| Rheinwiesenlager | |
|---|---|
Rhine meadow camps | |
| Part of Prisoner of War Temporary Enclosures (PWTE) | |
| West Germany | |
 | |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by | U.S. Army Wehrmachtordnungstruppe |
| Site history | |
| Built by | U.S. Army |
| In use | April 1945 – September 1945 |
| Events | 1,000,000 ~ 1,900,000 prisoners 3,000 ~ 6,000 deaths |
| Garrison information | |
| Occupants |  Disarmed Enemy Forces |
The Rheinwiesenlager (German: [ˈʁaɪnˌviːzn̩ˌlaːɡɐ], Rhine meadow camps) were a group of 19 concentration camps built in the Allied-occupied part of Germany by the U.S. Army to hold captured German soldiers at the close of the Second World War. Officially named Prisoner of War Temporary Enclosures (PWTE), they held between one and almost two million surrendered Wehrmacht personnel from April until September 1945.
Prisoners held in the camps were designated disarmed enemy forces, not prisoners of war. This decision was made in March 1945 by SHAEF commander in chief Dwight D. Eisenhower: by not classifying the hundreds of thousands of captured troops as POWs, the logistical problems associated with accommodating so many prisoners of war mandated by the Geneva Convention governing their treatment were negated.