Questions tagged [prisoners-of-war]
Questions related to the history of enemy combatants held in captivity by an opposing force.
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What tensions arose between locals and the administrators of forced labor POW camps in the US for captured German WWII soldiers?
A 1983 interview of a 71-year-old Kansas farmer named Andy Olson was recently reprinted in a small daily called the Council Grove (KS) Republican. Mr. Olson was one of the many Kansas farmers who used ...
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What happened to the four remaining men arrested as part of the plot against George Washington?
Brad Meltzer's book The First Conspiracy on the plot to kill George Washington by members of his personal guard during the first year of the revolution states that 5 men were arrested for the plot. It ...
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How do I locate information on a B-17 shot down over Poland?
A friend's father was a nose gunner in a B-17 during WWII. In 1945, he was shot down near Poznan, Poland, survived the crash and was captured by the Soviets. My friend provided the following ...
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When did it become common to have large prisoner exchanges during a war (without a ceasefire etc.)?
One of the characteristics of the Russia-Ukraine war has been the rather numerous prisoner exchanges that took place (e.g. 1 2), even while the fighting is otherwise going on. (I wasn't able to find ...
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Do you recognize this story of prison resistence?
I read of a prison resistance story some years ago I'm struggling to track town, I believe from WW2. Can you help identify the place/time/people involved from the following details?
There was a prison ...
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Why try to escape a POW camp?
I'm reading The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill, which recounts escape attempts from the Stalag Luft III POW camp in Poland during WWII.
Brickhill describes a camp where he and his fellow RAF/AAC ...
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Looking for 3 examples of prisoners of war being incorporated into the conquering army
When POWs were captured, they were either executed, exchanged, put into slavery or sometimes incorporated into the enemy army. I'm trying to find a few examples (3 would do) of the last category. ...
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What are some examples of rulers immediately incorporating conquered population's army into their own? [closed]
I can vaguely remember reading about armies conquering a land, and then fortifying their own numbers by the armies of conquered populations, but I can't remember specific instances. Would love to know ...
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Did Germans refuse to take Cossacks prisoners in WWI? If so, why?
The Russian Wikipedia's page about Kozma Kryuchkov, the first awardee of Russia's Cross of Saint George in the First World War, says:
После этого случая, освещённого почти во всей тогдашней ...
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What "Treaty of 1785" is referred to in the August 1955 report of the Secretary of Defense's Advisory Committee on Prisoners of War?
While chasing around various sources of material, I came across "POW, The Fight Continues After the Battle". In this report, as it goes over the history of treatment of Prisoners of War (...
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Can anyone find "War Department General Order No. 207, 3 July 1863" in which "prisoner conduct after capture" was mentioned?
I started following rabbit hole after rabbit hole while I was looking in to the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program, and I wound up on the report of the Secretary of Defense’s Advisory Committee ...
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Where were Allied soldiers in Switzerland typically kept?
I've been researching for a short story, but I've been having trouble working out the exact trajectory of POWs who escaped from German camps into Switzerland. I know many were put up in hotels for the ...
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Were British officers able to return home after the American Revolution?
Were defeated British officers able to return home after England lost the war or were they taken prisoner? I am writing a novel set in the aftermath of the American Revolution. What happened to the ...
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How did the Swedish army deal with prisoners of war in the Thirty Years War?
Researching for this answer to another question I found the martial law and "Articulsbrief" (norms for the mercenary soldiers) of Sweden after the reform of the military of King Gustav II ...
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In Tolstoy's War and Peace, one character is captured after the Battle of Austerlitz and is taken as a POW. Was his experience historically accurate?
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky is captured after sustaining a wound in battle and is taken as a POW. He, along with other officers of the Russian Army, were treated with care and respect by the French, and ...
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How many British prisoners of war were taken by the Wehrmacht and how many died?
I've read here that 3.5% of British POW's held in Germany died. But haven't been able to find an estimate with sources of how many were taken and how many died. Here it says 170,000 were captured and ...
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Did medieval ransom taking have agents?
Medieval ransom taking was big- people were taken of all types of social standing for wide ranges of payments for their release- virtually a business. Did the business have agents who provide various ...
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What happened to Soviet POWs taken by non-German armies on WW2 Eastern front?
I have initially posted this question in relation to the Romanian army, which was second to the German on the Eastern front, but I have updated the title to include all other non-German armies on that ...
user8690
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Is it true that Austrians who refused to help SS in catching Soviet POWs would not face any negative consequences?
