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Main article: Allied forces begin to take large numbers of Axis prisoners: The total number of prisoners taken on the Western Front in April 1945 by the Western Allies was 1,500,000. April also witnessed the capture of at least 120,000 German troops by the Western Allies in the last campaign of the war in Italy.

In the three or four months up to the end of April, over 800,000 German soldiers surrendered on the Eastern Front. In early April, the first -governed were established in western Germany to hold hundreds of thousands of captured or surrendered personnel.

(SHAEF) reclassified all prisoners as, not (prisoners of war). The circumvented provisions under the on the treatment of former combatants.

By October, thousands had died in the camps from starvation, exposure and disease. The Dachau death train consisted of nearly forty railcars containing the bodies of between 2,000 and 3,000 prisoners who were evacuated from on 7 April 1945. Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps and refugees: Allied forces began to discover the scale of. The advance into Germany uncovered numerous and forced labor facilities. Up to 60,000 prisoners were at when it was liberated on 15 April 1945, by the British. Four days later troops from the American found. Allied troops forced the remaining SS guards to gather up the corpses and place them in mass graves.

Due to the prisoners' poor physical condition, thousands continued to die after liberation. Captured SS guards were subsequently tried at Allied tribunals where many were sentenced to death. However, up to 10,000 Nazi war criminals eventually fled Europe using such as. Germans leave Finland: On 25 April 1945, the last Germans were by the from Finland and retreated into Norway. Mussolini's death: On 25 April 1945, liberated and. On 27 April 1945, as Allied forces closed in on, Italian dictator was captured by Italian partisans. It is disputed whether he was trying to flee from Italy to Switzerland (through the ), and was traveling with a German anti-aircraft battalion.

On 28 April, in (a civil parish of ); the other Fascists captured with him were taken to and executed there. The bodies were then taken to Milan and hung up on the Piazzale Loreto of the city.

On 29 April, surrendered all Fascist Italian armed forces at Caserta. This included. Graziani was the Minister of Defence for Mussolini's.

The Oder-Neisse Line It is disputed whether this assumption of power constituted —the end of a war caused by the complete destruction of a hostile state. The was signed on 12 August 1945.

In connection with this, the Allied leaders planned the new postwar German government, resettled war territory boundaries, de facto annexed a quarter of pre-war Germany situated east of the, and mandated and organized the who remained in the annexed territories and elsewhere in the east. They also ordered German,, and settlements of. •, the transcription used in the Avalon source for the paragraph is erroneous. In this case, 'effect' is correct. The implication is that of Germany did not occur with the assumption of all the powers of the German state by the four Allied powers. However the next paragraph explicitly stated that the '[four Allied powers] will hereafter determine the boundaries of Germany or any part thereof and the status of Germany or of any area at present being part of German territory'.

• Although the Allied powers considered this a (, UNHCR web site, p. 2 § 138 ) other authorities have argued that the vestiges of the German state continued to exist even though the Allied Control Council governed the territory; and that eventually a fully sovereign German government resumed over a state that never ceased to exist ( Junker, Detlef (2004), Junker, Detlef; Gassert, Philipp; Mausbach, Wilfried; et al., eds., The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, 1945–1990: A Handbook, 2, Cambridge University Press, co-published with, Washington D.C., p.,.) References.

American prisoners captured by the in the in December 1944 A prisoner of war ( POW, PoW, PW, P/W, WP, PsW, enemy prisoner of war ( EPW) or 'missing-captured' ) is a person, whether or, who is held in custody by a power during or immediately after an. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase 'prisoner of war' dates to 1660. Belligerents hold prisoners of war in custody for a range of legitimate and illegitimate reasons, such as isolating them from enemy combatants still in the field (releasing and them in an orderly manner after hostilities), demonstrating military victory, punishing them, prosecuting them for, exploiting them for their labour, recruiting or even them as their own combatants, collecting military and political intelligence from them, or them in new political or religious beliefs. Engraving of prisoners,, Egypt, 13th century BC For most of human history, depending on the culture of the victors, enemy combatants on the losing side in a battle who had surrendered and been taken as a prisoner of war could expect to be either slaughtered. The first Roman were prisoners of war and were named according to their ethnic roots such as Samnite, Thracian, and the Gaul (Gallus).

