Free to follow every thread. No paywall, no dead ends.
Prisoner of war: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Prisoner of war
The phrase prisoner of war first appeared in print in 1610, yet the reality of captivity in war stretches back to the 13th century BC when Nubian prisoners were depicted in engravings at Abu Simbel. For most of human history, the fate of a captured soldier was not a matter of rights or legal status, but of immediate survival or death. Ancient Roman warfare often resulted in the enslavement of defeated enemies, with early gladiators frequently being prisoners of war categorized by their ethnic origins as Samnites, Thracians, and Gauls. These men were forced to fight with their own weapons and in their particular style of combat, creating the exotic appearance that defined the arena. While some captives were ransomed, others were executed or sold into slavery, and the distinction between enemy combatants and civilians was often nonexistent. In the fourth century AD, a rare act of mercy occurred when St Acacius of Amida ransomed Persian prisoners by selling his church's gold and silver vessels, an act that led to his canonization. The Roman triumphs of later centuries often featured prisoners being paraded through the streets, their fate sealed by the victor's whim, with the outcome ranging from release to execution.
Blood And Ransom
During the Middle Ages, the treatment of prisoners varied wildly depending on social status and the nature of the conflict. Noblemen could hope to be ransomed, with their families sending large sums of wealth commensurate with their social status, while common soldiers often faced summary execution. The Battle of Agincourt in 1415 stands as a grim example, where King Henry V ordered the killing of French prisoners after misinterpreting a French raiding party's return as a reinforcement. The resulting slaughter saw Frenchmen stabbed with daggers, brained with pollaxes, and having their bellies panched, with few escaping death. Religious wars in the 13th century, such as the Albigensian Crusade, aimed to eliminate enemies entirely, with the papal legate Arnaud Amalric allegedly replying to a question on how to distinguish Catholics from Cathars with the words Kill them all, God will know His own. In feudal Japan, there was no custom of ransoming prisoners, who could expect for the most part summary execution. The Mongol Empire famously distinguished between cities that surrendered, where the population was spared but required to support the conquering army, and those that resisted, where the city was ransacked and all the population killed. In Termez, on the Oxus, all the people, both men and women, were driven out onto the plain and slain. The Aztecs warred constantly with neighboring tribes, aiming to collect live prisoners for sacrifice, with between 10,000 and 80,400 persons sacrificed during the re-consecration of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487.
When did the phrase prisoner of war first appear in print?
The phrase prisoner of war first appeared in print in 1610. The reality of captivity in war stretches back to the 13th century BC when Nubian prisoners were depicted in engravings at Abu Simbel.
What happened to prisoners of war during the Battle of Agincourt in 1415?
King Henry V ordered the killing of French prisoners after misinterpreting a French raiding party's return as a reinforcement. The resulting slaughter saw Frenchmen stabbed with daggers, brained with pollaxes, and having their bellies panched, with few escaping death.
When was the earliest known purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp established at Norman Cross?
The earliest known purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp was established at Norman Cross in Huntingdonshire, England in 1797. The highest number recorded was 6,272 on the 10th of April 1810.
How many Union prisoners of war died at Camp Sumter during the American Civil War?
Of the 45,000 Union prisoners of war confined in Camp Sumter, located near Andersonville, Georgia, 13,000, or 28%, died. This death rate nearly equaled that of Elmira Prison in New York state.
When were the last German prisoners of war released by the Soviet Union?
The last German POWs, like Erich Hartmann, the highest-scoring fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare, were not released by the Soviets until 1955. This release occurred two years after Stalin died.
When was the United States Military Code of Conduct promulgated under President Dwight D. Eisenhower?
The United States Military Code of Conduct was promulgated in 1955 via Executive Order 10631 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was created primarily in response to the breakdown of leadership and organization during the Korean War.
In Europe, the treatment of prisoners of war became increasingly centralized between the 16th and late 18th centuries, shifting from private property to state property. The European states strove to exert increasing control over all stages of captivity, from the question of who would be attributed the status of prisoner of war to their eventual release. The act of surrender was regulated so that it, ideally, should be legitimized by officers, who negotiated the surrender of their whole unit. Soldiers whose style of fighting did not conform to the battle line tactics of regular European armies, such as Cossacks and Croats, were often denied the status of prisoners of war. The 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War, established the rule that prisoners of war should be released and allowed to return to their homelands without ransom after hostilities ended. The earliest known purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp was established at Norman Cross in Huntingdonshire, England in 1797 to house the increasing number of prisoners from the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. The average prison population was about 5,500 men, with the highest number recorded being 6,272 on the 10th of April 1810. Norman Cross Prison was intended to be a model depot providing the most humane treatment of prisoners of war, with the British government going to great lengths to provide food of a quality at least equal to that available to locals. Despite the generous supply and quality of food, some prisoners died of starvation after gambling away their rations. During the Battle of Leipzig, both sides used the city's cemetery as a lazaret and prisoner camp for around 6,000 POWs who lived in burial vaults and used coffins for firewood, leading to a city-wide epidemic after the battle.
