Der Ruf or The Call was a German language newspaper published in Fort Kearny in Narragansett, Rhode Island during World War II by captured prisoners of war (POWs). It was distributed to about 140 other POW camps in the United States. At the time, Fort Kearny was the headquarters of a secret campaign to deprogram German POWs from Nazi ideology and instill democratic ideas, in the hopes that on their return to Germany they would influence the democratization of the country.
According to historian Robert C. Doyle, "Der Ruf followed in the tradition of the Orgelsdorfer Eulenspiegel, a camp literary and satirical newspaper published by German internees during World War I, and became the anti-Nazi newspaper that circulated throughout the entire POW camp system. It achieved great popularity among the more literate German prisoners in the United States."Robert C. Doyle (1999), A Prisoner's Duty: Great Escapes in U.S. Military History, Bantam Books. Page 317.
After returning to Germany, two of the former POWs founded a German newspaper of the same name until 1947, when it was banned by U.S. Occupation authorities on the official grounds that paper was scarce.
At the same time, however, Der Ruf represented a new beginning for German literature after more than a decade of strictly enforced government censorship in Nazi Germany and its literary legacy accordingly continues to this day.Robert C. Doyle (1999), A Prisoner's Duty: Great Escapes in U.S. Military History, Bantam Books. Page 317-318.
Background
Special projects division Der Ruf was the brainchild of a military program called the prisoner of war special projects division. The special projects division was inspired in part by news articles claiming hard core Nazis dominated life inside prison camps, beating and intimidating prisoners who spoke out against Hitler. Eleanor Roosevelt met with Dorothy Thompson, who was one of the journalists writing about conditions in the prison camps, and Army Major Maxwell McKnight, and together they put pressure on President Franklin Roosevelt who authorized the creation of the division. Planning for the program began in the Office of the Provost Marshal General in the fall of 1943.
The Special Projects Division was led by Lt. Col. Edward Davison and was intended to promote American ideals among German POWs. Davison was a poet who had taught at Vassar College, the University of Miami, and the University of Colorado, Boulder before the war. Davidson was a strong believer in the power of words and ideas, and viewed his mission as one of persuasion rather than psychological warfare. Other leaders of the program included the Assistant Director of the program, Maxwell McKnight, a graduate of Yale Law School who had prior experience in the Prisoner of War division and who had been influential in convincing Roosevelt to authorize the program; and Curriculum Director Walter Shoenstedt, an exiled German novelist who had been assistant editor of Berliner Tageblatt, who had worked extensively on "know your enemy" brochures for the armed forces. Shoenstedt organized the production of Der Ruf, which was the foundation on which all of the division's attempts to reorient the worldview of the German prisoners relied.
The aim of the program was to "provide ideological alternatives to National Socialism" for the German prisoners. A War Department demonstrated an expectation that after the war the prisoners would "have a strong influence in future German affairs, and their conceptions of our form of government may determine to a great extent Germany’s postwar relations with the United States.”
One of the program's first objectives was to separate prisoners based on their level of adherence to Nazi ideals. Hard core Nazis were moved to a special camp in Alva, Oklahoma, while intellectuals who expressed anti-Nazi sentiments in their interrogations and who had literary talent were sent to camps on the east coast to work with the special projects division. Although it was fairly easy to identify the hard-core Nazi adherents, removing them from camps did little to reduce the internal cohesion and loyalties of the POWs. The Office of the Provost Marshal General viewed the struggle for control of the camps as one of ideas, and aimed to instill competing ideas in the minds of the prisoners in addition to removing those prisoners most committed to the ideals of National Socialism.
Lt. Col. Davison was known as a gifted poet and had been a professor at the University of Colorado prior to the war. Davison and McKnight were somewhat hesitant to push for reeducation because they feared American POWs in Germany would be retaliated against, however the Geneva Convention, while prohibiting indoctrination, encouraged "intellectual diversions". Those prisoners who were identified as having anti-Nazi sentiments were put to work creating these diversions. This group of prisoners came to be known as "The Idea Factory" or, "The Factory".
Fort Kearny The Factory was originally located at a POW camp housed in a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Cayuta, New York. However, the special projects division was unhappy with the treatment the carefully identified prisoners were receiving, complaining that this special group of highly intellectual prisoners received treatment "comparable to that of prisoners in a strictly Nazi [POW] camp". Therefore, they looked for a new location for their camp.
Fort Kearny, Rhode Island consisted of 20 acres in Saunderstown, Rhode Island. It had been constructed in 1908 to provide coastal defense, and was named for Civil War Major General Philip Kearny. By 1943 the threat to the United States east coast was diminished and Fort Kearny's guns were relocated or scrapped.FortWiki article on Fort Kearny Kearny had barracks suitable for prisoners and guards, a kitchen, administrative buildings, and the grounds were shielded from public view. The fort was reclassified as a prison in February 1945 and the first 85 prisoners were moved in immediately.
