 SS General Gottlob Berger
SS General Gottlob Berger was in charge of all POWs in Germany during the last two years of the war. There were over seven million of them and most were Russians. His boss was the dreaded Heinrich Himmler. Records show that Berger did little to prevent the death by neglect of several million Russian prisoners, but he worked hard to shield the Western Allies' prisoners from the excesses of his own Waffen SS Organization. He was involved in the operation that plucked Brig. Gen. Arthur Vanaman and then Colonel Delmar Spivey out of the column of POWs evacuating Stalag Luft III at the end of January 1945 and took them to Berlin. Spivey and Vanaman got Berger to allow trucks bearing food for the POWs to enter Germany from Switzerland during the last few months of the war. This food probably saved many POWs from starvation. In return, Spivey later wrote a letter to the Nuremberg trial authorities on Berger's behalf that probably saved him from the gallows.
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