Homer's describes Greek and Trojan soldiers offering rewards of wealth to opposing forces who have defeated them on the battlefield in exchange for mercy, but their offers are not always accepted; see for example. Typically, little distinction was made between enemy combatants and enemy civilians, although women and children were more likely to be spared. Sometimes, the purpose of a battle, if not a war, was to capture women, a practice known as; the was a large mass abduction by the founders of Rome.

Typically women had no, and were held legally as. [ ] In the fourth century AD, Bishop, touched by the plight of Persian prisoners captured in a recent war with the Roman Empire, who were held in his town under appalling conditions and destined for a life of slavery, took the initiative of ransoming them, by selling his church's precious gold and silver vessels, and letting them return to their country. For this he was eventually canonized.

Middle Ages and Renaissance [ ]. Riders with prisoners, 14th century During 's siege and blockade of Paris in 464, the nun (later canonised as the city's patron saint) pleaded with the Frankish king for the welfare of prisoners of war and met with a favourable response. Later, liberated captives after Genevieve urged him to do so. Many French prisoners of war were killed during the in 1415. This was done in retaliation for the French killing of the boys and other non-combatants handling the baggage and equipment of the army, and because the French were attacking again and Henry was afraid that they would break through and free the prisoners to fight again. In the later, a number of aimed to not only defeat but eliminate their enemies.

In Christian Europe, the extermination of was considered desirable. Examples include the 13th century and the. When asked by a Crusader how to distinguish between the Catholics and once they'd taken the city of, the Papal Legate famously replied, ' '. Likewise, the inhabitants of conquered cities were frequently massacred during the against the in the 11th and 12th centuries. Could hope to be; their families would have to send to their captors large sums of wealth commensurate with the social status of the captive. In feudal Japan there was no custom of ransoming prisoners of war, who were for the most part summarily executed. Aztec sacrifices, The expanding was famous for distinguishing between cities or towns that surrendered, where the population were spared but required to support the conquering Mongol army, and those that resisted, where their city was, and all the population killed.

In, on the: 'all the people, both men and women, were driven out onto the plain, and divided in accordance with their usual custom, then they were all slain'. The were constantly at war with neighbouring tribes and groups, with the goal of this constant being to collect live prisoners for. For the re-consecration of in 1487, 'between 10,000 and 80,400 persons' were sacrificed. During the, Muslims routinely captured large number of prisoners. Aside from those who converted, most were ransomed or enslaved. Christians who were captured during the Crusades, were usually either killed or sold into slavery if they could not pay a ransom. During his lifetime, made it the responsibility of the Islamic government to provide food and clothing, on a reasonable basis, to captives, regardless of their religion; however if the prisoners were in the custody of a person, then the responsibility was on the individual.

The freeing of prisoners was highly recommended as a charitable act. Modern times [ ]. Soldier on his release from in May 1865.

There also evolved the, French for 'discourse', in which a captured officer surrendered his sword and gave his word as a gentleman in exchange for privileges. If he swore not to escape, he could gain better accommodations and the freedom of the prison.

If he swore to cease hostilities against the nation who held him captive, he could be repatriated or exchanged but could not serve against his former captors in a military capacity. European settlers captured in North America [ ]. Further information: Early historical narratives of captured colonial Europeans, including perspectives of literate women captured by the indigenous peoples of North America, exist in some number. The writings of, captured in the brutal fighting of, are an example.

Such narratives enjoyed some popularity, spawning a genre of the, and had lasting influence on the body of early American literature, most notably through the legacy of 's. Some Native Americans continued to capture Europeans and use them both as labourers and bargaining chips into the 19th century; see for example, an Englishman who wrote a memoir about his years as a captive of the people on the coast from 1802–1805. French Revolutionary wars and Napoleonic wars [ ] The earliest known purposely built was established at, England in 1797 to house the increasing number of prisoners from the and the. [ ] The average prison population was about 5,500 men. The lowest number recorded was 3,300 in October 1804 and 6,272 on 10 April 1810 was the highest number of prisoners recorded in any official document. Norman Cross was intended to be a model depot providing the most humane treatment of prisoners of war. The British government went to great lengths to provide food of a quality at least equal to that available to locals.

The senior officer from each quadrangle was permitted to inspect the food as it was delivered to the prison to ensure it was of sufficient quality. Despite the generous supply and quality of food, some prisoners died of starvation after gambling away their rations. Most of the men held in the prison were low-ranking soldiers and sailors, including midshipmen and junior officers, with a small number of. About 100 senior officers and some civilians 'of good social standing', mainly passengers on captured ships and the wives of some officers, were given parole d'honneur outside the prison, mainly in although some further afield in,, and. They were afforded the courtesy of their rank within English society.

