Bloodied Kansas: Nazi Retribution in a Kansas POW Camp

Abstract

Fear! Raw, naked, animal fear! Kameraden! Kameraden! Help! Help! Someone, please! Anyone, please? Faces, a blur of faces. Some sneer. Some laugh! Others look down, look away. Run! Where? The gate, they will help. They must help! No! Where are they going? This can't happen, not here!

Blows--fists, boots, hammerlike blows! Exhaustion. Silence. Acceptance. And finally ... darkness.

In Nazi-occupied Europe this scenario played out for thousands of victims. But this wasn't Europe. This tragedy occurred in the United States, in Kansas. The victim was Captain Felix Tropschuh, Afrika Korps veteran, and a prisoner of war under the charge of the U.S. Army. His tormentors were his fellow prisoners and his ordeal was endured right under the noses of his American captors and under conditions existing with American acquiescence.