According to the Viennese government, civilians who refused to assist the SS in catching Soviet prisoners of war (during the Mühlviertler Hasenjagd) did not face any negative consequences (my emphasis)...
user23839
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What's the origin of differentiating between civilians' and soldiers' "rights" in war? [closed]
In ancient Western times civilians were considered legitimate spoils of war for the victor. Sometime in Western Europe that seems to have changed. While Otto von Bismarck waged symbolic wars in Europe ...
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Did the Czechoslovak Legion bring POWs to Czechoslovakia? And if so, why?
In this question, it is established that the Czechoslovak Legion went back to Europe in 1920 merely on US boats along three different naval roads.
@Felix Goldberg quotes a master's thesis by Major ...
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How were Chinese Communist POWs treated after the civil war?
I was watching the film ‘The Assembly’ and the opening scene involved a battle where Chinese Nationalist troops had surrounded a group of Chinese Communists and were about to overrun them. Before the ...
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How did the Japanese treat captured "Flying Tigers" in World War II?
When the Japanese took eight POWs from the "Doolittle Raid," ("Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo"), they executed three and one died of maltreatment, a 50% death rate.
The "Flying Tigers" were an even ...
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Why did India release all Pakistani Soldiers captured during Indo Pak War 1965
Why did India release all Pakistani Soldiers captured during Indo Pak War 1965. As India captured thousands of Pakistani Soldiers Why did Indian Govt. Release all?
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Before his arrival at St Helena, was Napoleon legally a prisoner of war?
I would like to know whether in law Napoleon was a prisoner of war when he surrendered himself to the British after the Battle of Waterloo, did he retain that status up to the point when he was landed ...
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What activity would convey the Burma railway & Hanoi Hilton POW project?
I am a junior in high school, and I have to give a large history exhibition at the end of the year. As my topic, I chose to compare the POW camps following the construction of the Burma railway during ...
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Protected Merchant Ships in WWII used for the relocation of Prisoners of War
What Merchanht ships were declared as "protected" in WWII for the transferred of Prisoners of War, between warring nations
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What treatment did Allied Jewish POWs get when captured by the Germans?
According to Wikipedia, there were about 500,000 American Jews serving in the US forces during World War II, and another 500,000 Jews served other Allied nations.
Some of these servicemen would have ...
user13123
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How did the Nazis justify the differences in the way they treated Jews v. POWs? [closed]
I was reading an autobiographical account of an Army Air Corps POW. He was on a train that made a stop at Dachau to unhook several box cars containing Jews. Although he and his fellow POWs feared for ...
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Does a reputation for cruelty to PoWs give a tactical advantage?
Among warring factions, some groups throughout history have sought to strike fear into their adversaries by 'making examples' of any members of the opposing force(s) that they capture alive, by means ...
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Battle of Queenston Heights, 13 Oct 1812: 23 American soldiers held as British deserters
The Battle of Queenston Heights was a British victory. Of the captured American soldiers it was determined that 23 were former British soldiers who were charged as deserters.
Is there a reliable list ...
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Can Japanese Americans held in Concentration Camps in WWII be considerd as POWs? [closed]
I claim that the Japanese Americans forced into concentration camps during WWII are POW'S. I don't see this violating the definition of POW: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prisoner%20of%...
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What kinds of WW2 POWs were treated best?
We all know that the harshest attitudes were toward Jews overall, and maybe Russian POWs in German concentration camps too. Conditions for German soldiers who were held as prisoners in USSR were also ...
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Escape attempts from Elmira POW Camp (Civil War)
My great-grandfather was a POW held first at Point Lookout and transferred to Elmira. Family legend has it that he attempted an escape digging a tunnel with a spoon. I know that there were seventeen ...
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How did conditional POW exchanges work in WW2?
In Battleground Prussia Prit Buttar includes a chapter on the infamous sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945. The author notes that the ship's captain, a Friedrich Petersen, had been captured by the ...
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When did the parole of prisoners of war become unacceptable?
Prisoners of war in earlier centuries, especially officers, could be given temporary or permanent freedom in return for various conditions: A parole.
This overlaps with the modern civilian use of ...
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Who kept noble prisoners captured in battle?
During the Hundred Years War era, noblemen captured in a battle were normally held for ransom. In such a case, who got to keep the prisoner, provide him lodgings, and receive the ransom? Was it the ...
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