The Leipzig citizen remarked in his account about the, that large crowds of French POWs were held on fields outside the town, begged passersby for food, and that most of them didn't survive this ordeal. Prisoner exchanges [ ] The extensive period of conflict during the and (1793–1815), followed by the, led to the emergence of a system for the, even while the belligerents were at war. A cartel was usually arranged by the respective armed service for the exchange of like-ranked personnel. The aim was to achieve a reduction in the number of prisoners held, while at the same time alleviating shortages of skilled personnel in the home country. American Civil War [ ]. Main article: At the start of the civil war a system of paroles operated. Captives agreed not to fight until they were officially exchanged.

Meanwhile, they were held in camps run by their own army where they were paid but not allowed to perform any military duties. The system of exchanges collapsed in 1863 when the Confederacy refused to exchange black prisoners. In the late summer of 1864, a year after the was suspended; Confederate officials approached Union General Benjamin Butler, Union Commissioner of Exchange, about resuming the cartel and including the black prisoners. Butler contacted Grant for guidance on the issue, and Grant responded to Butler on August 18, 1864 with his now famous statement. He rejected the offer, stating in essence, that the Union could afford to leave their men in captivity, the Confederacy could not. After that about 56,000 of the 409,000 POWs died in prisons during the, accounting for nearly 10% of the conflict's fatalities. Of the 45,000 Union prisoners of war confined in, located near, 13,000 (28%) died.

At in Chicago, Illinois, 10% of its Confederate prisoners died during one cold winter month; and in New York state, with a death rate of 25% (2,963), nearly equalled that of Andersonville. Amelioration [ ] During the 19th century, there were increased efforts to improve the treatment and processing of prisoners.

As a result of these emerging conventions, a number of international conferences were held, starting with the Brussels Conference of 1874, with nations agreeing that it was necessary to prevent inhumane treatment of prisoners and the use of weapons causing unnecessary harm. Although no agreements were immediately ratified by the participating nations, work was continued that resulted in new being adopted and becoming recognized as that specified that prisoners of war be treated humanely and diplomatically. Hague and Geneva Conventions [ ] Chapter II of the Annex to the IV – The Laws and Customs of War on Land covered the treatment of prisoners of war in detail. These provisions were further expanded in the and were largely revised in the in 1949.

Article 4 of the protects captured, some fighters, and certain. It applies from the moment a prisoner is captured until he or she is released or repatriated.

One of the main provisions of the convention makes it illegal to prisoners and states that a prisoner can only be required to give their,, and (if applicable). The has a special role to play, with regards to, in, in particular concerning the right of prisoners of war and internees to send and receive letters and cards (Geneva Convention (GC) III, art.71 and GC IV, art.107). However, nations vary in their dedication to following these laws, and historically the treatment of POWs has varied greatly. During World War II, and (towards Soviet POWs and Western Allied commandos) were notorious for atrocities against prisoners of war.

The German military used the Soviet Union's refusal to sign the Geneva Convention as a reason for not providing the necessities of life to Soviet POWs; and the Soviets similarly killed Axis prisoners or used them as slave labour. The Germans also routinely executed Western Allied commandos captured behind German lines per the. North Korean and North and South Vietnamese forces routinely killed or mistreated prisoners taken during those conflicts. Qualifications [ ].

Japanese illustration depicting the beheading of Chinese captives. To be entitled to prisoner-of-war status, captured persons must be lawful combatants entitled to combatant's privilege—which gives them immunity from punishment for crimes constituting lawful acts of war such as killing enemy combatants. To qualify under the Third Geneva Convention, a combatant must be part of a, wear a 'fixed distinctive marking, visible from a distance', bear arms openly, and have conducted military operations according to the. (The Convention recognizes a few other groups as well, such as '[i]nhabitants of a non-occupied territory, who on the approach of the enemy spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading forces, without having had time to form themselves into regular armed units'.) Thus, uniforms and/or badges are important in determining prisoner-of-war status; and,,,, and do not qualify because they do not always follow the laws and customs of war and therefore they fall under the category of. In practice, these criteria are rarely interpreted strictly., for example, usually do not wear a uniform or carry arms openly, but captured guerrillas are often granted POW status.

