Media Spotlights the National Prisoner of War Museum at Andersonville

Ron Martz, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (June 28, 2004):

In the introductory video to the National Prisoner of War Museum here, a former American captive in North Korea tells of seeing the skin stripped off the bodies of U.S. soldiers.

Others talk about American POWs being buried alive, of suffering relentless beatings and unimaginable torture at the hands of their captors in Germany, Japan, North Korea, Vietnam and Iraq.

Those who venture through the museum built at the site of the most notorious Civil War prison camp find the experience to be a sobering and sometimes frightening journey through centuries of cruelty to American prisoners of war.

And for some who make the tour, the abuse of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison seems to pale in comparison.

As the controversy over the behavior of American soldiers responsible for guarding and interrogating Iraqi prisoners continues, visitors to this museum sometimes wonder what all the fuss is about.

"I don't condone what [the soldiers] did, but this is war. Look at what they [terrorists] did to our people; they beheaded them. We just embarrassed them," said Randy Kasprzyk of Eatonton.

Kasprzyk and two other fathers were shepherding a Boy Scout troop from Eatonton through the museum this weekend so the boys could earn special badges and learn about how American POWs were treated in past wars.

While the U.S. military has on occasion been guilty of its own atrocities, such as at My Lai in Vietnam, the museum at the Andersonville National Historic Site focuses on the American POW experience, dating from the Revolutionary War to the Persian Gulf War.

Experiences included in books and archival material stored here can be incredibly gruesome. Some former POWS tell of German doctors using American prisoners for medical experiments without anesthesia. Others tell of Japanese officers beheading, disemboweling and cannibalizing some American captives.

Mike Holland of Dothan, Ala., a retired Army first sergeant and Operation Desert Storm veteran with the 82nd Airborne Division, said he was shocked when he saw the photos of prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib.

"I was always taught all prisoners were treated with respect. It didn't register with me that anything like that could happen," said Holland, whose unit captured hundreds of Iraqis during the Gulf War.

Like many others who visited the museum this weekend, Holland said, "Part of being an American is setting higher standards for ourselves."

But, he said, "I don't believe what [the soldiers] did is anything like beheading somebody."

Jerry Provenzano, former mayor of Oldsmar, Fla., said of the prison abuse: "We're supposed to be the good guys. We're not supposed to do that."

But Provenzano, who toured the museum with his wife this weekend, said he was unnerved by the replica of a bamboo cage where American POWs were often held in South Vietnam during the war there.

"That's my generation," he said of those who fought in Vietnam. "One of [my generation] spent time in there. When I look at that, I can't help but think we're not supposed to sink to that level."

Alan Marsh, the historian for Andersonville, said Abu Ghraib "doesn't seem to be a thing that visitors bring up."

Of the 180,000 to 190,000 visitors to Andersonville each year, Marsh said many are interested in the Civil War experience. The museum, which opened in 1998, was built here because when people think of American POW camps, they think of Andersonville, he said.

Although the prison stockade at Andersonville was open only 14 months during the latter stages of the Civil War, it became notorious because of its death rate. Of the roughly 45,000 Union prisoners who spent time here, nearly 13,000 died.

But their deaths were not because of design or willful neglect, Marsh said.

"It was a lack of basic necessities," he said. There were too many prisoners and not enough food, medicine or shelter, he said.

"What you don't see here," Marsh added, "are examples of people being abused to get information."

Instead, the prisoners were merely warehoused and eventually became a drain on the resources of the Confederacy....