711.62114 Sick/12–544: Telegram
The Secretary of State
to the Chargé in Switzerland (Huddle)
Washington, December 5,
1944.
4108. American Interests Germany—Repatriation Sick and Wounded.
Please request Swiss Government to inform the German Government that
the United States Government is prepared to arrange a further
exchange of seriously sick and seriously wounded prisoners of war
upon the basis of the following proposals:
- “(1) The exchange shall take place on or about January
17. The United States Government suggests for the
consideration and acceptance of the German Government,
subject to the agreement of the Swedish Government, that
Goteborg shall be the exchange point to which German
repatriables from the North American continent, other
than those included in paragraph 2, and the American
repatriables, shall be delivered.
- (2) The United States Government suggests that the
German Government employ the hospital ship Gradisca to collect, from
Mediterranean ports to be designated later, German
repatriables who may be held in the custody of the
United States Government in that theater, and to deposit
them at Trieste or some other port to be agreed upon. In
order to facilitate the movement of German repatriables,
the Government of the United States is willing to
arrange for the Gradisca to make
a call prior to the exchange date to remove such German
repatriables as can at that time be delivered to German
Government. Except for this proposed call, the remainder
of the German repatriables to be carried by the Gradisca will be delivered
contemporaneously with the Goteborg operation.
- (3) If the foregoing is agreeable, the number of
German sick and wounded prisoners of war to be returned
by the United States Government through each of the
aforementioned points will be notified sufficiently in
advance to permit the German Government to make the
necessary arrangements.
- (4) The number of German seriously sick and seriously
wounded prisoners of war in the custody of the United
States Government to be repatriated in the proposed
exchange is expected to be approximately 2800. This
number includes prisoners of war in categories II–A and
II–B of the Model Agreement annexed to the Geneva
Prisoners of War Convention, who have been found
eligible for repatriation by Mixed Medical Commissions
and American military medical authorities in accordance
with the recent arrangement between the United States
Government and the German Government.
- (5) The United States Government will transmit the
nominal rolls of the German prisoners of war who will be
repatriated in this exchange not later than 10 days
prior to the exchange date. The United States Government
expects that the German Government for its part will
likewise transmit not later than 10 days prior to the
exchange date, the lists of the names of American
prisoners of war it will return.
- (6) The United States Government further expects to be
assured by the German Government that (1) the lists
furnished by the German Government will comprise all the
seriously sick and seriously wounded
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American prisoners of war
held by the German Government who, at the time of the
transmission of the nominal rolls, have been found
eligible for direct repatriation or hospitalization in a
neutral country, by either Mixed Medical Commissions or
German military medical authorities; (2) that the German
Government will continue after the transmission of the
nominal rolls to examine sick and wounded American
prisoners of war and will return those found eligible
for repatriation in time to be included in the exchange;
and (3) that all American prisoners of war in (1) and
(2) above will be repatriated in the proposed exchange.
The United States Government now furnishes to the German
Government the equivalent assurances as to those German
prisoners of war in the custody of the United States
Government who are determined to be eligible for
repatriation.
- (7) The United States Government has been informed
that the German Government was not able to return at
Goteborg, Sweden in September 1944, five seriously sick
and seriously wounded American prisoners of war who had
been approved for repatriation by the Mixed Medical
Commissions in May 1944. The United States Government
therefore expects that the German Government will also
return these individuals in the proposed
exchange.
- (8) The United States Government intends to make use
of the Gripsholm and such
additional supplementary shipping as may be necessary to
transport German repatriables in its custody to the
exchange points. Upon the acceptance of these proposals
by the German Government, the United States Government
will request assurances of safe conduct from the German
Government and its associates for the vessels used in
this exchange. In this connection the United States
Government recalls the incident which occurred off
Kristiansand, Norway, on September 11, 1944, when the
Gripsholm carrying British
and American repatriates from Goteborg was stopped and
forced to put into Kristiansand where two members of the
crew were forcibly taken from the vessel. The United
States Government wishes to be assured by the German
Government that it will not interfere in any way with
the vessels used by the United States Government in this
exchange, the members of their crews or their
passengers.
- (9) It is proposed if the German Government is
agreeable to utilize the Gripsholm and supplementary shipping used in
this operation to carry prisoner of war mail and relief
supplies in both directions.
- (10) It is understood that parallel proposals for an
exchange of sick and wounded prisoners of war will
shortly be made to the German Government by the British
Commonwealth Governments.”
Please request Swiss Government to transmit these proposals to the
German Government to reach that Government before the close of
business on December 6 and to ask the German Government to reply
urgently and, if possible, by December 13 as to whether these
proposals are acceptable in order that the necessary technical
arrangements for this exchange may be initiated without delay.