The criteria are applied primarily to international armed conflicts; in, are often treated as or by government forces, and are sometimes executed. However, in the, both sides treated captured troops as POWs, presumably out of, although the regarded personnel as separatist rebels. However, guerrillas and other irregular combatants generally cannot expect to receive benefits from both civilian and military status simultaneously. Waiting interrogation, 199th LT INF BG by was promulgated in 1955 via under 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.

When a military member is taken prisoner, the Code of Conduct reminds them that the chain of command is still in effect (the highest ranking service member eligible for command, regardless of service branch, is in command), and requires them to support their leadership. The Code of Conduct also requires service members to resist giving information to the enemy (beyond identifying themselves, that is, 'name, rank, serial number'), receiving special favors or parole, or otherwise providing their enemy captors aid and comfort. Since the, the official U.S. Military term for enemy POWs is EPW (Enemy Prisoner of War).

This name change was introduced in order to distinguish between enemy and U.S. In 2000, the U.S. Military replaced the designation 'Prisoner of War' for captured American personnel with 'Missing-Captured'. A January 2008 directive states that the reasoning behind this is 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. World War I [ ]. German soldiers captured by the British in.

Return To Mecca Pdf Printer. During World War I, about eight million men surrendered and were held in POW camps until the war ended. All nations pledged to follow the Hague rules on fair treatment of prisoners of war, and in general the POWs had a much higher survival rate than their peers who were not captured. Individual surrenders were uncommon; usually a large unit surrendered all its men. At 92,000 Russians surrendered during the battle. When the besieged garrison of surrendered in 1915, 20,000 Russians became prisoners. Over half the Russian losses were prisoners as a proportion of those captured, wounded or killed.

About 3.3 million men became prisoners. The held 2.5 million prisoners; held 2.9 million, and and held about 720,000, mostly gained in the period just before the in 1918. The US held 48,000. The most dangerous moment for POW's was the act of surrender, when helpless soldiers were sometimes mistakenly shot down. Once prisoners reached a POW camp conditions were better (and often much better than in World War II), thanks in part to the efforts of the and inspections by neutral nations. There was however much harsh treatment of POWs in Germany, as recorded by the American ambassador to Germany (prior to America's entry into the war), James W. Gerard, who published his findings in 'My Four Years in Germany'.

Even worse conditions are reported in the book 'Escape of a Princess Pat' by the Canadian George Pearson. It was particularly bad in Russia, where starvation was common for prisoners and civilians alike; a quarter of the over 2 million POWs held there died. Nearly 375,000 of the 500,000 prisoners of war taken by Russians perished in from and. In Germany food was short but only 5% died.

The often treated prisoners of war poorly. Some 11,800 British soldiers, most of them Indians, became prisoners after the five-month, in, in April 1916. Many were weak and starved when they surrendered and 4,250 died in captivity.

During the 217 Australian and unknown numbers of British, New Zealand and Indian soldiers were captured by Ottoman Empire forces. About 50% of the Australian prisoners were light horsemen including 48 missing believed captured on 1 May 1918 in the Jordan Valley. Pilots and observers were captured in the Sinai Peninsula, Palestine and the Levant. One third of all Australian prisoners were captured on Gallipoli including the crew of the submarine AE2 which made a passage through the Dardanelles in 1915. Forced marches and crowded railway journeys preceded years in camps where disease, poor diet and inadequate medical facilities prevailed.

About 25% of other ranks died, many from malnutrition, while only one officer died. The most curious case came in Russia where the of prisoners (from the army): they were released in 1917, armed themselves, briefly culminating into a military and diplomatic force during the.

Release of prisoners [ ]. Celebration for returning POWs, Berlin 1920 At the end of the war in 1918 there were believed to be 140,000 British prisoners of war in Germany, including thousands of internees held in neutral Switzerland. The first British prisoners were released and reached on 15 November. Plans were made for them to be sent via to and a large reception camp was established at Dover capable of housing 40,000 men, which could later be used for. On 13 December 1918, the armistice was extended and the Allies reported that by 9 December 264,000 prisoners had been repatriated. A very large number of these had been released en masse and sent across Allied lines without any food or shelter.

This created difficulties for the receiving Allies and many released prisoners died from exhaustion. The released POWs were met by troops and sent back through the lines in lorries to reception centres where they were refitted with boots and clothing and dispatched to the ports in trains. Upon arrival at the receiving camp the POWs were registered and 'boarded' before being dispatched to their own homes. All had to write a report on the circumstances of their capture and to ensure that they had done all they could to avoid capture.

