711.62114 Sick/7–1144: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland (Harrison)
2381. American Interests Germany—Repatriation Sick and Wounded Prisoners of War. Request Swiss Government to inform the German Government that the Government of the United States is prepared to arrange a further exchange of seriously sick and seriously wounded prisoners of war and surplus protected personnel upon the basis of the following proposals:
- “1. The exchange shall take place at a port or ports to be agreed upon.
- 2. A Mixed Medical Commission has just completed its tour of United States camps in which German prisoners of war are detained, and has qualified about 125 German prisoners for direct repatriation or hospitalization in a neutral country. This number is in addition to those German prisoners named in the Department’s 2127 of June 22,40 numbering 37, who since the last repatriation operation were determined to be eligible. If agreeable to the German Government, the Government of the United States is prepared to return all of the above prisoners in exchange for the approximately 250 American prisoners of war in German custody who were determined by the Mixed Medical Commissions to be eligible for direct repatriation or hospitalization in a neutral country prior to the exchange which occurred at Barcelona on May 17, 1944, but who were not included therein. The date of September 1 is suggested for the consideration of the German Government as the date for the proposed exchange.
- 3. The Government of the United States would expect nominal rolls of the American personnel who will be repatriated under the proposal outlined in Paragraph 2 to be submitted by the German Government at the earliest feasible date, but in any event, so as to reach the Government of the United States not later than July 25, unless such rolls already have been transmitted prior to that time in execution of point Quarto of the United States-German agreement concerning the activities of Mixed Medical Commissions.41 The [Page 803] Government of the United States would further expect to be assured that such nominal rolls comprise all the United States prisoners of war in German custody who were determined by Mixed Medical Commissions to be eligible for direct repatriation or hospitalization in a neutral country prior to the exchange which occurred at Barcelona on May 17, 1944, but who were not included therein. The Government of the United States would, naturally, furnish nominal rolls of the German prisoners of war qualified during the tour of the Mixed Medical Commission referred to in paragraph 2, and furnish the German Government equivalent assurances as to them.
- 4. It is understood that a parallel proposal for a repatriation will shortly be made to the German Government by the British Commonwealth Governments.”
Please ask German Government urgently to reply if possible by July 20 as to whether it agrees, in order that necessary technical arrangements may be initiated without delay.
- Not printed.↩
- See note of May 27, 1943, from the Swiss Legation, Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. i, p. 50.↩