From collection Publication Collection
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Page 41
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
Page 45
Page 46
Page 47
Page 48
Page 49
Page 50
Page 51
Page 52
Page 53
Page 54
Page 55
Page 56
Page 57
Page 58
Page 59
Page 60
Page 61
Page 62
Page 63
Page 64
Page 65
Page 66
Page 67
Page 68
Page 69
Page 70
Page 71
Search
results in pages
German Prison for American Officers
THE RECORD
of SIGMA ALPHA EPSILON
Vol. XXXIX
MAY, 1919
No. 2
GERMAN PRISON FOR AMERICAN OFFICERS
Capt. Benjamin P. Burpee
New Hampshire Alpha
(EDITORIAL NOTE: Captain Burpee was captured March 26, 1918, and
sent to prison which he here fully describes. He remained there until the
latter part of November, 1918.)
T
HE main prison camp for American officers in Germany was
located in the small town of Villingen, in Baden, about
twenty miles north and forty miles east of the Rhine. It
was an altitude of some 2,000 feet in a rather cold climate, and was
originally a reprisal camp for Russian officers in retaliation for
prison camps in Siberia to which German officers had been sent.
American officers, taken prisoners at the front, were sent, after
more or less delay in towns near the line, to Karlsruhe, the main
assembling camp for prisoners of all nationalities in Germany, and
to its branch camp at Rastatt, the latter being later the prison camp
for the two thousand odd American enlisted men. From these two
camps, the American officers were then sent to Villingen. Some of
the aviators were sent to Landshut in Bavaria, but this number
nearly all were later sent to Villingen. A few officers, mostly medi-
cal men, were, for no apparent reason, scattered in camps in Prus-
sia and northwestern Germany.
The first American officers taken prisoners were captured between
March 21 and April 10, in the first two big German drives at St.
Quentin and Armentieres, were about twenty-five in number and
were all medical officers attached to the British forces. Up to the