Each returning officer and man was given a message from King, written in his own hand and reproduced on a lithograph. It read as follows: The Queen joins me in welcoming you on your release from the miseries & hardships, which you have endured with so much patience and courage. During these many months of trial, the early rescue of our gallant Officers & Men from the cruelties of their captivity has been uppermost in our thoughts.

We are thankful that this longed for day has arrived, & that back in the old Country you will be able once more to enjoy the happiness of a home & to see good days among those who anxiously look for your return. While the Allied prisoners were sent home at the end of the war, the same treatment was not granted to prisoners of the Allies and Russia, many of whom had to serve as, e.g.

In France, until 1920. They were released after many approaches by the to the. World War II [ ]. Jewish Soviet POW captured by the German Army, August 1941.

At least 50,000 Jewish soldiers were shot after selection. See also: and Empire of Japan [ ] The, which had signed but never ratified the, did not treat prisoners of war in accordance with international agreements, including provisions of the, either during the or during the, because the Japanese viewed surrender as dishonorable. Moreover, according to a directive ratified on 5 August 1937 by, the constraints of the Hague Conventions were explicitly removed on Chinese prisoners. Prisoners of war from China, the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the Philippines held by the Japanese armed forces were subject to murder, beatings, summary punishment, brutal treatment,,, starvation rations, poor medical treatment and. The most notorious use of forced labour was in the construction of the Burma–Thailand. After 20 March 1943, the Imperial Navy was under orders to execute all prisoners taken at sea.

According to the findings of the, the death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1%, seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians. The death rate of Chinese was much higher. Thus, while 37,583 prisoners from the United Kingdom, Commonwealth, and Dominions, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from the United States were released after the, the number for the Chinese was only 56.

The 27,465 and POWs in the Pacific Theater had a 40.4% death rate. The War Ministry in Tokyo issued an order at the end of the war to kill all surviving POWs. No direct access to the POWs was provided to the. Escapes among Caucasian prisoners were almost impossible because of the difficulty of men of Caucasian descent hiding in Asiatic societies. Allied POW camps and ship-transports were sometimes accidental targets of Allied attacks. The number of deaths which occurred when Japanese '—unmarked transport ships in which POWs were transported in harsh conditions—were attacked by US Navy submarines was particularly high. Gavan Daws has calculated that 'of all POWs who died in the Pacific War, one in three was killed on the water by friendly fire'.

Daves states that 10,800 of the 50,000 POWs shipped by the Japanese were killed at sea while Donald L. Miller states that 'approximately 21,000 Allied POWs died at sea, about 19,000 of them killed by friendly fire.' Life in the POW camps was recorded at great risk to themselves by artists such as,,, and. Human hair was often used for brushes, plant juices and blood for paint, and toilet paper as the 'canvas'. Some of their works were used as evidence in the trials of Japanese war criminals. Research into the conditions of the camps has been conducted by The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Main article: After the French armies surrendered in summer 1940, Germany seized two million French prisoners of war and sent them to camps in Germany.

About one third were released on various terms. Of the remainder, the officers and non-commissioned officers were kept in camps and did not work. The privates were sent out to work. About half of them worked for German agriculture, where food supplies were adequate and controls were lenient. The others worked in factories or mines, where conditions were much harsher.

Western Allies' POWs [ ]. Telegram notifying parents of an American POW of his capture by Germany However, a small number of Allied personnel were sent to concentration camps, for a variety of reasons including being Jewish.

As the US historian Joseph Robert White put it: 'An important exception. Is the sub-camp for U.S. POWs at, officially called 625 [also known as ]. Berga was the deadliest work detachment for American captives in Germany. 73 men who participated, or 21 percent of the detachment, perished in two months. 80 of the 350 POWs were Jews.' [ ] Another well-known example was a group of 168 Australian, British, Canadian, and US aviators who were held for two months at; two of the POWs died at Buchenwald.

Two possible reasons have been suggested for this incident: German authorities wanted to make an example of ('terrorist aviators') and/or these aircrews were classified as spies, because they had been disguised as civilians or enemy soldiers when they were apprehended. Information on conditions in the stalags is contradictory depending on the source. Some American POWs claimed the Germans were victims of circumstance and did the best they could, while others accused their captors of brutalities and forced labour. In any case, the prison camps were miserable places where food rations were meager and conditions squalid. One American admitted 'The only difference between the stalags and concentration camps was that we weren't gassed or shot in the former.

