Prisoner of war and Talk:Omal: Difference between pages

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{{dablink|For alternative meaning of the POW abbreviation, see [[POW (disambiguation)]]}}

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[[Image:Prokudin-Gorskii-22.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[Austro-Hungarian Army|Austro-Hungarian]] [[prisoner of war|POWs]] in [[Russia]]; a [[1915]] photo by [[Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii|Prokudin-Gorskii]]]]

A '''prisoner of war''' ('''POW''', '''PoW''', or '''PW''') is a [[soldier]], [[sailor]], [[airman]], or [[marine]] who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. Laws exist to ensure prisoners of war are treated humanely and diplomatically. Nations vary in their dedication to following these laws.

Article 4 of the [[Third Geneva Convention]] protects captured [[military]] personnel, some [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] fighters and certain civilians. 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 [[torture]] prisoners, and states that a prisoner can only be required to give his or her name, date of birth, rank and service number (if applicable).

The status of POW does not include unarmed non-combatants who are captured in time of war; they are protected by the [[Fourth Geneva Convention]] rather than the Third Geneva Convention.

==Qualification as POW==

In principle to be entitled to prisoner of war status the captured service member must have conducted operations according to [[Laws of war|the laws and customs of war]], e.g. be part of a chain of command, wear a uniform and bear arms openly. Thus, [[franc-tireur]]s, [[terrorism|terrorists]] and [[spies]] may be excluded. In practice these criteria are not always interpreted strictly. Guerrillas, for example, may not wear a uniform or carry arms openly, yet are typically granted POW status if captured. However, guerrillas or any other combatant may not be granted the status if they try to use both the civilian and the military status. Thus, the importance of uniforms — or as in the guerrilla case, a badge — to keep this important rule of warfare.

[[Image:Podhalan POWs.jpg|thumb|right|300px|German soldiers taken POW by the [[Polish Independent Highland Brigade]] during the [[Battle of Narvik]] of 1940]]

==Treatment of POWs==

The treatment of prisoners of war can depend on the resources, social attitudes and policies of the governments and militaries in question. For instance, in [[World War II]], [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] prisoners of [[Nazi Germany]] and German prisoners of the Soviet Union were often treated with neglect and brutality. The Nazi Regime regarded Soviet POWs as being of a lower racial order, and many Soviet POWs were consequently subject to enforced labour or were murdered in keeping with The Third Reich's policy of "racial purification". An official justification used by the Germans for this policy was the fact that the Soviet Union had not signed the Geneva convention. Prisoners from Britain and the US were generally treated much better by the Germans, comparable to how the Allies treated them, with rare exception. When American or British were made to work, they were compensated, and British officers, as per their regulation were not forced to work. On the Soviet side, German POWs were regarded as having forfeited their right to fair treatment, because of the widespread crimes committed against Soviet civilians during their invasion campaign. This combined with the fact that much of the Soviet workforce was now in the hands of Nazi Germany, also led to employment of many German POWs as forced labour (this forced labour was in keeping with that imposed by the Soviets on her own civilians for a range of criminal and political crimes).

In the Pacific Theater, some of the harshest treatment of POWs were dealt by the [[Japan|Japanese]]. Prisoners held by [[Japan|Japanese]] armed forces were subject to brutal treatment, including forced labour, medical experimentation, vivisection, starvation rations, beatings for escape attempts, and were denied medical treatment. Whereas Allied POWs had a death rate of about 2% to 4% in German POW camps, which was usually attributed to natural causes, the death rate in Japanese camps was generally in the range of 20% to 35%. This was due in part to physical maltreatment by the Japanese, but was exacerbated by deliberate malnutrition, forced labour and lack of medicines, particularly [[antimalarial drug]]s. Similarly, during the [[Vietnam War]], American service members captured by [[North Vietnam]] were routinely beaten and tortured in violation of their status as prisoners of war.

By contrast, POW facilities held by Allied nations like the [[USA]], [[United Kingdom|UK]] and [[Canada]] usually complied strictly to the Geneva Conventions, which sometimes created conditions POWs found were more comfortable than their own side's barracks. This approach was decided on the idea that having POWs well treated meant a ready supply of healthy and cooperative laborers for farmwork and the like, as allowed by the Geneva Conventions, which eased personnel shortages. These "forced" worker were also compensated for their work, as is required by the [[Geneva Convention]]. There were also the benefits of a lower chance of having to deal with escapes or prisoner disruption. In addition, as word spread among the enemy about the conditions of Allied POW camps, it encouraged surrenders which helped further Allied military goals efficiently. Furthermore, it may have raised morale among the Allied personnel when the usefulness of this approach was accepted by reinforcing the idea that this humane treatment of prisoners showed that their side was morally superior to the enemy. There were however some secret locations for prisoner interrogation that were not made known to the Germans due to fear of retaliatory treatment where torture was used to extract information, contrary to the image that the US and the UK never broke the Geneva protocols, these were rarely used.

==PoWs since Geneva Convention (1929)==

A list of nations with the highest number of PoWs in any war since the 1st Geneva Convention came into effect in 1929. The USSR had not signed the Geneva convention. {{Ref|Clark}} All except one took place during World War II. Listed in descending order.

