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A prisoner of war ( POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. [a]
Learn about the concept and treatment of prisoner of war (POW) in international law and warfare. Explore the evolution of POW status, rights, and protection from ancient times to modern conflicts.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Members of the United States armed forces were held as prisoners of war (POWs) in significant numbers during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1973.
Allied prisoners - British, Dutch, French and Polish - pool their resources to plan numerous escapes from the "escape-proof" German P.O.W. camp housed in a Medieval castle known as "Colditz".
- Detention of Prisoners of War Before The Development of Camps
- Development of Temporary Camps
- First Purpose-Built Camp
- American Civil War Camps
- Boer War
- World War I
- Polish–Soviet War
- World War II
- Korean War
- Vietnam War
Before the Peace of Westphalia, enemy fighters captured by belligerent forces were usually executed, enslaved, or held for ransom. This, coupled with the relatively small size of armies, meant there was little need for any form of camp to hold prisoners of war. The Peace of Westphalia, a series of treaties signed between May and October 1648 that e...
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. For this purpose, one of the congressmen offered his land outside of Charlottesville, Vi...
The earliest known purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp was established by the Kingdom of Great Britain at Norman Cross, in 1797 to house the increasing number of prisoners from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The prison operated until 1814 and held between 3,300 and 6,272 men.
Lacking a means for dealing with large numbers of captured troops early in the American Civil War, the Union and Confederate governments relied on the traditional European system of parole and exchange of prisoners. While awaiting exchange, prisoners were confined to permanent camps. Neither Union or Confederate prison camps were always well run, a...
During the Second Boer War, the British government established prisoner-of-war camps (to hold captured Boer belligerents or fighters) and concentration camps (to hold Boer civilians). In total, six prisoner-of-war camps were erected in South Africa and around 31 in overseas British colonies to hold Boer prisoners of war.The majority of Boer prisone...
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. The main combatant nations engaged in World War I abided by the convention and treatment of prisoners was generally good. The situation on the eastern front was significantly worse than the western...
From autumn 1920, thousands of captured Red Army soldiers and guards had been placed in the Tuchola internment camp, in Pomerania. These prisoners lived in dugouts, and many died of hunger, cold, and infectious diseases. According to historians Zbigniew Karpus and Waldemar Rezmer, up to 2000 prisoners died in the camp during its operation. In a joi...
The 1929 Geneva Convention on the Prisoners of Warestablished 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. 1. Article 10 required that POWs should be lodged in adequately heated and lighted buildings where conditio...
U.N. camps
The International Red Cross visited United Nations-run 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. A prison camp was established on the island of Koje-do, where over 170,000 communist and non-communist prisoners were held...
Communist camps
The Chinese operated three types of POW camps during the Korean war. Peace camps housed POWs who were sympathetic to communism, reform camps were intended for skilled POWs who were to be indoctrinated in communist ideologies and the third type was the normal POW camps. Chinese policy did not allow for the exchange of prisoners in the first two camp types. While these POW Camps were designated numerically by the communists, the POWs often gave the camps a name. 1. Camp 1 – Changsong – near Cam...
South Vietnamese Army camps in South Vietnam
By the end of 1965, Viet Cong suspects, prisoners of war, and even juvenile delinquents were mixed together in South Vietnamese jails and prisons. After June 1965, the prison population steadily rose, and by early 1966, there was no space to accommodate additional prisoners in the existing jails and prisons. In 1965, plans were made to construct five POW camps, each with an initial capacity of 1,000 prisoners and to be staffed by the South Vietnamese military police, with U.S. military police...
North Vietnamese Army camps
1. "Alcatraz" – North Central Hanoi 2. "Briarpatch" – 53 km (33 mi) WNW of Hanoi 3. "Camp Faith" – 14 km (9 mi) West of Hanoi 4. "Dirty Bird" – Northern Hanoi 5. "Dogpatch" – 169 km (105 mi) NNE of Hanoi 6. "Farnsworth" – 29 km (18 mi) SW of Hanoi 7. "Hanoi Hilton" – Hoa Lo, Central Hanoi 8. "Mountain Camp" – 64 km (40 mi) NW of Hanoi 9. "Plantation – Northeast Hanoi 10. "Rockpile" – 51 km (32 mi) South of Hanoi 11. Sơn Tây– 37 km (23 mi) West of Hanoi 12. "Skidrow" – 10 km (6 mi) SW of Hanoi...
British and Commonwealth prisoners of war (POWs) held captive by German, Italian or Japanese forces in the Second World War. POWs from Allied countries taken prisoner in the Second...
Sep 14, 2017 · The Incredible Story Behind a Haunting Picture of a POW in Vietnam. 6 minute read. Captured U.S. pilot major Dewey Waddell is guarded by a militiawoman with a gun and a bayonet on a rice field....
