World War I Prisoners of War in Germany - Recognition For The Prisoners

Recognition For The Prisoners

Repatriated prisoners were welcomed with various sorts of demonstrations, especially if they returned before the war ended (for instance those interned in Switzerland). British prisoners received a message in the hand of King George V welcoming them.

In France, prisoners were disappointed as they did not receive the honours they had hoped for. Their moral fight in the camps was not recognised: "At Nîmes, they gave me 500 francs from my savings and a costume made from bad sheeting that they called the Clemenceau costume A new life was beginning for me but it was no longer the same thing. 25 years old, not a sou in my pocket, my health weakened by poison gas, bronchitis… In sum, I was disgusted by life". Bitterness took root. Prisoners were excluded from the Médaille militaire and the Croix de guerre. Wounded men could receive the Insigne des blessés but prisoners obtained no distinction and were also excluded from war memorials. The fact that one had been a prisoner was perceived as shameful by public opinion.

In addition, war narratives were transformed into literature by (among others) the publishing houses, which distorted the perception and treatment of captivity. Nicolas Beaupré cites the letter of one of Éditions Berger-Levrault’s directors in which he insists on giving a direction to the publication of war stories, more for vainglory than a depiction of events: “Currently we, more than any other publishing house, are editing, as much at Nancy as in Paris, with very restrained means. If we can hold on and publish only good publications on the war, the House will emerge from the conflict in more of a starring role than before”. Still, sales for war stories quickly dropped as popular demand shifted elsewhere.

Besides the payment of indemnities to soldiers, former combatants received 20 francs for each month spent on the front. Prisoners received 15 francs and were not recognised as veterans. Thus, prisoners united to try to claim their rights. The Fédération Nationale des Anciens Prisonniers de Guerre included 60,000 former prisoners. One of these wrote, “Our glory is to have had, instead of citations, ribbons and stripes, the honours of the post, the hot room, the cold room, the reprisal prison”. Politically, they managed to secure several rights, notably the ability to repatriate the bodies of soldiers who had died in captivity and especially to have them benefit from the distinction Mort pour la France, which they obtained in 1922. The Sarrebourg Necropolis was dedicated to them. However, the ex-prisoners did not manage to lay hold of the 1.26 billion francs in indemnities that they had claimed.

In Italy, the prisoners of war were forgotten, a fate seen in other countries too. In the United States, a Prisoner of War Medal was established, but only in 1986. Prisoners symbolised what the public did not wish to see. For the latter, they were not part of the war, did not defend their country and were living symbols of defeat. Thus, the memory of the prisoners was voluntarily buried, just as they themselves tried to forget in order to continue to live. However, they were the ones best suited to reflect on the Germans with whom they lived. The richness of their memoirs reveals analyses that are sometimes quite advanced, as is for instance the case with Jacques Rivière. For historiography, the prisoner is a hinge between two countries, who can reveal the importance of what was culturally and nationally at stake during the period.