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PRISONERS OF WAR

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Prisoners of War

Author: Mason, W. Wynne

Editor: Kippenberger, H. K.

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About the print version

Prisoners of War

Author: Mason, W. Wynne

Editor: Kippenberger, H. K.

War History Branch, Department Of Internal Affairs, 1954 Wellington, New Zealand

Source copy consulted: VUW Library

Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–45

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PRISONERS OF WAR

Contents

[covers]

[untitled]PRISONERS OF WAR (blurb)

[title page][frontispiece][title page]Foreword p. vAuthor's Preface p. ixContents p. xvList of Illustrations p. xviiiList of Maps p. xxiIntroduction p. xxiii

CHAPTER 1 — The Beginnings of the War in Western Europe(September 1939–May 1940)

I: Early Air Force Prisoners p. 1II: Civilians in Europe p. 6III: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians in Enemy HandsIV: Organisation of Relief for Prisoners of War and Civilian

Internees p. 12V: Enemy Aliens in New Zealand p. 15

CHAPTER 2 — From the Fall of France to the Offensive in theMiddle East (May 1940–March 1941)

I: Prisoners of War captured in Europe in 1940 p. 20II: Servicemen and Civilians captured at Sea p. 35III: The First Battles in the Middle East p. 39IV: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilian Internees p. 41

V: Work of Relief Organisations p. 44VI: Germans and Italians interned in New Zealand p. 49

CHAPTER 3 — The Campaigns of Greece and Crete (April – October1941)

I: The Greek Campaign and Prisoners in Greece p. 53II: The Crete Campaign—Prisoners in Greece and Germany p.

60III: Civilians in EuropeIV: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians p. 95V: Relief Work p. 99

CHAPTER 4 — The Second Libyan Campaign and After (November1941 – June 1942)

I: The Desert Campaign of 1941—Prisoners in Italian Handsp. 104

II: Prisoners in Germany p. 126III: Civilians in Europe p. 145IV: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians p. 146V: Relief Work p. 150

CHAPTER 5 — The First Phase of the War Against Japan(December 1941 – May 1942)

I: Japanese Victories p. 159II: Early Prisoner-of-war Camps in the Far East p. 167III: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilian Internees p. 184IV: Relief Supplies for the Far East p. 186

CHAPTER 6 — Turning Point of the War in Europe and in NorthAfrica (June 1942—July 1943)

I: The North African Campaigns of 1942–43—Prisoners inItalian Hands p. 190

II: Escapers in Greece p. 227

III: Prisoners of War in Germany p. 233IV: Civilians in Europe p. 255V: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians p. 256VI: Relief Work p. 262VII: Enemy Aliens in New Zealand p. 265

CHAPTER 7 — The Italian Armistice (July–December 1943)

I: Events preceding and immediately following the ItalianArmistice p. 274

II: Transit and Permanent Camps in Germany and Austria p.291

III: Escapes from Italy after the Armistice p. 301IV: New Zealanders captured in the Italian and Aegean

Campaigns p. 317V: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians p. 319VI: Relief Work p. 322

CHAPTER 8 — The Middle Phase of the War Against Japan (June1942—December 1944)

I: The Turn of the Tide in the Far East p. 325II: Prisoner-of-war and Civilian Internment Camps p. 326III: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians p. 350IV: Relief Supplies for the Far East p. 353V: Japanese Prisoners of War in New Zealand p. 356

CHAPTER 9 — The Year of the Allied Invasion of Western Europe(January–December 1944)

I: The Events of 1944 and German Camps from late 1943onwards p. 364

II: The War in Italy in 1944 and Escapes to Allied Lines p.410

III: Reception of Ex-prisoners of War in Italy p. 430

IV: Escaped Prisoners in Switzerland p. 434V: Civilians in Europe p. 438VI: Protection of Interests of Prisoners of War and Civilians

p. 439VII: Relief Work p. 442VIII: Enemy Aliens in New Zealand p. 444

CHAPTER 10 — The Last Months of the War in Europe (January–May 1945)

I: Movements of Prisoners and Liberation in Germany p. 449II: Last Escapes to Allied Lines in Italy p. 472III: Release and Evacuation of Camps in Austria p. 476IV: Evacuation of Prisoners released by Russian Forces p. 480V: Protection of Interests of Prisoners of War and Civilians p.

