Wolfgang, do you happen to know what formal status was accorded to the German fascists tried at Nuremburg for war crimes? (Peter K)

Difficult, very difficult. For a very good reason (Geneva Convention only came after WWII) the official status of prisoners in WWII did vary more than today. For instance, one of the crimes of some of the Nuremberg defendants was that Germany explicitely for some prisoners (for instace, political commisars of the Red Army) denied the status of war prisoner and had them shot immediately. Some sources written long after 1945 use the words 'prisoner of war' but that may only be with hindsight.

For some Nuremberg defendants (Jodl, Keitel,..) there are questionnaires filled out by them available calling them explicitely prisoners of war. But then these two were generals. I have not found (except as a claim in sources like the one below) if any German civilian accused in Nuremberg was officially declared prisoner of war.

What I have found (in German) is this (I wouldn't trust such a source for several reasons, but there it is):
(my summary) The Americans have severely mistreated the prisoners in 1945, the conditions of the cells were at least as bad as in Guantanamo, their rights have been violated and their conditions of living have been made deliberately bad. Some have been executed in a way ensuring extreme long pain. There is an unbroken chain of Americans violating rights of war prisoners from 1945 to today. (end of summary)

The name of the site has 'Donaufront' in it and whenever we see the word 'front' in part of a name we suspect right radicals or Neonazis with good reasons. Neonazis are over here among those most radically opposing present and former American (and Israel) politics.

There you are.

Wolfgang