The protectiveness of blacks bewildered the POWs at first. A German prisoner recalled a time when black soldiers protected POWs from an angry mob in France. “Had they not acted so vigorously, we would have fared quite badly. On this occasion we experienced for the first time how much compassion the colored Americans had for us. We were only able to solve this mystery after having our experiences with them in America.”22

German prisoners immediately remarked on the entrenched racial hierarchy in the United States. Some remembered African American men wearing pristine white jackets serving them during their days-long train journey to the camps. The black attendants brought food and drinks to the POWs at their seats, and stayed on call the entire trip while the Germans slept. They even called the prisoners “sir.”23 It was startling to witness such deference by Americans considering that Germans were technically enemies, not to mention prisoners of war who might well have killed Americans in combat. But it was an authentic picture of how the United States regarded its black citizens and the inherent expectation of subservience to whites, even if they were Nazis. Overall, the prisoners were surprised at how mannered the Americans of both races were toward them upon arrival. POW Karl-Heinz Hackbarth was astounded by the comfortable accommodations en route to his assigned camp, Fort Custer near Battle Creek, Michigan. “We couldn’t believe we were allowed to sit in upright seats on a Pullman car. There were a couple of guards in the front and back of each car. If you had to use the bathroom, you had to raise your hand, and a guard would escort you.”24 There were also stories from German POWs that were less than flattering about the transport. Some prisoners reportedly found the trips “brutalizing,” with packed train cars and harsh orders that barely allowed them to move on the hours-long journeys. More serious allegations surfaced about sick POWs who died en route and were thrown overboard, but these claims were never substantiated.25

The train journey across the American terrain would be most of the German POWs’ first experience of the United States. The temperature in the Pullman cars that Frederick rode in soared as the train ride grew longer. The 100-degree weather of the Deep South was unlike anything they had ever experienced. As the trains headed to camps on the West Coast, the conversations among the prisoners halted when they passed through Texas and the military bases with rows of B-17 bombers, known as Flying Fortresses, came into full view. These were the planes that the POWs knew were destined to obliterate their cities, homes, and families. There was nothing they could do except hope that the war would end before the bombs touched the ground.26