484VI: Relief Work p. 486VII: Enemy Aliens in New Zealand p. 488

CHAPTER 11 — The Reception of Liberated Prisoners in the UnitedKingdom and Their Repatriation p. 492

CHAPTER 12 — Liberation in the Far East and Repatriation(January—September 1945) p. 506

I: The Last Months of Hostilities and the Capitulation p. 506II: Recovery and Evacuation after the Armistice p. 510III: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians p. 518IV: Relief Work in the Far East p. 520V: Japanese Prisoners of War in New Zealand

Conclusion p. 524

[notes] p. 534Index p. 535ALREADY PUBLISHED:

PRISONERS OF WAR

Contents

[covers]

[untitled]PRISONERS OF WAR (blurb)

[title page]

[frontispiece]

[title page]

Foreword p. v

Author's Preface p. ix

Contents p. xv

List of Illustrations p. xviii

List of Maps p. xxi

Introduction p. xxiii

PRISONERS OF WAR

[COVERS]

Daily exercise for prisoners of war under punishment at Stalag IIIA, Luckenwalde

PRISONERS OF WAR (blurb)

During the Second World War approximately 9140 New Zealanders weretaken prisoner, 194 of them sailors, 8348 soldiers and 598 airmen,including those interned. Of these, 1270 soldiers were wounded whencaptured, of whom 107 died in captivity. A further 416 soldiers died fromsickness, accident, and other causes.

The great majority of the soldier prisoners were captured in the disastersof the first three years, left on the beaches in Greece or Crete, or weremembers of units overrun by German tanks. The airmen were those whosurvived after being shot down over enemy territory.

Their record as prisoners is a magnificent one, an honourable chapter inNew Zealand's history, carefully and thoroughly related in this volume.

http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/name-002294.htmlhttp://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/name-003325.html

PRISONERS OF WAR

[UNTITLED]

Daily exercise for prisoners of war under punishment at Stalag IIIA, Luckenwalde

PRISONERS OF WAR

PRISONERS OF WAR (BLURB)

PRISONERS OF WAR (blurb)

During the Second World War approximately 9140 New Zealanders weretaken prisoner, 194 of them sailors, 8348 soldiers and 598 airmen,including those interned. Of these, 1270 soldiers were wounded whencaptured, of whom 107 died in captivity. A further 416 soldiers died fromsickness, accident, and other causes.

The great majority of the soldier prisoners were captured in the disastersof the first three years, left on the beaches in Greece or Crete, or weremembers of units overrun by German tanks. The airmen were those whosurvived after being shot down over enemy territory.

Their record as prisoners is a magnificent one, an honourable chapter inNew Zealand's history, carefully and thoroughly related in this volume.


PRISONERS OF WAR

[TITLE PAGE]

Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–45Prisoners of War

By Authority: R. E. OWEN, Government Printer, Wellington, New Zealand

1954

http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/name-008844.html

PRISONERS OF WAR

[FRONTISPIECE]

United States troops arriving at the gates of Oflag 79 at Brunswick on 12 April 1945


PRISONERS OF WAR

[TITLE PAGE]

Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–45 PRISONERS OF WAR

W. WYNNE MASON

WAR HISTORY BRANCH DEPARTMENT OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND1954

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PRISONERS OF WAR

FOREWORD

Foreword

IN the First World War New Zealand troops fought in Egypt, on Gallipoli,in Palestine, in France and Belgium. Twenty-five men were takenprisoner on Gallipoli, 12 in Egypt, 464 in France or Belgium. None of thefew hundred New Zealanders who served in the Royal Navy and in theRoyal Flying Corps became prisoners.

