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Originally Posted by Raellus
It's cool that you have a personal connection to this topic, Wallshadow. I've only ever read about prisoners of the Germans.
In a PbP I ran, the PC's encountered an American POW "paroled" to a Polish farm family as an internee laborer. He joined the party when they left but decided they were too dangerous and excused himself, heading back to the relative safety and stability of the farm.
I got the idea after reading about forced laborers in East Prussia in Antony Beevor's amazing, The Fall of Berlin, 1945. Apparently, it was fairly common practice to assign low-risk POWs to assist with agricultural work. Many were placed, in small batches, with local farm families.
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German and Italian POWs in camps in England during WW2 were put to similar uses, either dropped off to work, checked in/out of camp, or (for more remote locations) out for a fews days of labor before being returned.
It's all the same general theme - using POWs to replace labor used as soldiers.
For the US camps, I would have the last Russian/East Bloc prisoners would come to the US/Canada from Europe in 1998; there may be some in camps in the NW with prisoners from the invasion of Alaska taken after that date. Later POWs in Europe would be in camps in Europe - Germany, mostly, as transport breaks down. These would also be the easiest to exchange for your own capture troops.
I could see NATO Penal units being used for (unpleasant) labor (rubble clearing, sewer repair) under guard. Releasing soldiers in the military penal system for farm work in West Germany seems more like a reward rather than a punishment; on the other hand, throwing away trained soldiers (that can be reused after detention) seems wasteful, especially when facing shortages of trained troops.
Uncle Ted