Who treated POWs the best in ww2?

7 Answers. Show activity on this post. If you are asking about people who were prisoners of the Germans, then British and Americans did the best, although this was certainly no joyride.

How did Americans treat their POW in ww2?

The U.S. camps were run in strict accordance with the terms of the 1929 Geneva Convention. All prisoners were entitled to housing, food, medical care and clothing appropriate to the climate in which they were being held.

How did the Allies treat POW?

The armies of the Western Allies were under strict orders to treat Axis prisoners in line with the convention, something which generally occurred. Some abuses, however, such as the shooting of German POWS by US troops, did take place.

What was the best POW camp in ww2?

Stalag Luft III had the best-organised recreational program of any POW camp in Germany.

How did Britain treat POWs?

They were often better fed than they would have been fighting at the end of a supply chain. Those in lower risk camps were permitted to leave for work and to attend church alongside the British congregations. Depending on the camp, prisoners might be paid in real currency or in camp money – to further prevent escape.

The Life of a P.O.W in Different Countries WW2

How were German POWs treated in UK?

The experiences of these prisoners differed in certain important respects from those of captured German servicemen held by other nations. The treatment of the captives, though strict, was generally humane, and fewer prisoners died in British captivity than in other countries.

Who is the most famous POW?

Floyd James Thompson — America's longest-held POW; he spent 9 years in POW camps in Vietnam (1964 — 1973).

How were German POWs treated in ww2?

Held by the Nazis to be racially and politically inferior, they were starved and brutalised. The appalling suffering of these POWs was witnessed by British and Commonwealth prisoners held in separate compounds. At Stalag VIIIB alone, in Lamsdorf, eastern Germany, over 40,000 Russians perished.

How long did the Soviets keep German POWs?

The Soviets released 10,200 POWs in 1953. The remaining 9,262 had been mostly accused of war crimes and sentenced to lengthy prison terms that would last until the 1980s.

Why did Japan treat POWs so badly?

The reasons for the Japanese behaving as they did were complex. The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) indoctrinated its soldiers to believe that surrender was dishonourable. POWs were therefore thought to be unworthy of respect. The IJA also relied on physical punishment to discipline its own troops.

How did Japan treat POWs?

The treatment of American and allied prisoners by the Japanese is one of the abiding horrors of World War II. Prisoners were routinely beaten, starved and abused and forced to work in mines and war-related factories in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions.

How did Americans treat German prisoners of war?

Prisoners had friendly interaction with local civilians and sometimes were allowed outside the camps without guards on the honor system (Black American guards noted that German prisoners could visit restaurants that they could not because of Jim Crow laws. ), luxuries such as beer and wine were sometimes available, and ...

Did the Japanese eat POWs in ww2?

The Chichijima incident (also known as the Ogasawara incident) occurred in late 1944. Japanese soldiers killed eight American airmen on Chichi Jima, in the Bonin Islands, and cannibalized four of the airmen.

Did the Japanese execute POWs?

On October 7, 1943, Rear Adm. Shigematsu Sakaibara, commander of the Japanese garrison on the island, orders the execution of 96 Americans POWs, claiming they were trying to make radio contact with U.S. forces.

How were German POWs treated in Canada ww2?

All POWs were legally protected under the terms of the Geneva Convention, and were adequately provisioned and housed as required by the Convention. Canadians living near the camps believed the POWs received better food than they themselves enjoyed under wartime rationing.

What did Soviets do to German prisoners?

Approximately three million German prisoners of war were captured by the Soviet Union during World War II, most of them during the great advances of the Red Army in the last year of the war. The POWs were employed as forced labor in the Soviet wartime economy and post-war reconstruction.

How were POWs treated in Vietnam?

Although North Vietnam was a signatory of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, which demanded "decent and humane treatment" of prisoners of war, severe torture methods were employed, such as waterboarding, strappado (known as "the ropes" to POWs), irons, beatings, and prolonged solitary confinement.

Which president was a prisoner of war?

He was in a battle and was later captured by the British, making him the only president to have been a prisoner of war. Jackson was magnetic and charming but with a quick temper that got him into many duels, two of which left bullets in him.

Who is the longest POW?

Col. Floyd J. Thompson, who endured nearly nine years of torture, disease and starvation in Vietnam as the longest-held prisoner of war in American history, has died. He was 69.

Are there any POWs right now?

According to the Pentagon's Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, there are currently 83,204 unaccounted for U.S. personnel, including 73,547 from World War II, 7,883 from the Korean War, 126 from the Cold War, 1,642 from the Vietnam War, and six from Iraq and other recent conflicts, including three Defense ...

How did German soldiers feel about ww2?

A recent survey conducted by the Forsa Institute, a German polling and market research firm, found that the majority perceived the Allies' victory as a liberation for Germany from the Nazi regime, with only 9 percent of Germans viewing World War II as a defeat — dramatically down from 34% in 2005.

How many German POWs stayed in UK after ww2?

POWs in post-war Britain

In 1946, the year after the end of World War Two, more than 400,000 German prisoners of war (POWs) were still being held in Britain, with POW camps on the outskirts of most towns.

How did the Japanese treat female prisoners of war?

Unprepared for coping with so many captured European prisoners, the Japanese held those who surrendered to them in contempt, especially the women. The men at least could be put to work as common laborers, but women and children were "useless mouths." This attitude would dictate Japanese policy until the end of the war.