Prisoners of War and the German High Command The British and American Experience

by Vourkoutiotis, Vasilis

• ISBN13: 9781403911698
• ISBN10: 140391169X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-03
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Based on archival research in Germany, Great Britain, the USA and Canada, this study provides the first complete examination of the relationship between the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces High Command), and Anglo-American prisoners of war. German military policy is compared with reports of almost one thousand visits by Red Cross and Protecting Power inspectors to the camps, allowing the reader to judge how well the policies were actually put into practice, and what their impact was on the lives of the captured soldiers, sailors and airmen.

Author Biography

Vasilis Vourkoutiotis is Lecturer of History and International Relations at St Petersburg State University, Russia.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	vi
Foreword	vii
List of Abbreviations and Terms	viii
1 Introduction	1	(10)
2 Background Information	11	(26)
2.1 Historical Background	11	(14)
2.2 The Geneva Convention, and the National Prisoner-of-war Policies of Britain, Canada, the United States, and Germany, 1939	25	(4)
2.3 The Structure of Prisoner-of-war Affairs in Germany	29	(8)
3 General Issues on Policy and Prisoner-of-war Camps	37	(38)
3.1 Identification and Status of Prisoners of War	37	(6)
3.2 Early Days: Issues surrounding Capture and Captivity	43	(5)
3.3 General Camp Infrastructure	48	(27)
4 Crimes and Punishment of Prisoners of War	75	(34)
4.1 Basic Issues	75	(1)
4.2 Matters of Discipline	76	(11)
4.3 Justice Matters	87	(7)
4.4 Related Security Issues	94	(15)
5 Economics and External Relations of Prisoners of War	109	(56)
5.1 Labor and Finance	109	(24)
5.2 External Relations of Prisoners of War	133	(32)
6 Final Assessments	165	(38)
6.1 What the Inspectors Saw	165	(18)
6.2 Policy versus Evidence	183	(2)
6.3 Conclusions	185	(18)
Notes	203	(53)
Bibliography	256	(9)
Index	265