet
officers of a large country cannot come to agreement on the reason for a
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