World War II
After World War II it was claimed by German SS general Gottlob Berger that there was a plan, proposed by the Luftwaffe and approved by Adolf Hitler, to set up special POW camps for captured airmen of the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force in large German cities, to act as human shields against their bombing raids. Berger realised that this would contravene the Geneva Convention and argued that there was not enough barbed wire—as a result this plan was not implemented.
Wehrmacht and later SS forces extensively used Polish civilians as human shield during Warsaw Uprising when attacking the insurgents' positions.
Read more about this topic: Human Shield
Famous quotes containing the words world war, world and/or war:
“Fantasy is toxic: the private cruelty and the world war both have their start in the heated brain.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (18991973)
“The world has room to make a bear feel free;
The universe seems cramped to you and me.”
—Robert Frost (18741963)
“Only the person who has experienced light and darkness, war and peace, rise and fall, only that person has truly experienced life.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)