In the Second World War our troops fought in Greece, Crete, Egypt,Libya, Cyrenaica, Tripolitania, Tunisia, Italy and in the Pacific, and8348 were taken prisoner. Our sailors served in the Royal Navy, theRoyal New Zealand Navy, and the Merchant Navy in every sea and 194became prisoners or were interned. Our airmen, in the Royal Air Forceand the Royal New Zealand Air Force, fought in every one of the greatcampaigns waged by the Western Allies; 575 were captured and 23interned.

The reasons for this remarkable difference are clear and should beput on record.

Between 1914 and 1918 our troops were involved in no disasters. Theattack on Gallipoli failed, and in a skilful, unmolested evacuation no onewas left behind. There had been two periods of very heavy fighting, thefortnight after the landing and the final effort in August 1915. In eachwe had been on the offensive, when few prisoners are ever lost. Therewere no tanks to overrun the units which devotedly and at great costbeat off the great Turkish counter-attacks at Chunuk Bair. In France theNew Zealand Division was almost always employed in attacks and inholding the line. A few prisoners were lost in trench raids, and acompany of the Entrenching Battalion ran out of ammunition and wascaptured in the German offensive in April 1918. The British OfficialHistory remarks that this was the biggest loss of New Zealand prisoners

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during the war.

Far different were the circumstances in the Second World War. The2nd Division shared in one disaster after another, from April 1941 untilthe tide was checked at Alam Halfa in September 1942 and turned atAlamein on 23 October of that year.

In Greece 1856 prisoners were lost, 242 of them wounded. Nearlyhalf were from the reinforcement companies stranded at Kalamata. Theothers were lost through transport breaking down or being destroyed,through missing their way, or being left behind after reaching thebeaches. For a month after the evacuation the Aegean was dotted withparties escaping in caiques and rowing boats, to Turkey or out of thefrying pan into Crete. Hundreds of men wandered in Greece for months;some eventually reached Egypt, some perished; the remainder werecaptured in ones and twos.

In Crete 2180 men were taken prisoner, 488 of them wounded. Onlya few score were captured in the fighting; the others reached Sfakia andwere left there under orders to capitulate when it was decided to attemptno more evacuations. Several hundred broke away into the hills. Twohundred of these reached Egypt; the remainder were picked up duringthe next two years.

In the Libyan battles of November–December 1941, 2042 werecaptured, including 206 wounded. Most of the others were taken when 6Brigade and 20 Battalion of 4 Brigade were overrun by tanks. We had fewand weak anti-tank guns and our tanks were outnumbered andoutmatched. The pattern was always the same. It was necessary to holdthe positions, captured with the bayonet in costly night attacks, on SidiRezegh and Belhamed. It was impossible to dig deeper than two feet. TheGermans acted deliberately, concentrating forty to fifty tanks, followedby one or two battalions of infantry, on a chosen sector. They advancedslowly, lashing the ground with continuous fire. Our few anti-tankgunners, with their little two-pounders, fought till struck down. Therewas no instance of a gun being abandoned. Meantime the infantry fired

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steadily with Brens and rifles and mortars, forcing the tanks to remainclosed down and keeping the enemy infantry at a distance. But when theanti-tank guns were knocked out the panzers closed. Invulnerable tosmall-arms fire or mortars, they moved right on to our positions and theonly choices were to surrender or die uselessly. Most of these attackslasted from one to two hours, but the result was always the same. I wentover these stark battlefields a few months later and saw the cartridgecases round every fire pit, the piles of mortar shells, the wrecked guns,and the rifles marking the shallow graves. Often the Germans hadmarked the graves with rough crosses. It was a sombre and unforgettablescene.

During the same campaign 5 Brigade Headquarters and someattached troops at Sidi Azeiz were attacked by 40 tanks, with guns andinfantry, and after the seven guns had been knocked out, BrigadierHargest and seven hundred men were overrun in the same way and hadto surrender.

The men captured on these disastrous days had fought splendidly inattack after attack and had lost half their numbers before the end. Themorale of the Division was never higher than at this time, yet it was thehard fate of these soldiers to be taken helplessly.

