Allied POWs in German Hands 1914 - 1918

Allied POWs in German Hands 1914 - 1918
Author: David Bilton
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2017-02-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473867010
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In this first fully illustrated history of the Kaiser’s unwanted guests, the author looks at the lives of the thousands of Allied men who became PoWs during the Great War. After making the decision to surrender, the soldier, sailor or airman was at the mercy of his captors. The book examines what it felt like to surrender, the dangers involved and then the often long journey to a camp in Germany. For some the there was no journey, they were kept at the Front to help the German war effort. Not all camps were the same; some were better than others, a situation that could easily change with the replacement of the commandant, but most were poor. Disease was rife and there was little medical care. Barracks were usually cold and there were few blankets and little clothing. Men were abused, starved, denied their basic rights, sent to work in appalling conditions and some were murdered. There were thousands of civilians interned as well, who mostly fared better than combatants, however they did not have it easy. With the arrival of parcels from home most prisoners could implement their diet, but this was not the case for Russians who received little help and relied on handouts from other prisoners. Escape was a priority for many men; thousands tried, even though they could be shot for the attempt, as some were, but most failed to make it home. Then the Armistice was signed and the PoWs were freed. Some managed to walk to Allied lines, most had to wait for transport. Within a few months they were all home, except for the thousands of prisoners that were missing, that the Germans claimed they never had.

Internment during the First World War

Internment during the First World War
Author: Stefan Manz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2018-10-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351848356
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Although civilian internment has become associated with the Second World War in popular memory, it has a longer history. The turning point in this history occurred during the First World War when, in the interests of ‘security’ in a situation of total war, the internment of ‘enemy aliens’ became part of state policy for the belligerent states, resulting in the incarceration, displacement and, in more extreme cases, the death by neglect or deliberate killing of hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world. This pioneering book on internment during the First World War brings together international experts to investigate the importance of the conflict for the history of civilian incarceration.

The Enemy in Our Hands

The Enemy in Our Hands
Author: Robert C. Doyle
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 491
Release: 2010-03-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 0813125898
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Revelations of abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison and the U.S. detention camp at Guantánamo Bay had repercussions extending beyond the worldwide media scandal that ensued. The controversy surrounding photos and descriptions of inhumane treatment of enemy prisoners of war, or EPWs, from the war on terror marked a watershed momentin the study of modern warfare and the treatment of prisoners of war. Amid allegations of human rights violations and war crimes, one question stands out among the rest: Was the treatment of America's most recent prisoners of war an isolated event or part of a troubling and complex issue that is deeply rooted in our nation's military history?Military expert Robert C. Doyle's The Enemy in Our Hands: America's Treatment of Prisoners of War from the Revolution to the War on Terror draws from diverse sources to answer this question. Historical as well as timely in its content, this work examines America's major wars and past conflicts -- among them, the American Revolution, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and Vietnam -- to provide understanding of the UnitedStates' treatment of military and civilian prisoners. The Enemy in Our Hands offers a new perspective of U.S. military history on the subject of EPWs and suggests that the tactics employed to manage prisoners of war are unique and disparate from one conflict tothe next. In addition to other vital information, Doyle provides a cultural analysis and exploration of U.S. adherence to international standards of conduct, including the 1929 Geneva Convention in each war. Although wars are not won or lost on the basis of how EPWs are treated, the treatment of prisoners is one of the measures by which history's conquerors are judged.

Prisoners of the Kaiser

Prisoners of the Kaiser
Author: Richard van Emden
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2009-06-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 184468850X
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Based on interviews with survivors of German WWI prison camps, this account documents the heroism and perseverance of British troops in captivity. Drawing on the memories of the last surviving prisoners of the Great war, Prisoners of the Kaiser tells the dramatic story of life as a POW in Germany. Stories include the shock of capture on the Western Front, to the grind of daily life in imprisonment in German prison camps. Veterans recall work in salt mines, punishments, and escape attempts, as well as the torture of starvation and the relief at their eventual release. With over 200 photographs and illustrations, Prisoners of the Kaiser is filled with vivid, moving eye-witness accounts, almost all of which never been have published before.

The Great Class War 1914-1918

The Great Class War 1914-1918
Author: Jacques R. Pauwels
Publisher: James Lorimer & Company
Total Pages: 758
Release: 2016-04-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1459411072
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Historian Jacques Pauwels applies a critical, revisionist lens to the First World War, offering readers a fresh interpretation that challenges mainstream thinking. As Pauwels sees it, war offered benefits to everyone, across class and national borders. For European statesmen, a large-scale war could give their countries new colonial territories, important to growing capitalist economies. For the wealthy and ruling classes, war served as an antidote to social revolution, encouraging workers to exchange socialism's focus on international solidarity for nationalism's intense militarism. And for the working classes themselves, war provided an outlet for years of systemic militarization -- quite simply, they were hardwired to pick up arms, and to do so eagerly. To Pauwels, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914 -- traditionally upheld by historians as the spark that lit the powder keg -- was not a sufficient cause for war but rather a pretext seized upon by European powers to unleash the kind of war they had desired. But what Europe's elite did not expect or predict was some of the war's outcomes: social revolution and Communist Party rule in Russia, plus a wave of political and social democratic reforms in Western Europe that would have far-reaching consequences. Reflecting his broad research in the voluminous recent literature about the First World War by historians in the leading countries involved in the conflict, Jacques Pauwels has produced an account that challenges readers to rethink their understanding of this key event of twentieth century world history.