I just read Tonya Allen's review of Richard Whittingham's Martial Justice: The Last Mass Execution in the United States while surfing the always excellent Uboat.Net. I was unfamiliar with the fascinating story of Werner Drechsler, a captured U-Boat sailor who reportedly worked for the US military as a spy inside POW camps in the United States. A search for more information regarding Drechsler brought up Find A Grave's website for fourteen German POWs who were executed for murder by US authorities and buried in the Fort Leavenworth Military Prison Cemetery.

In addition to Werner Drechsler, two other German POWs - Horst Guenther and Johannes Kunze - were also murdered by fellow German POWs in POW camps in the United States. Like Drechsler, both Guenther and Kunze were killed by their fellow POWs due to allegedly treasonous conduct. A search for more information regarding Kunze and Guenther brought up Richard Rongstad's review of Wilma Trummel Parnell's The Killing of Corporal Kunze.

Are these among the true stories which lie behind such films as Decision Before Dawn and Stalag 17?

[ 02. November 2003, 12:04 AM: Message edited by: Crapgame ]

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