Prisoner-of-war Camp - World War II

World War II

The Third Geneva Convention (1929) established the 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.

• Article 10 required that POWs should be lodged in adequately heated and lighted buildings where conditions were the same as their own troops.
• Articles 27-32 detailed the conditions of labour. Enlisted ranks were required to perform whatever labour they were asked and able to do, so long as it was not dangerous and did not support the captor's war effort. Senior Non-commissioned officers (sergeants and above) were required to work only in a supervisory role. Commissioned officers were not required to work, although they could volunteer. The work performed was largely agricultural or industrial, ranging from coal or potash mining, stone quarrying, or work in saw mills, breweries, factories, railway yards, and forests. POWs hired out to military and civilian contractors were supposed to receive pay. The workers were also supposed to get at least one day per week of rest.
• Article 76 ensured that PoWs who died in captivity were honourably buried in marked graves.

Not all combatants applied the provisions of the convention. In particular the Empire of Japan, which had signed but never ratified the convention, was notorious for its treatment of prisoners; this poor treatment occurring in part because the Japanese viewed surrender as dishonourable.{