Seven months later, during the most desperate and dangerousmonths of the war, the Division made its great move from Syria andagain plunged into a series of disasters. Almost surrounded at MinqarQaim, it broke through the encircling forces, leaving two hundred menwhose trucks had been wrecked to be taken helplessly in the morning. Afortnight later 4 and 5 Brigades, in a magnificent night attack, carriedthe Ruweisat Ridge, only to meet disaster in exactly the same way as atSidi Rezegh and Belhamed. Fourth Brigade, down to half strengththrough casualties, was overrun by the tank and infantry counter-attackthat had become the accustomed sequel to the unsupported butinvariably successful night attacks which our infantry in those days hadto deliver. In 5 Brigade 22 Battalion, moving in support and actuallypassing through a German armoured division, was overrun at dawn by

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the tanks of the same division attacking from the rear. A week later 6Brigade, having taken its objective by an equally splendid feat of arms,met the same evil fate. That was the last of the disasters. In these threeactions 1819 men were taken prisoner, 231 of them wounded.

It is impossible to blame the men who surrendered on these ghastlyoccasions. I know of no case in which further resistance was possible.The blows could not be evaded and the stage was reached in each casewhen they could no longer be resisted. What one man said in a reportwritten after he had escaped—‘I had thought of death or wounds, butnever of surrender, yet there it was’—could have been said by all.

During the remainder of the war very few prisoners were lost: 178,including 30 wounded, in Africa, 225, including 35 wounded, in Italy; allthe result of the minor misfortunes that occur in the most victoriouscampaigns.

Our airmen prisoners were those shot down over enemy territory. Afew evaded capture who came down in occupied countries and had thegood fortune to find friends quickly. For most there was no chance ofescape.

Most of the sailors were captured with their ships, merchant ships—no warship surrendered. For them also there was no alternative, unlessuseless suicide is an alternative.

So it came about that over nine thousand New Zealanders spentyears of their lives as inmates of enemy prison camps. The great majority of these men were volunteers; it was they and theircontemporaries who died or were wounded or, in a few cases, escapedscatheless, who bore the brunt of the years of disaster, and in so doinggained time for the raising of the armies and air fleets of the victoriousyears. Among them were very many who, with better fortune, wouldhave attained high rank.

As prisoners they endured years of uncertainty, privation and


frustration. They unremittingly continued the struggle in every way thatcourage, pride, and ingenuity could suggest. Some escaped in almostincredible exploits, others continuously strove to escape or unselfishlyhelped those better equipped. In every camp they bore up againstadversity, defied and deceived their guards, maintained discipline,soldierly spirit and pride of race. Only a very few failed.

I saw those who came out of Germany after the war ended. Theywere thin and strained, but they carried themselves as soldiers and asmen who knew that they had acquitted themselves as men in a long andbitter ordeal. I was proud that I had served with them in the hard years.

This volume relates their experience as prisoners, and in doing sorecords an honourable chapter in New Zealand's history.

H. K. KIPPENBERGER

Editor-in-Chief,

New Zealand War Histories


PRISONERS OF WAR

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

Author's Preface

THIS book is an attempt to set down an accurate, objective, andimpartial account of captivity as it affected New Zealanders in theSecond World War. Effort has therefore been concentrated on thechecking of evidence and the avoidance of facile generalisation; on animpersonal presentation of the facts as they emerge; and on theachievement of a perspective and balance which might be fair not onlyto the author's compatriots and comrades but to former enemies as well.

A good many unofficial accounts of individual experiences duringcaptivity and of escapes have already been published. But conditionsvaried a very great deal in different places and at different periods of thewar; and individual accounts which often depict only certainexceptional aspects of life in captivity give only a fragment of the wholepicture. It is this whole picture which the author has tried to achieve, inthe form not of a vague impression but rather of a mosaic built up froma multitude of individual experiences.

It is obvious that an account of the life of prisoners of war andcivilian internees from capture to repatriation will tell little of acountry's military achievements. But the fact that nine thousand or soNew Zealanders were living in enemy territory for periods of up to fiveyears is an aspect of our participation in the Second World War whichcannot be ignored. People should be able to get an idea of what happenedto their countrymen when they were captured; how the event of captureaffected their lives and those of their next-of-kin; what it was possible todo to help them during the war; and what were their needs forrehabilitation.

