Nebraska Pow Camps Essay

736 Words2 Pages

World War II is an area of history researched by many scholars and amateurs in a variety ways and perspectives. Unfortunately, some aspects of this international event have been widely ignored. Thus, many books on unknown aspects of history have a harder time balancing both informing about the event and creating an argument within its history. The correct balance between these two tasks is something not all history books can accomplish, however, Nebraska POW Camps accomplished this task with only a small error. Using personal accounts, Melissa Amateis Marsh’s book, Nebraska POW Camps: A History of World War II Prisoners in the Heartland, was a refreshing read on a forgotten event close to home for Nebraskans, with a strong argument that only faltered in the organization of her defense of why POWs had positive experiences in the camps. Many Nebraskan readers probably have no idea about the three POW camps …show more content…

Even if Marsh just had a section at the beginning of her book giving the readers context about Nebraska during this time, it would have significantly added to the strength of her argument. As such, Marsh would have appeared more trustworthy. Even with this factor as to why the POWs were content with camp life, the farmers being German American should have been mentioned earlier within the book to make the argument stronger. In addition, Marsh should have expanded on the importance of the farmers being German Americans and the impact that had on the POWs. Giving more specific instances of similarities, beyond both groups speaking German, Marsh could have expanded on the sympathy many farmers felt towards the POWs. Thus, Marsh would have allowed herself to show the contrast in opinions of many Americans had on the POW camps nationally. Mentioning this earlier would have made Marsh seem more credible to her readers on this aspect of her

Open Document