Transcript The March - krantzenglish

“The March”
By: Kristine Paske
“The March” has many other
names. Some of which are;
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The Great March West
The Long March
The Long Walk
The Long Trek
The Black March
The Bread March
What does it “The March” refer to?
• It refers to a series of death marches in
the final stage of the World War two.
• Over 80,000 Allied Prisoners of War
(POWs) were forced to march across 500
miles in blizzard-like weather.
Overview
Why did Hitler order the Death
Marches?
• The Soviet Army was advancing into
Poland.
• The Nazis evacuated to prevent liberation
of the prisoners by the Russians.
Hitler’s Issued Orders
• Item 6(a) stated to start “preparations for
moving prisoners of war to the rear”
• This instruction forced hundreds of
thousands of Allied soldiers and airmen
into starvation and death
Rumors Around the Camps
• Many thought that they would be held
hostage to help in a peace deal with the
Allies.
• Some thought that they were being moved
to Belsen to be exterminated in revenge
for the bombing of German cities.
• There were also claims that they were
going to be marched to their deaths.
Main Allied POW Evacuation
Routes
• There were three main routes.
– The Northern Route
• Some prisoners were marched from here towards
the end of the war.
– The Central Route
• 30 km south of Berlin
– The Southern Route
• Led through Czechoslovakia
The March
• Was in January and February and into
the middle of March
– Temperatures as low as -13 F
• Most of the prisoners were ill-prepared
for the evacuations due to years of
poor rations and ‘rags’ for clothes
The March (cont.)
• In most camps the prisoners were broken
up into groups of 250 to 300 men.
• The groups would march 20 to 40
kilometers a day.
• They would rest in factories, churches,
barns, and even in the open.
Different Camps.
Different Experiences
• Sometimes Germans provided wagons
– There were no horses so the able-bodied
POWs pulled the wagons
• Sometimes, passing through towns,
villagers would throw bricks and stones at
the prisoners, while others handed out
food.
• The prisoners that tried to escape were
shot.
Food?
• There was no food so the prisoners mainly
relied on scavenging.
• Some ate dogs and cats.
• Sometimes even grass and rats.
What the POWs mainly died of.
• The main causes of death were:
– Exhaustion, pneumonia, diphtheria, pellagra.
– Typhus was spread by body lice.
– Frostbite from sleeping on the ground.
• They were also in fear of Allied planes that
may have mistaken them for retreating
columns of German soldiers.
Liberation
• Many were freed when the Germans ran
into advancing Allied troops.
• Others were forced to the Baltic Sea
where it was said that the Germans were
using the POWs as human shields.
– Norman Jardine, a POW that was liberated,
said that his group were each given a revolver
and told to shoot any of the guards that had
treated them unfairly.
• He stated that “We did!”
Total Number of British and
American POW deaths.
• There was a total of 273,000 POWs in
German camps. Of which only about
10,000 died in German control.
• (compared to 250,000 Jews that died in
the Death Marches they were forced to go
on) died
Blame for the Marches
• The main blame for the marches was Generallieutenant Gottlob Berger.
– The indictment read:
• "that between September 1944 and May 1945, hundreds of
thousands of American and Allied prisons of war were
compelled to undertake forced marches in severe weather
without adequate rest, shelter, food, clothing and medical
supplies; and that such forced marches, conducted under the
authority of the defendant Berger, chief of Prisoner-of-War
Affairs, resulted in great privation and deaths to many
thousands of prisoners.”
• He was sentenced to ten years in prison.
Annotations
• The Last Escape
– Is a book written by John Nichol and Tony
Rennell. It tells the true stories of American
and British POWs in WWII.
• For You the War is Over
– A book written by David A. Foy. It tells the
story of American POWs in Germany.
Bibliography
• Foy, David. For You the War is Over.
Futura, London: Stein and Day, 1984.
200. Print.
• Rennell, Tony, and John Nichol. The Last
Escape. Viking, New York: John Nichol
and Tony Rennell, 2003. 520. Print.
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Pictures bibliography
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Slide 1
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Slide 2
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http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=f507838e0c8266fc&q=POWs%20in%20ww2&prev=/images%
3Fq%3DPOWs%2Bin%2Bww2%26start%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%
26tbs%3Disch:1
Slide 9
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http://www.ushmm.org/lcmedia/map/lc/image/grr72060.gif
Slide 8
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http://www.christianimages123.com/images/christian-backgrounds-for-powerpoint.jpg
http://library.thinkquest.org/08aug/01776/images/hitler460.jpg
Slide 7
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/1944_july_17_moscow_german_pow.jpg
Slide 4
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http://s3.amazonaws.com/pixblix_production/art_images/617/grunge-background.jpg
Slide 3
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http://www.ww2incolor.com/d/46816-7/Italian+pows
http://media.nowpublic.net/images/49/5/4952e701c68db134b63e46a451ca29b4.jpg
Slide 11
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http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_pPsuc9rvU4Y/Sntel9oVN-I/AAAAAAAAAQM/spXaTGJFGF8/s400/JapPoW.Jpg