Confronting Captivity

Confronting Captivity PDF Author: Arieh J. Kochavi
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807876402
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
How was it possible that almost all of the nearly 300,000 British and American troops who fell into German hands during World War II survived captivity in German POW camps and returned home almost as soon as the war ended? In Confronting Captivity, Arieh J. Kochavi offers a behind-the-scenes look at the living conditions in Nazi camps and traces the actions the British and American governments took--and didn't take--to ensure the safety of their captured soldiers. Concern in London and Washington about the safety of these POWs was mitigated by the recognition that the Nazi leadership tended to adhere to the Geneva Convention when it came to British and U.S. prisoners. Following the invasion of Normandy, however, Allied apprehension over the safety of POWs turned into anxiety for their very lives. Yet Britain and the United States took the calculated risk of counting on a swift conclusion to the war as the Soviets approached Germany from the east. Ultimately, Kochavi argues, it was more likely that the lives of British and American POWs were spared because of their race rather than any actions their governments took on their behalf.

Confronting Captivity

Confronting Captivity PDF Author: Arieh J. Kochavi
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807876402
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 393

Get Book Here

Book Description
How was it possible that almost all of the nearly 300,000 British and American troops who fell into German hands during World War II survived captivity in German POW camps and returned home almost as soon as the war ended? In Confronting Captivity, Arieh J. Kochavi offers a behind-the-scenes look at the living conditions in Nazi camps and traces the actions the British and American governments took--and didn't take--to ensure the safety of their captured soldiers. Concern in London and Washington about the safety of these POWs was mitigated by the recognition that the Nazi leadership tended to adhere to the Geneva Convention when it came to British and U.S. prisoners. Following the invasion of Normandy, however, Allied apprehension over the safety of POWs turned into anxiety for their very lives. Yet Britain and the United States took the calculated risk of counting on a swift conclusion to the war as the Soviets approached Germany from the east. Ultimately, Kochavi argues, it was more likely that the lives of British and American POWs were spared because of their race rather than any actions their governments took on their behalf.

Wartime Captivity in the 20th Century

Wartime Captivity in the 20th Century PDF Author: Anne-Marie Pathé
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1785332597
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Long a topic of historical interest, wartime captivity has over the past decade taken on new urgency as an object of study. Transnational by its very nature, captivity’s historical significance extends far beyond the front lines, ultimately inextricable from the histories of mobilization, nationalism, colonialism, law, and a host of other related subjects. This wide-ranging volume brings together an international selection of scholars to trace the contours of this evolving research agenda, offering fascinating new perspectives on historical moments that range from the early days of the Great War to the arrival of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

Barbed Wire Diplomacy

Barbed Wire Diplomacy PDF Author: Neville Wylie
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191613878
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Barbed Wire Diplomacy examines how the United Kingdom government went about protecting the interests, lives and well-being of its prisoners of war (POWs) in Nazi Germany between 1939 and 1945. The comparatively good treatment of British prisoners in Germany has largely been explained by historians in terms of rational self-interest, reciprocity, and influence of Nazi racism, which accorded Anglo-Saxon servicemen a higher status than other categories of POWs. By contrast, Neville Wylie offers a more nuanced picture of Anglo-German relations and the politics of prisoners of war. Drawing on British, German, United States and Swiss sources, he argues that German benevolence towards British POWs stemmed from London's success in working through neutral intermediaries, notably its protecting power (the United States and Switzerland) and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to promote German compliance with the 1929 Geneva convention, and building and sustaining a relationship with the German government that was capable of withstanding the corrosive effects of five years of warfare. Expanding our understanding of both the formulation and execution of POW policy in both capitals, the book sheds new light on the dynamics in inter-belligerent relations during the war. It suggests that while the Second World War should be rightly acknowledged as a conflict in which traditional constraints were routinely abandoned in the pursuit of political, strategic and ideological goals, in this important area of Anglo-German relations, customary international norms were both resilient and effective.

Prisoners of War

Prisoners of War PDF Author:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019884039X
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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Book Description
The Second World War between the Axis and Allied powers saw over 20 million soldiers taken as prisoners of war. Prisoners of War uses a series of case studies to illuminate the personal and collective histories of those who experienced captivity in Eastern and Western Europe during the war and their repatriation and reintegration afterwards.

Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War

Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War PDF Author: Heather Jones
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139867059
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 469

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking study, Heather Jones provides the first in-depth and comparative examination of violence against First World War prisoners. She shows how the war radicalised captivity treatment in Britain, France and Germany, dramatically undermined international law protecting prisoners of war and led to new forms of forced prisoner labour and reprisals, which fuelled wartime propaganda that was often based on accurate prisoner testimony. This book reveals how, during the conflict, increasing numbers of captives were not sent to home front camps but retained in western front working units to labour directly for the British, French and German armies - in the German case, by 1918, prisoners working for the German army endured widespread malnutrition and constant beatings. Dr Jones examines the significance of these new, violent trends and their later legacy, arguing that the Great War marked a key turning-point in the twentieth-century evolution of the prison camp.

Love between Enemies

Love between Enemies PDF Author: Raffael Scheck
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108841759
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
An innovative study of empathy, sex, and love between prisoners of war and German women during World War II.

From Schmelt Camp to “Little Auschwitz”

From Schmelt Camp to “Little Auschwitz” PDF Author: Susanne Barth
Publisher: Purdue University Press
ISBN: 1612499562
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
From Schmelt Camp to “Little Auschwitz”: Blechhammer’s Role in the Holocaust is the first in-depth study of the second largest Auschwitz subcamp, Blechhammer (Blachownia Śląska), and its lesser known yet significant prehistory as a so-called Schmelt camp, a forced labor camp for Jews operating outside the concentration camp system. Drawing on previously untapped archival documents and a wide array of survivor testimonies, the book provides novel findings on Blechhammer’s role in the Holocaust in Eastern Upper Silesia, a formerly Polish territory annexed to Nazi Germany in the fall of 1939, where 120,000 Jews lived. Established in the spring of 1942 to construct a synthetic fuel plant, the camp’s abhorrent living conditions led to the death of thousands of young Jews conscripted from the ghettos or taken off deportation convoys from Western Europe. Blechhammer was not only used for selecting parts of the Jewish ghetto population for Auschwitz, but also for killing pregnant women and babies. As an Auschwitz satellite, Blechhammer became the scene of brutal executions and massacres of prisoners refusing to go on the Death March. This microhistory unearths the far-reaching complicity of often overlooked perpetrators, such as the industrialists, factory guards, policemen, and “ordinary” civilians in these atrocities, but more importantly, it focuses on the victims, reconstructing the prisoners’ daily life and suffering, as well as their survival strategies.

The Concise Encyclopedia of World War II [2 volumes]

The Concise Encyclopedia of World War II [2 volumes] PDF Author: Cathal J. Nolan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 031336527X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1476

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Book Description
A comprehensive and integrated military, political, and strategic history of World War II, ranging from the daily life of conscripts and civilians to operational and strategic decision making at the highest levels. Filled with up-to-date scholarship yet supremely manageable and accessible, The Concise Encyclopedia of World War II offers the opportunity to explore a conflict that remains a source of fascination for scholars, students, and general readers alike. From the battlefields to the corridors of power, from the barracks to the home front, The Concise Encyclopedia of World War II provides a complete portrait of the war. Entries not only address major battles and campaigns, but political, economic, and cultural issues as well, plus brief portraits of the conflict's commanding personalities. Its global perspective notably corrects the usual Western focus of World War II studies, incorporating a wealth of information on often underreported topics such as the Eastern Front and the Sino-Japanese War.

British Character and the Treatment of German Prisoners of War, 1939–48

British Character and the Treatment of German Prisoners of War, 1939–48 PDF Author: Alan Malpass
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030489159
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
This book examines attitudes towards German held captive in Britain, drawing on original archival material including newspaper and newsreel content, diaries, sociological surveys and opinion polls, as well as official documentation and the archives of pressure groups and protest movements. Moving beyond conventional assessments of POW treatment which have focused on the development of policy, diplomatic relations, and the experience of the POWs themselves, this study refocuses the debate onto the attitude of the British public towards the standard of treatment of German POWs. In so doing, it reveals that the issue of POW treatment intersected with discussions of state power, human rights, gender relations, civility, and national character.

Slinging Doughnuts for the Boys

Slinging Doughnuts for the Boys PDF Author: James H. Madison
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253350476
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Elizabeth Richardson was a Red Cross volunteer who worked as a Clubmobile hostess during World War II. Handing out free doughnuts, coffee, cigarettes, and gum to American soldiers in England and France, she and her colleagues provided a touch of home.--From publisher description.