The revelatory true story of the long-forgotten POW camps for German soldiers erected in hundreds of small U.S. towns during World War II, and the secret Nazi killings that ensnared fifteen brave American POWs in a high-stakes showdown.

"In the pantheon of American history, it's very hard to find compelling, original stories, and even harder to find authors worthy of them. In The Fifteen, William Geroux delivers the goods." -- John U. Bacon, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Halifax Explosion

The American government was faced with an unprecedented challenge: where to house the nearly 400,000 German prisoners of war plucked from the battlefield and shipped across the Atlantic. On orders from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Department of War hastily built hundreds of POW camps in the United States. Today, traces of those camps -- which once dotted the landscape from Maine to California -- have all but vanished. Forgotten, too, is the grisly series of killings that took place within them: Nazi power games playing out in the heart of the United States.

Protected by the Geneva Convention, German POWs were well-fed and housed. Many worked on American farms, and a few would even go on to marry farmers' daughters. Ardent Nazis in the camps, however, took a dim view of fellow Germans who befriended their captors.

Soon, the killings began. In camp after camp, Nazis attacked fellow Germans they deemed disloyal. Fifteen were sentenced to death by secret U.S. military tribunals for acts of murder. In response, German authorities condemned fifteen American POWs to the same fate, and, in the waning days of the war, Germany proposed an audacious trade: fifteen German lives for fifteen American lives.

Drawing on extensive research, journalist and author William Geroux shines a spotlight on this story of murder and high-stakes diplomacy, and on the fifteen American lives that hung in the balance -- from a fearless P-51 Mustang fighter pilot to a hot-tempered lieutenant colonel nicknamed "King Kong."

Propulsive and vividly rendered, The Fifteen reminds us that what happens to soldiers after they exit the battlefield can be just as harrowing as what they experience on it.

• We started tracking this book on February 20, 2025.
• This book was $14.00 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 11 times in the past 332 days.
• The current price of this book is $13.99 last checked 2 hours ago.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past six months is $2.99.
• The lowest price to date was $2.99 last reached on October 14, 2025.
• This book has been $2.99 2 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $14.99 last reached on December 15, 2025.
• This book has been $14.99 2 times since we started tracking it.

• HistoryAmericasUnited States20th Century
• HistoryMilitaryWorld War II
• HistoryAmericas
• HistoryUnited States20th Century

• Publication Date: March 18, 2025
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 394 Pages
• File Size: 207 KB