NOT THAT WE BASE OUR IMPRESSIONS on life in a German POW camp entirely on “Hogan’s Heroes,” but there is an understanding that life in a stalag wasn’t nearly as bad as life, say, under the Japanese. Roughly 4 percent of Americans died in German and Italian camps while a staggering 27 percent died in Japanese camps. In Western Europe, Allied prisoners (except the Russians) enjoyed certain benefits thanks to the Geneva Convention. They received Red Cross parcels, enough food, and were often allowed to exercise and play soccer. It wasn’t the Waldorf-Astoria, but it wasn’t Auschwitz either. At least for most of them. With the Allies closing in on the Reich, the stalags began to swell. By 1944, Stalag 9B, northeast of Frankfurt, held 10,000 Red Army prisoners. Following the Battle of the Bulge in December of that year, an additional 4,000 Americans filled the camp. As SS interrogators took down the names, ranks, and serial numbers of the newly arrived, they happened to notice a sizable number of Jewish-sounding names. It was only a matter of time before the Germans demanded to know which of these 4,000 American POWs were Jews.

“In our country, we don’t differentiate by religion–we are all Americans,” said Hans Kasten, a POW designated as an intermediary for the two sides. His answer was apparently incorrect–after giving it he was thrown down a flight of stairs. Kasten went back to his men and instructed them that under no circumstance is anyone to admit who among them is Jewish. At the next day’s lineup, not a single POW responded to the SS officer’s request for all Jews to step forward. Enraged, the Germans decided to make the selection themselves, based on which names sounded Jewish and who looked Jewish. In the end, 350 men were separated, unaware of the horrors to come.