# How Did the Allies Treat Enemy POWs in WWII? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 30, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-allies-treat-enemy-pows-in-wwii/687369 "2014-04-30T15:58:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-allies-treat-enemy-pows-in-wwii/687369/101 "2014-05-05T19:50:41Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I guess it worked pretty well since some German POWs volunteered to parachute back into Germany to establish a resistance or volunteered to serve in the allied forces. I politely ask if you have a cite for that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-allies-treat-enemy-pows-in-wwii/687369/102 "2014-05-05T20:40:02Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I politely ask if you have a cite for that. 🙂 Dunno about the US but in the [USSR](http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6VRhIvCiU2wC&pg=PT66&lpg=PT66&dq=stalingrad+beria+parachute&source=bl&ots=U6AXD8NQ95&sig=Q7II14oucmTbgW10MyOwmZwnUYI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=P_VnU8ydGMXX7Aa5soHgCw&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=stalingrad%20beria%20parachute&f=false) General Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, after being captured by the Russians volunteered to raise ‘a small army from prisoners of war’ which would be parachuted into Germany. Needless to say Beria did not follow it up. Wiki says he wanted [40,000 PoWs to be airlifted](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walther_von_Seydlitz-Kurzbach). The Soviets did use German PoWs who had turned against the Nazis in other ways, [like leaflets, radio broadcasts etc.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Committee_for_a_Free_Germany) ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-allies-treat-enemy-pows-in-wwii/687369/103 "2014-05-06T04:42:07Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I politely ask if you have a cite for that. 🙂 You know, I have read so many books about the war over the years I have no idea now where that came from. It probably wouldnt have worked anyways since it was nearing the wars end when they did this. What it said was the films about what they found in the concentration camps was partly what turned them. ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-allies-treat-enemy-pows-in-wwii/687369/104 "2014-05-06T11:42:25Z")
The UK had over 1 million German and Italian POWs. Some where known to be ‘Black camps’ full of die hard Nazis. They usually had a detattachment of paratroopers nearby to deter escapes. However many did not try to escape. They tuned into the relentless radio broadcasts from occupied Europe and were convinced all they had to do was sit tight and wait for a Nazi victory. There were some escapes, but the UK is an island and the coast was heavily defended because of the threat of invasion and later the preparations for D-Day. They would not get any support from the local population and underground resistance as was the case of Allied POW escapees in occupied Europe. The only neutral country nearby was Ireland which had camps for both Gernan and Allied soldiers. This was probably the cushiest place to be a POW. I am not sure if there were any recorded escapes by German prisoners that made it back to Germany. When I worked in Germany I met a guy who had been a POW in the UK. He seemed to have a good time. He was a butcher by trade, which stood him in good stead during a time of food rationing and he alluded to having several local girlfriends. He had a good war. Quite a lot of Germans stayed on the UK after the war, as did many Italians. The fact that there were huge numbers of German POWs in UK and vice versa was probably the reason why they were treated reasonably, with support on both sides for the Red Cross parcels. However there were sporadic ‘incidents’ that broke this agreement. See ‘The Great Escape.’ Hitler also ordered commandos to be executed if captured. The same was not true on the Eastern Front between the Germans and Russians. That became a ‘War of Annilation’ and the account of the Battle of Stalingrad documents many attrocities against prisoners. I worked with a guy who guarded Japanese prisoners in India towards the end of the war. He said, they would actually slip knives under the cell doors so the Japanese could commit suicide. They would have several dead each day. They could not understand why any other soldier could live the the dishonour of capture. That was one of the reasons they treat their prisoners so abominably. To be POW in Japan was probably the one of the worst places. No Red Cross parcels there, they were worked and starved. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-allies-treat-enemy-pows-in-wwii/687369/105 "2014-05-06T13:27:51Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > I am not sure if there were any recorded escapes by German prisoners that made it back to Germany. [Just one,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Werra) after he was shipped to Canada and made it across the frozen St Lawrence into the US before Pearl Harbor. The British, good sports that they are, made a movie about him with Hardy Kruger. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-allies-treat-enemy-pows-in-wwii/687369/106 "2014-05-06T16:21:26Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > I worked with a guy who guarded Japanese prisoners in India towards the end of the war. He said, they would actually slip knives under the cell doors so the Japanese could commit suicide. They would have several dead each day. They could not understand why any other soldier could live the the dishonour of capture. That was one of the reasons they treat their prisoners so abominably. To be POW in Japan was probably the one of the worst places. No Red Cross parcels there, they were worked and starved. I have read memoirs by several Allied POWs of the Japanese, who were shipped to Japan and put to work there. More than one of these accounts tells of – although “officialdom” was indeed cruel and negligent – the prisoners’ receiving much personal kindness from the Japanese civilians, and their families, alongside whom they worked in Japan. Who knows how these same folk would have behaved toward prisoners, if said folk had been in the armed forces? – human beings are very strange and unpredictable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-allies-treat-enemy-pows-in-wwii/687369.md?page=5)