Der Ruf (newspaper)
A scan of the front page of the November 15, 1945 edition of the POW paper Der Ruf.
|
|
| Type | Monthly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Founded | March 1, 1945 |
| Language | German |
| Ceased publication | March 15, 1949 |
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. After returning to Germany, two of the former POWs founded a German newspaper of the same name.
Fort Kearny was the headquarters of a secret campaign to re-educate German POWs and instill democratic ideas, in the hopes that on their return to Germany they would influence the democratization of the country.
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 the President 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.
...
Wikipedia