A prisoner-of-war camp is a site for the containment of combatants captured by their enemy in time of war, and is similar to an internment camp which is used for civilian populations. A prisoner of war is generally a soldier, sailor, or airman who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. Some non-combatant enemy personnel, such as merchant mariners and civil aircrews, were also considered prisoners of war.
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Following General John Burgoyne's surrender at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, several thousand British and German (Hessian and Brunswick) troops were marched to Cambridge, Massachusetts. For various reasons, the Continental Congress desired to move them south. One of Congress' members offered his land outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. The remaining soldiers (some 2,000 British, upwards of 1,900 German, and roughly 300 women and children) marched south in late 1778—arriving at the site (near Ivy Creek) in January 1779. Since the barracks were barely sufficient in construction, the officers were paroled to live as far away as Richmond and Staunton. The camp was never adequately provisioned, but the prisoners built a theater on the site. Hundreds escaped Albemarle Barracks because of the lack of guards. As the British Army moved northward from the Carolinas in late 1780, the remaining prisoners were moved to Frederick, Maryland; Winchester, Virginia; and perhaps elsewhere. No remains of the encampment site are left.
The earliest known purposely built prisoner-of-war camp was established at Norman Cross, England in 1797 to house the increasing number of prisoners from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.
Lacking a means for dealing with large numbers of captured troops early in the American Civil War, the U.S. and Confederate governments relied on the traditional European system of parole and exchange of prisoners. Both Union and Confederate prison camps had their share of atrocities resulting in starvation, disease, and death. The most notorious was the Confederate POW camp at Andersonville.
The first international convention on prisoners of war was signed at the Hague Peace Conference of 1899. It was widened by the Hague Convention of 1907. These rules proved insufficient in World War I, and the International Red Cross proposed a more complete code.
Tuchola was the most notorious POW camp for Red Army POWs (1919–1922).
From autumn 1920, thousands of captured Red Army men had been placed in the camp of Тuchola, in Pomerania. These POWs lived in trenches. Famine, cold and infectious diseases killed tens of prisoners daily. In the winter 1920/1921 PoWs had a death rate of about 25% which was attributed to malnutrition, poor sanitary conditions, lack of fuel and medicines and physical maltreatment by the Polish supervisors.
From the moment of opening an infirmary in February, 1921 till May 11, 1921 there was registered epidemic diseases 6491, not epidemic 12294, 2561 deaths (W.Rezmer, Zbigniew Karpus, G.Matvejev Red Army POWs in the Polish POW camps 1919-1922, p. 671).
Lieutenant Colonel I. Matuszewski, the head of the II department of the Polish Joint Staff, informed the military minister of Poland in the letter on February 1, 1922, that 22,000 PoWs were lost in the camp of Tuchola during its existence. (Red Army POWs..., p. 671), however according to Karpus, Rezmer the total death toll in all Polish POW camps was near 16,000, while Matvejev's estimate is 20,000.
On the other side of the frontline about 20,000 out of about 51,000 Polish POWs died in Soviet and Lithuanian camps (Karpus, Zbigniew, Alexandrowicz Stanisław, Zwycięzcy za drutami. Jeńcy polscy w niewoli (1919–1922). Dokumenty i materiały (Victors behind the fences. Polish POWs (1919–1922). Documents and materials). Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu, Toruń, 1995, ISBN 83-231-0627-4).
While the conditions for Soviet prisoners were clearly exposed by the free press in Poland (Karpus op.cit.), no corresponding fact-finding about Soviet camps for Polish POWs could be expected from tightly controlled Soviet press of the time. Available data shows many cases of mistreatment of Polish prisoners. There have been also cases of Soviet army executing Polish POWs when no POW facilities were available (Karpus op.cit.).
The Third Geneva Convention (1929) established the certain provisions relative to the treatment of Prisoners of War. One requirement was that POW camps were to be open to inspection by authorised representatives of a neutral power.
The Cowra breakout, on August 5, 1944, is believed to be the largest escape of POWs in recorded history and possibly the largest prison breakout ever. At least 545 Japanese POWs attempted to escape from a camp near Cowra, Australia. Most sources say that 234 POWs were killed or committed suicide. The remainder were recaptured.
The Red Cross provided millions of Red Cross parcels to Allied PoWs in Axis prison camps during the course of the war; most of these contained food and personal hygiene items, while others held medical kits. A special "release kit" parcel was also provided to some newly-released PoWs at the war's end.
Click here for another List of World War II POW camps
In many POW camps, cigarettes were widely used as currency in the form of 'commodity money'. They performed the function of money as a medium of exchange. This was because they were generally accepted among the prisoners for settling payments or debts. They also performed the function of money as a unit of account. Prices of other goods were expressed in terms of cigarettes. Compared with other goods, the supply of cigarettes was more stable, as they were rationed in the POW camps, and cigarettes were more divisible, portable and homogeneous.
The International Red Cross visited U.N. POW camps, often unannounced, noting prisoner hygiene, quality of medical care, variety of diet and weight gain. They talked to the prisoners and asked for their comments on conditions, as well as providing them with copies of the Geneva Convention. The IRC delegates dispersed boots, soap and other requested goods.
In 1952 the camp's administration was afraid that the prisoners would riot and demonstrate on May Day (a day honoring Communism) and so U.S. navy ships (such as the USS Gunston Hall (LSD-5)) removed 15,000 North Korean and Chinese prisoners from the island and moved them to prison facilities at Ulsan and Cheju-do. These ships also participated in Operation Big Switch in September 1953 when prisoners were exchanged at the end of the war.
In the communist POW camps, U.N. prisoners suffered starvation and the deprivation of sleep, food and medical care; many endured various levels of torture. Communist guards often retained relief packages and food for themselves.
While these POW Camps were designated numerically by the communists, the POWs often gave the camps a name.
By the end of 1965, Viet Cong suspects, prisoners of war, and even juvenile delinquents were all mixed together in South Vietnamese jails and prisons. After June 1965 the prison population steadily rose until by early 1966 there was no space for more prisoners in the existing jails and prisons. In 1965 plans were made to construct five POW camps, each having an initial capacity of 1,000 prisoners. Each camp would be staffed by the South Vietnamese military police, with U.S. military policemen as prisoner of war advisers being assigned to each stockade.
Prisons and jails
Camps
The United States has refused to grant prisoner-of-war status to many prisoners captured during its 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and 2003 invasion of Iraq. The legality of this refusal has been questioned and cases are pending in the US courts. A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision seems to have given all prisoners under US control POW status. This is under dispute. Other captives, including Saddam Hussein, have been accorded POW status. The International Red Cross has been permitted to visit at least some sites. It has been alleged that many prisoners are held in secret locations or by friendly governments. Known sites include: