Regarding the 'pampering' of POWs in the US during WWII- for four years of my life I went out with a former German POW who was captured by the US tank corps in France in 1942 at the age of 17. He was incarcerated in Georgia and later, Alabama; the POWs did a lot of fruit orchard labor and other agricultural work for the duration of the war. (At the end of the war, they were not allowed to return home because conditions in Germany were so poor. POWs were given a choice as to where they wanted to go. My friend chose to go to England where he worked in orchards and on farms until he went back to Germany in 1948. He emigrated to this country in 1956.)

He said that while FDR was alive, the POWs ate very well; he said it was especially notable because in the German army they had half starved, being at the stage where they raided civilian gardens and threw everything into a communal pot for their main meal. In captivity he gained close to 30 pounds.

After Roosevelt died and Harry Truman took over, he said, the diet changed dramatically. From red meat and cake, they went to practically military rations, which startled them all.

Ebbie