I do not recall a single act of compassion or mercy on the part of the Germans.' Typical meals consisted of a bread slice and watery potato soup which, however, was still more substantial than what Soviet POWs or concentration camp inmates received. Another prisoner stated that 'The German plan was to keep us alive, yet weakened enough that we wouldn't attempt escape.' As Soviet ground forces approached some POW camps in early 1945, German guards long distances towards central Germany, often in extreme winter weather conditions. [ ] It is estimated that, out of 257,000 POWs, about 80,000 were subject to such marches and up to 3,500 of them died as a result. [ ] Italian POWs [ ]. Main articles:,, and In September 1943 after the Armistice, Italian officers and soldiers that in many places waited for clear superior orders, were arrested by Germans and Italian fascists and taken to German internment camps in Germany or Eastern Europe, where they were held for the duration of World War II.

The International Red Cross could do nothing for them, as they were not regarded as POWs, but the prisoners held the status of '. Treatment of the prisoners was generally poor. The author was among those interned and wrote about this time in his life.

The book was translated and published as 'My Secret Diary'. He wrote about the hungers of semi-starvation, the casual murder of individual prisoners by guards and how, when they were released (now from a German camp), they found a deserted German town filled with foodstuffs that they (with other released prisoners) ate. It is estimated that of the 1,070,000 Italians taken prisoner by the Germans, around 40,000 died in detention and more than 13,000 lost their lives during the transportation from the Greek islands to the mainland.

Eastern European POWs [ ]. An improvised camp for Soviet POWs. Between June 1941 and January 1942, the Nazis killed an estimated 2.8 million Soviet prisoners of war, whom they viewed as '. Germany did not apply the same standard of treatment to non-western prisoners, especially many Polish and Soviet POWs who suffered harsh conditions and died in large numbers while in captivity.

Between 1941 and 1945 the Axis powers took about 5.7 million Soviet prisoners. About one million of them were released during the war, in that their status changed but they remained under German authority. A little over 500,000 either escaped or were liberated by the Red Army.

Some 930,000 more were found alive in camps after the war. The remaining 3.3 million prisoners (57.5% of the total captured) died during their captivity. Between the launching of in the summer of 1941 and the following spring, 2.8 million of the 3.2 million Soviet prisoners taken died while in German hands.

According to Russian military historian General, the Axis powers took 4.6 million Soviet prisoners, of whom 1.8 million were found alive in camps after the war and 318,770 were released by the Axis during the war and were then drafted into the Soviet armed forces again. By comparison, 8,348 Western Allied prisoners died in German camps during 1939–45 (3.5% of the 232,000 total). Naked Soviet prisoners of war in. The Germans officially justified their policy on the grounds that the Soviet Union had not signed the Geneva Convention. Legally, however, under article 82 of the, signatory countries had to give POWs of all signatory and non-signatory countries the rights assigned by the convention. Shortly after the German invasion in 1941, the USSR made Berlin an offer of a reciprocal adherence to the.

Third Reich officials left the Soviet 'note' unanswered. In contrast, recounts that the German Government - as well as the - made several efforts to regulate reciprocal treatment of prisoners until early 1942, but received no answers from the Soviet side. Further, the Soviets took a harsh position towards captured Soviet soldiers, as they expected each soldier to, and automatically excluded any prisoner from the 'Russian community'. [ ] Some Soviet POWs and whom the Germans had transported to were, on their return to the USSR, treated as traitors and sent to prison-camps. Treatment of POWs by the Soviet Union [ ].

Main articles:,,,,,,,, and Germans, Romanians, Italians, Hungarians, Finns [ ] According to some sources, the Soviets captured 3.5 million servicemen (excluding Japanese) of which more than a million died. One specific example is that of the German POWs after the, where the Soviets captured 91,000 German troops in total (completely exhausted, starving and sick) of whom only 5,000 survived the captivity.

German soldiers were kept as forced labour for many years after the war. The last German POWs like, the highest-scoring in the history of, who had been declared guilty of but without, were not released by the Soviets until 1955, three years after Stalin died. Katyn 1943 exhumation. Photo by delegation. As a result of the, hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers became. Thousands of them were executed; over 20,000 Polish military personnel and civilians perished in the.