Many of the first 85 prisoners had served in the German military against their will, and some had even been inmates in Nazi concentration camps. All of them had passed rigorous tests designed to weed out all but those most opposed to the Nazi regime. Before the war they had been artists, professors, and writers in Germany. Their goals were to make Germany a better place after the war, and many of them did become influential thinkers and writers in post-war Germany.
The camp was commanded by U.S. Army Captain Robert Kunzig. The existence of the camp and the activities conducted there were to be kept secret. The identities of the prisoners were also to be kept secret, to protect their families in Germany. It was feared that, if the nature of the activities the Fort Kearny prisoners were engaged in were to become public, Americans would be angry at some prisoners being coddled, while Germans would view the prisoners as traitors and harm their families back home.
The special projects division was keen to earn the trust of the special prisoners kept at Fort Kearny, and as a result it was not run like other POW camps. Inmates were expected to settle disputes by their own internal "committee of governors". There were no towers or armed guards, although the camp was surrounded by barbed wire. Inspections were conducted, but the prisoners did not face the same sort of pressures as prisoners in other camps. Nevertheless, there were no escapes or even escape attempts reported at Fort Kearny.
POWs at Kearny were required to renounce their German military ranks and sign a declaration that they owed no loyalty to the Nazi Party or to Hitler, believed in democracy, would refrain from activity that could be detrimental to the United States, and wouldn't try to escape. American guards referred to the prisoners as "Mr." and, although they still had to wear POW uniforms with "PW" on them, they were occasionally permitted to wear pants that weren't marked.
In addition to publishing Der Ruf, prisoners at Fort Kearny also worked on other projects for the Special Projects Division. They were primarily engaged in curating reading material to be provided to prisoners in other POW camps as part of the Special Projects Division's reeducation efforts. They reviewed books to be sent to various POW camps, and translated great works of American literature into German. Many of the books selected had been burned and remained banned under censorship in Nazi Germany. Particularly in demand among POWs were banned works of Exilliteratur by anti-Nazi refugees such as Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Thomas Mann's Zauberberg, and Franz Werfel's The Song of Bernadette. In a later article for Der Ruf, POW literary critic Curt Vinz opined, "Had we only had the opportunity to read these books before, our introduction to life, to war, and the expanse of politics would have been different."
They screened T.V. shows and movies to determine which were suitable for showing at POW camps, weeding out those that painted an unflattering picture of American culture, those that seemed too much like propaganda, and those that were poorly made. They also wrote position papers on various aspects of German culture, largely focusing on mass media and how it was received and interpreted by the German populace.
In addition to their work producing Der Ruf and curating other reading and viewing material, they monitored newspapers published at other POW camps, looking for Nazi influence. In March 1945 they found that approximately 75% of POW newspapers they examined were pro-Nazi in some form. By that fall, the Nazi editors at other papers had been replaced, and a change of outlook had occurred. This change of outlook was attributed to the combined effects reeducation efforts including Der Ruf, the realization that the war was lost, and prisoner interactions with Americans. Out of 80 papers examined only one was pro-Nazi.
Recreational activities at Fort Kearny included visiting the beach at Narragansett Bay, reading, writing, artistic activities such as drawing and painting, and discussing politics and culture. The small size of the camp prevented athletic activities such as soccer, although they sometimes played fistball.
POW paper
The main "intellectual diversion" worked on by prisoners at Fort Kearny was a POW newspaper, Der Ruf. The name Der Ruf or The Call was chosen because American authorities hoped it would serve as a "call" inspiring prisoners to rethink their prior attitudes and to embrace American ideals. Development of the paper began in 1944, and prisoner involvement began in 1945.
Shoenstedt listed the four objectives of the paper as: To create a prisoner of war magazine for the broadest audience possible To provide exact news of all important military and political events To print news from the homeland, good reading material, and entertainment in order to Foster realistic thought and constructive interests and feeling Avoid stirring up political emotions or injuring national pride Satisfy the desire for real cultural expression among the prisoners and to reflect their point of view as much as possible To give prisoners moral support and open a larger political horizon for their benefit and To make prisoners conscious of the tasks which await them in the future. To create and print the best German newspaper (in content and form) of our time.
The first editor-in-chief of the paper was German novelist and newspaper correspondent Dr. Gustav René Hocke. His staff of prisoners not only wrote the articles but also undertook the production activities of the paper. It was printed using offset presses, and good quality newsprint.