The Cartel System
The extensive period of conflict during the American Revolutionary War and Napoleonic Wars, followed by the Anglo-American War of 1812, led to the emergence of a cartel system for the exchange of prisoners, even while the belligerents were at war. A cartel was usually arranged by the respective armed service for the exchange of like-ranked personnel, with the aim of achieving a reduction in the number of prisoners held while alleviating shortages of skilled personnel in the home country. The system of exchanges collapsed in 1863 when the Confederacy refused to exchange black prisoners, leading to a breakdown in the parole system. Union General Benjamin Butler contacted Grant for guidance on the issue, and Grant responded to Butler on the 18th of August 1864 with his now famous statement, rejecting the offer to resume the cartel because the Union could afford to leave their men in captivity while the Confederacy could not. After that, about 56,000 of the 409,000 POWs died in prisons during the American Civil War, accounting for nearly 10% of the conflict's fatalities. Of the 45,000 Union prisoners of war confined in Camp Sumter, located near Andersonville, Georgia, 13,000, or 28%, died. At Camp Douglas in Chicago, Illinois, 10% of its Confederate prisoners died during one cold winter month, and Elmira Prison in New York state, with a death rate of 25%, nearly equaled that of Andersonville.
The Hague And Geneva
During the 19th century, there were increased efforts to improve the treatment and processing of prisoners, resulting in international conferences that specified that prisoners of war be treated humanely and diplomatically. Chapter II of the Annex to the 1907 Hague Convention IV covered the treatment of prisoners of war in detail, and these provisions were further expanded in the 1929 Geneva Convention on the Prisoners of War. The Third Geneva Convention in 1949 largely revised these rules, with Article 4 protecting captured military personnel, some guerrilla fighters, and certain civilians from the moment of capture until release or repatriation. Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, POWs are protected persons, meaning their deprivation of rights could amount to a war crime. Article 17 of the Third Geneva Convention states that POWs can only be required to give their name, date of birth, rank, and service number. The ICRC has a special role to play in restoring and maintaining family contact in times of war, particularly concerning the right of prisoners of war and internees to send and receive letters and cards. However, nations vary in their dedication to following these laws, and historically the treatment of POWs has varied greatly. During World War II, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany were notorious for atrocities against prisoners of war, with the German military using the Soviet Union's refusal to sign the Geneva Convention as a reason for not providing the necessities of life to Soviet POWs.
The Death Railway
The Empire of Japan, which had signed but never ratified the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War, did not treat prisoners of war in accordance with international agreements, viewing surrender as dishonorable. Prisoners of war from China, the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Japanese-occupied Asia, held by Japanese imperial armed forces were subject to murder, torture, beatings, extrajudicial punishment, slavery, medical experiments, starvation rations, poor medical treatment, and cannibalism. The most notorious use of forced labor was in the construction of the Burma-Thailand Death Railway. After the 20th of March 1943, the Imperial Navy was ordered to kill prisoners of war taken at sea. The War Ministry in Tokyo issued an order at the end of the war allowing local commanders to kill remaining POWs without formal orders from Tokyo. The Japanese captured 350,000 POWs, of which 131,134 came from Britain, the Netherlands, Australia, the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Of these 131,134 POWs, 35,756 died while detained, the death rate of Western prisoners being 27.1 per cent, seven times that of Western POWs under the Germans and Italians. The death rate of Chinese was much higher, with only 56 of 37,583 prisoners from the United Kingdom, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from the United States being released after the surrender of Japan. No direct access to the POWs was provided to the International Red Cross, and escapes among the prisoners of European descent were almost impossible because of the difficulty of hiding in Asiatic populations.
The Soviet Gulag
The Soviet Union captured 3.5 million Axis servicemen, of whom more than a million died, with German soldiers kept as forced labor for many years after the war. The last German POWs, like Erich Hartmann, the highest-scoring fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare, were not released by the Soviets until 1955, two years after Stalin died. As a result of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers became prisoners of war in the Soviet Union, with thousands executed and over 20,000 Polish military personnel and civilians perishing in the Katyn massacre. Out of Anders' 80,000 evacuees from the Soviet Union to the United Kingdom, only 310 volunteered to return to Poland in 1947. Of the 230,000 Polish prisoners of war taken by the Soviet army, only 82,000 survived. After the Soviet-Japanese War, 560,000 to 760,000 Japanese prisoners of war were captured by the Soviet Union, with an estimated 60,000 to 347,000 of these Japanese prisoners of war dying in captivity. Stories that circulated during the Cold War claimed 23,000 Americans held in German POW camps had been seized by the Soviets and never been repatriated, though careful scholarly studies demonstrated that this was a myth based on the misinterpretation of a telegram about Soviet prisoners held in Italy.
The Modern Code
The United States Military Code of Conduct was promulgated in 1955 via Executive Order 10631 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower to serve as a moral code for United States service members who have been taken prisoner. It was created primarily in response to the breakdown of leadership and organization, specifically when U.S. forces were POWs during the Korean War. When a military member is taken prisoner, the Code of Conduct reminds them that the chain of command is still in effect, and requires them to support their leadership. The Code of Conduct also requires service members to resist giving information to the enemy, receiving special favors or parole, or otherwise providing their enemy captors aid and comfort. Since the Vietnam War, the official U.S. military term for enemy POWs is EPW, or Enemy Prisoner of War, to distinguish between enemy and U.S. captives. In 2000, the U.S. military replaced the designation Prisoner of War for captured American personnel with Missing-Captured, reasoning that since Prisoner of War is the international legal recognized status for such people, there is no need for any individual country to follow suit. This change remains relatively unknown even among experts in the field, and Prisoner of War remains widely used in the Pentagon, which has a POW/Missing Personnel Office and awards the Prisoner of War Medal.