Out of ' 80,000 evacuees from Soviet Union gathered in the United Kingdom only 310 volunteered to return to Poland in 1947. Out of the 230,000 Polish prisoners of war taken by the Soviet army, only 82,000 survived. Japanese [ ] With the, in 1945, Japanese soldiers became prisoners in the Soviet Union, where they, just as other Axis POWs, had to work. Americans [ ] There were stories during the Cold War to the effect that 23,000 Americans who had been held in German POW camps were seized by the Soviets and never repatriated. This myth had been perpetuated after the release of people like.

Careful scholarly studies have demonstrated this is a myth based on a misinterpretation of a telegram that was talking about Soviet prisoners held in Italy. Treatment of POWs by the Western Allies [ ].

Certificate of Discharge of a German General (Front- and Backside) During the war, the armies of Western Allied nations such as Australia, Canada, the UK and the US were ordered to treat prisoners strictly in accordance with the. Some breaches of the Convention took place, however. According to, of the roughly 1,000 US combat veterans that he had interviewed, only one admitted to shooting a prisoner, saying that he 'felt remorse, but would do it again'. However, one-third told him they had seen US troops kill German prisoners. Towards the end of the war in Europe, as large numbers of Axis soldiers surrendered, the US created the designation of (DEF) so as not to treat prisoners as POWs.

A lot of these soldiers were kept in open fields in makeshift camps in the Rhine valley ( ). Controversy has arisen about how Eisenhower managed these prisoners (see ). After the surrender of Germany in May 1945, the POW status of the German prisoners was in many cases maintained, and they were for several years used as forced labour in countries such as the UK and France. Many died when forced to clear minefields in Norway, France etc.; 'by September 1945 it was estimated by the French authorities that two thousand prisoners were being maimed and killed each month in accidents' In 1946, the UK had more than 400,000 German prisoners, many had been transferred from POW camps in the US and Canada.

Many of these were for over three years after the German surrender used as forced labour, as a form of 'reparations'. A public debate ensued in the UK, where words such as 'forced labour', 'slaves', 'slave labour' were increasingly used in the media and in the. In 1947 the Ministry of Agriculture argued against repatriation of working German prisoners, since by then they made up 25 percent of the land workforce, and they wanted to use them also in 1948. The ', an prisoner of war facility in the UK used for interrogating prisoners before they were sent to prison camps during and immediately after World War II, was subject to allegations of torture. After the German surrender, the International Red Cross was prohibited from providing aid such as food or visiting prisoner camps in Germany.

However, after making approaches to the Allies in the autumn of 1945 it was allowed to investigate the camps in the British and French occupation zones of Germany, as well as to provide relief to the prisoners held there. On 4 February 1946, the Red Cross was permitted to visit and assist prisoners also in the US occupation zone of Germany, although only with very small quantities of food. 'During their visits, the delegates observed that German prisoners of war were often detained in appalling conditions. They drew the attention of the authorities to this fact, and gradually succeeded in getting some improvements made'. The Allies also shipped POWs between them, with for example 6,000 German officers transferred from Western Allied camps to the that now was under Soviet Union administration.

The US also shipped 740,000 German POWs as forced labourers to France from where newspaper reports told of very bad treatment. Judge, Chief US prosecutor in the, in October 1945 told US President that the Allies themselves: have done or are doing some of the very things we are prosecuting the Germans for. The French are so violating the Geneva Convention in the treatment of prisoners of war that our command is taking back prisoners sent to them. We are prosecuting plunder and our Allies are practicing it.

Hungarians [ ] Hungarians became POWs of the Western Allies. Some of these were, like Germans, used as forced labour in France after the cessation of hostilities. After the war the POWs were handed over to the Soviets, and after the POWs were transported to the for.

It is called even today in —little work., a Hungarian soldier taken prisoner by the Red Army in 1944, was discovered in a Russian psychiatric hospital in 2000. He was probably the last prisoner of war from World War II to be repatriated. Japanese [ ]. A group of Japanese captured during the Although thousands of Japanese were taken prisoner, most fought until they were killed or committed suicide. Of the 22,000 Japanese soldiers present at the beginning of the, over 20,000 were killed and only 216 were taken prisoner. Of the 30,000 Japanese troops that defended, fewer than 1,000 remained alive at battle's end.

Japanese prisoners sent to camps fared well; however, some Japanese were killed when trying to surrender or were massacred just after they had surrendered (see ). In some instances, Japanese prisoners were tortured by a variety of methods. A method of torture used by the Chinese (NRA) included suspending the prisoner by the neck in a wooden cage until they died.