<center>

{| class="wikitable"

|- bgcolor="#cccccc"

| '''Country'''

| '''Prisoners of war'''

| '''Name of the conflict'''

|-

| color="#cccccc" | U.S.S.R

| 4,600,000 (1,836,000 still alive at end of war)(ref. Krivosheev)

| [[World War II]] (Total)

|-

| color="#cccccc" | France

| 1,800,000

| [[Battle of France]] in World War II

|-

| color="#cccccc" | U.S.A

| ~130,000 (95,532 taken by Germany)

| World War II

|-

| color="#cccccc" | Germany

| NA*

| World War II</sup>

|-

| color="#cccccc" | Britain

| (135,000 taken in Europe, does not include Pacific or Commonwealth figures)

| World War II

|-

| color="#cccccc" | Pakistan

| 93,000

| [[Indo-Pakistani War of 1971]]

|}

<nowiki>*</nowiki> ''Currently no reliable and neutral figures are available.''

</center>

==List of notable POWs==

This is a list of POWs that attracted notable attention or influence by this status.

[[Image:PakistanPoW.jpg|right|frame|A [[Pakistan]] [[postage stamp|stamp]] shows the 90,000 PoWs in [[India]]n camps following its surrender in the [[Indo-Pakistani War of 1971]].]]

*[[Winston Churchill]]--during the Boer War; escaped

*[[Charles de Gaulle]] - Fr. general and political leader, captured at Verdun POW 1916-18

*[[Jeremiah Denton]]

*[[Roy Dotrice]]

*[[Werner Drechsler]]

*[[Henri Giraud]] - Fr. general, escaped German captivity in both WWI and WWII

*[[Rudolf Hess]]

*[[Wilm Hosenfeld]]

*[[General Yahya Khan]]

*[[Desmond Llewellyn]]

*[[Jessica Lynch]]

*[[John McCain]] - American political leader, captured in Vietnam

*[[W. H. Murray]]

*[[Airey Neave]]

*[[A. A. K. Niazi]]

*[[Friedrich Paulus]]

*[[Laurens van der Post]]

*[[Patrick Reid]]

*[[Jean-Paul Sartre]] - Fr. philosopher and writer, POW 1940-1941

*[[Ronald Searle]]

*[[Léopold Senghor]] - Senegalize writer and political leader, captured 1940 in France

*[[Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach]]

*[[E W Swanton]]

*[[Mikhail Tukhachevsky]] - Soviet military leader and theroist, captured WWI.

*[[Kurt Vonnegut]]

*[[Louis Zamperini]]

{{sectstub}}

==Alternative definitions==

Some groups define '''Prisoner of War''' in accordance with their internal politics and world view. Since the special rights of a prisoner of war, granted by [[government]]s, are the result of [[multilateral treaty|multilateral treaties]], these definitions have no [[law|legal]] effect and those claiming rights under these definitions would legally be considered common criminals under an arresting jurisdiction's laws. However, it must be noted that in most cases these groups do not demand such rights.

===November Coalition definition===

[[November Coalition]] uses the term '''Prisoner of War''' to also refer to '''Prisoner of Drug War''' or '''Prisoner of [[War on Drugs]]'''. Every person charged with the crime under the statues of the Drug War fits that definition, regardless of whether that individual's arrest and conviction was legal.

===The American term EPW -- Enemy Prisoner of War===

The term '''enemy prisoner of war''' ('''EPW''') is used by the [[United States]] to refer to a captured enemy service member in their custody, but is not a term under the [[Geneva Conventions]].Ĺ

==Further reading==

* Pierre Gascar, ''Histoire de la captivité des Français en Allemagne (1939-1945),'' Éditions Gallimard, France, 1967.

* Bob Moore,& Kent Fedorowich eds., ''Prisoners of War and their Captors in World War II'', Berg Press, Oxford, U.K., 1996.

* David Rolf, ''Prisoners of the Reich, Germany’s Captives, 1939-1945'', 1998.

* [[Richard D. Wiggers]] "The United States and the Denial of Prisoner of War (POW) Status at the End of the Second World War," ''Militargeschichtliche Mitteilungen'' 52 (1993) pp. 91-94.

==Documentaries about POWs==

*The stories of several American fighter pilots, shot down over North Vietnam are the focus of [[American Film Foundation]]'s 1999 documentary [[Return with Honor]], presented by [[Tom Hanks]].

==See also==

* [[Combatant]]

* [[Illegal combatant]]

* [[Disarmed Enemy Forces]]

* [[Laws of war]]

* [[War crime]]

* [[American Revolution prisoners of war]]

* [[British prison ships (New York)]]

* [[Prisoner-of-war camp]]

* [[Missing in action|MIA]]

* [[The United States Military Code of Conduct]]

* ''[[The Great Escape]]''

* ''[[Stalag 17]]''

==References==

# {{Citeencyclopedia | ency=Encyclopedia Britannica | edition=CD Edition | year=2002 | article=Prisoner of War}}

# [http://www.gendercide.org/case_soviet.html Gendercide site]

#{{Note|Clark}} Clark, Alan ''[[Barbarossa]]: The Russian-German Conflict 1941-1945'' page 206, ISBN 0-304-35864-9

G. F. Krivosheev, ed., ''Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century'', Greenhill Books, London, 1997.

==External links==

* [http://abcf.net/abcf.asp?page=const1 Who and What are Political Prisoners (PP) and Prisoners of War (POW)] &mdash; Anarchist Black Cross Federation

* [http://www.pegasus-one.org/pow/main.htm POWs of WWII and their experiences]

* [http://www.virtualwall.org/pmsea.htm Current staus of Vietnam War POW/MIA]

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[[Category:Imprisonment and detention]]

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