Der Ruf (newspaper)
Der Ruf or The Call was a German language newspaper published in Fort Kearney in Narragansett, Rhode Island during WWII by captured prisoners of war (POWs). It was distributed to about 140 other POW camps in the United States. After returning to Germany, two of the former POWs founded a German newspaper of the same name.
Fort Kearney was the headquarters of a secret campaign to re-educate German POWs and instill democratic ideas, in the hopes that on their return to Germany they would influence the democratization of the country.
Background
Special projects division
Der Ruf was the brainchild of a military program called the prisoner of war special projects division. The special projects division was inspired in part by news articles claiming hard core Nazis dominated life inside prison camps, beating and intimidating prisoners who spoke out against Hitler.Eleanor Roosevelt met with Dorothy Thompson, one of the journalists who had written about conditions in the prison camps, and Army Major Maxwell McKnight, and together put pressure on President Franklin Roosevelt who authorized the creation of the division.
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