In very rare cases, some were beheaded by sword, and a severed head was once used as a football by Chinese National Revolutionary Army (NRA) soldiers. After the war, many Japanese were kept on as until mid-1947 and used as forced labour doing menial tasks, while 35,000 were kept on in arms within their wartime military organisation and under their own officers and used in combat alongside British troops seeking to suppress the independence movements in the and.

Italians [ ] In 1943, Italy overthrew Mussolini and became a co-belligerent with the Allies. This did not mean any change in status for Italian POWs however, since due to the labour shortages in the UK and the USA, they were retained as POWs there. Cossacks [ ] On 11 February 1945, at the conclusion of the, the United States and the United Kingdom signed a Repatriation Agreement with the USSR.

The interpretation of this Agreement resulted in the forcible repatriation of all Soviets () regardless of their wishes. The forced repatriation operations took place in 1945–1947.

Transfers between the Allies [ ] The United States handed over 740,000 German prisoners to France, a signatory of the Geneva Convention. The Soviet Union had not signed the Geneva Convention. According to Edward Peterson, the U.S. Chose to hand over several hundred thousand German prisoners to the Soviet Union in May 1945 as a 'gesture of friendship'. Forces also refused to accept the surrender of German troops attempting to surrender to them in and, and handed them over to the Soviet Union instead.

It is also known that 6000 of the German officers who were sent from camps in the West to the Soviets were subsequently imprisoned in the, which at the time was one of the. Post World War II [ ]. Recently released American POWs from North Vietnamese prison camps in 1973. During the, the North Koreans developed reputation for severely mistreating prisoners of war (see ). Their POWs were housed in three camps, according to their potential usefulness to the North Korean army.

Peace camps and reform camps were for POWs that were either sympathetic to the cause or who had valued skills that could be useful in the army and thus these enemy soldiers were indoctrinated and sometimes conscripted into the North Korean army. The regular prisoners of war were usually very poorly treated. POWs in peace camps were reportedly treated with more consideration. In 1952, the 1952 Inter-Camp P.O.W. Olympics were held during 15 and 27 November 1952, in Pyuktong,.

The Chinese hoped to gain worldwide publicity and while some prisoners refused to participate some 500 P.O.W.s of eleven nationalities took part. They were representative of all the prison camps in North Korea and competed in: football, baseball, softball, basketball, volleyball, track and field, soccer, gymnastics, and.

For the P.O.W.s this was also an opportunity to meet with friends from other camps. The prisoners had their own photographers, announcers, even reporters, who after each day's competition published a newspaper, the 'Olympic Roundup'. Of about 16,500 French soldiers who fought at the in, more than 3,000 were killed in battle, while almost all of the 11,721 men taken prisoner died in the hands of the on death marches to distant POW camps, and in those camps in the last three months of the war. The and the captured many as prisoners of war during the, who suffered from mistreatment and torture during the war. Some American prisoners were held in the prison called the. Main article: Communist Vietnamese held in custody by and American forces and badly treated.

After the war, millions of South Vietnamese servicemen and government workers were sent to where many perished. Like in previous conflicts, there has been speculation without evidence that there were a handful of American pilots captured by the North Koreans and the North Vietnamese who were transferred to the Soviet Union and were never repatriated. Regardless of regulations determining treatment to prisoners, violations of their rights continue to be reported. Many cases of POW massacres have been reported in recent times, including in Lebanon by Syrian forces and in Sri Lanka.

In 1982, during the, prisoners were well treated in general by both parties of the conflict, with military commanders dispatching 'enemy' prisoners back to their homelands in record time. In 1991, during the, American, British, Italian, and Kuwaiti POWs (mostly crew members of downed aircraft and special forces) were tortured by the Iraqi secret police. An American military doctor,, a 37-year-old flight surgeon captured when her Blackhawk UH-60 was shot down, was also subjected to sexual abuse.

During the 1990s, paramilitary forces supported by JNA forces killed POWs at and while forces killed POWs. In 2001, there were reports concerning two POWs that India had taken during the, Yang Chen and Shih Liang. The two were imprisoned as spies for three years before being interned in a in, where they spent the next 38 years under a special prisoner status. The last prisoners of (1980–1988) were exchanged in 2003. Numbers of POWs [ ] This is a list of nations with the highest number of POWs since the start of World War II, listed in descending order. These are also the highest numbers in any war since the entered into force on 19 June 1931.

The USSR had not signed the Geneva convention.