At Florence, in the last year of the war, there were only thirty-eight SS men, who could be identified by the characteristic symbol tattooed under their left arm. In the last year of the war a report to the Office of the Provost Marshal General, the arm of the military that oversaw POWs, indicated that most of the SS officers were so morally beaten down that Nazi fanaticism was largely nonexistent at Camp Florence. “The Nazi influence has been sufficiently diluted to make this camp fertile field for the reorientation program,” the report stated, indicating that the Germans were ready to turn on their leader and embrace the teachings of democracy.39 The POWs who had renounced Hitler would begin to have direct contact with American civilians as a result of their amenable demeanor, working as much as possible.

There was a surprising amount of freedom at Camp Florence once the prisoners had established to the Americans’ satisfaction that they weren’t spies or fascists. There were religious services held at a stone Catholic chapel that had been built by the Italian prisoners when they first occupied the camp. The chapel was in constant use and attendance steadily increased for both Catholic and Protestant services.40

There was even a POW paper called Der Ruf. Captain Weiskircher, a high-ranking POW at Camp Florence, recommended that a camp newspaper be established, and an Austrian prisoner with previous newspaper experience acted as the editor.41

The POW environment was designed to create a community for captured men to be contained and somewhat comfortable, which the government hoped would increase the prisoners’ likelihood of allegiance to the United States. In some of the camps, including Florence, the POWs had it better than their loved ones back home in Germany. There was a PW canteen, where prisoners could buy soap, toothpaste, shaving materials, and of course cigarettes with the money they earned from working, in the form of coupons. Some of the prisoners who worked as waiters in the mess hall would receive fifty-cent or one-dollar tips from the wives of the American officers who liked them and thought they were “good boys.”42 And Florence wasn’t the exception. Prisoners at other camps were treated well too. POW Fritz Haus couldn’t believe how plentiful the food was. “We lacked nothing. If anything they pampered us. Food was sufficient, regular, and much better than what our German civilians and military had available back home.”43