During WWII German POWs were treated much better than African American soldiers,e.g., POWs were housed in more desirable areas, had access to facilities denied black soldiers and were given access to town denied to black soldiers.

One of the greatest insults to African American soldiers was the comparatively better treatment, even camaraderie, extended to German POWs by white American soldiers and civilians in the presence of black American troops. Since numerous complaints were recorded on this issue, a few examples will have to suffice. Sergeant Edward Donald of the 761st Tank Battalion remembered that African American soldiers were housed in the segregated "swampland" of Camp Claiborne, Louisiana while German POWs were accommodated in a more desirable area of the camp, "had access to facilities denied black American soldiers . . . and were given passes to town when black soldiers were confined" to base. "This was one of the most repugnant things I can recall of the many things that happened to Negro servicemen," he concluded. Captain Charles Thomas of Detroit remembered having hunger pangs on his return trip to his camp in Texas and looking for a place to eat: The station restaurant was doing a rush business with white civilians and German prisoners of war. There sat the so-called enemy comfortably seated, laughing, talking, making friends, with the waitresses at their beck and call. If I had tried to enter that dining room the ever-present MPs would have busted my skull, a citizen-soldier of the United States. Nothing infuriated me as much as seeing those German prisoners of war receiving the warm hospitality of Texas. POWs were treated as social equals in a way black soldiers never were.