Apart from the accounts of escapes, 1 the story is on the whole anundramatic one. It tells how thousands of men, many of them at first

mentally stunned after their capture and sometimes physically brokenafter their detention in transit camps, gradually organised themselvesinto civilised communities on hostile soil. Though such a theme doesnot lend itself to heroics, it contains some fine

1 The total number of New Zealand prisoners who escapedfrom captivity was approximately 718, including 110 who madetheir way to Switzerland. Of these, approximately 236 were fromGerman hands, approximately 480 from Italian hands, and 2from Japanese hands. The countries from which the originalsuccessful breaks were made were: Greece 44 (approx), Crete 150(approx), Libya 25 (approx), Italy 455, Germany 12, Austria 27,France 2 (civilians), Hong Kong 2.

examples of courage and self-sacrifice; and daring, determination,and endurance find their place in the narratives of many of those whoescaped. Much of the subject matter of this book, therefore, belongsmore properly to social than to military history, though what isdescribed arises from the events of war. The last are briefly stated as aframework in which to sketch the community life of thousands of men,and some women, behind barbed wire in enemy countries.

G. M. Trevelyan once wrote that ‘the sum total of social history …could only be mastered if we knew the biographies of all the millions ofmen, women and children who have lived….’ and that the‘generalisations which are the stock in trade of the social historian mustnecessarily be based on a small number of particular instances, whichare assumed to be typical, but which cannot be the whole of thecomplicated truth’. Because the events described in this book are morerecent, and because modern records are more voluminous, it has beenpossible to select those instances which are likely to be the mostreliable, and to check doubtful ones with others of the same time andplace. Quite often there are not just a few instances but dozens, of fairlycertain authenticity, dealing with the same topic, time, and place.

This is not to claim that the book gives the whole story in complete

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detail. It is obvious that an exhaustive record of more than ninethousand captives, split into hundreds of groups, which lived for up tofive years under a bewildering variety of conditions in many differentparts of Europe and the Far East, and often moving from place to place,would demand not one but some dozens of volumes of this size. It hastherefore been necessary to select from this vast mass of experiencethat part which is common to the majority of the people concerned.Priority has been given to conditions in camps where large numbers ofour people were detained. For the same reason, an effort has been madeto avoid devoting too much space to exceptional aspects of life incaptivity and over-emphasizing cases of unusual ill-treatment. It hasbeen thought necessary, however, to include some reference to moreexceptional sides of the life, in order to give an idea of what an almostinfinite variety of experience there was. Since our people usually sharedmost stages of their captivity with large numbers of other BritishCommonwealth captives, the conditions for British captives in generalhave often been given as a background against which to set theindividual experiences of New Zealanders.

Many ex-captives may find their own particular experience not setdown in detail. It is inevitable also that not every creditable exploit canbe described, if only because some of them are not recorded. Onlysuccessful escapes 1 have been mentioned, unless an unsuccessfulattempt had something particularly noteworthy about it. Only thosewhose capture had been recorded in some way have been regarded aswithin the scope of this history. ‘Evaders’, who avoided capture buteventually got back from enemy territory, are excluded. In general,people who helped our escapers, and sometimes even villages where theywere helped, are purposely not named lest even now they suffer anyharm from having once helped British soldiers.

It early became clear to the author that the best way to makeintelligible what was selected from this enormous mass of widely varyingexperience was to fit it into a chronological framework, presenting itstage by stage against a background of events. Each chapter therefore


coincides broadly with a period of the war, either in Europe or the FarEast. Nearly all begin with a brief account of the main events likely toaffect prisoners of war and internees, and go on to give in more detailevents which led up to capture, those immediately following, treatmentof wounded and interrogation. At this point there is often a subdivisionaccording to the category—Navy, Army, Air Force, or civilian—to whichthe captive or group of captives belonged, and an attempt is made totrace the journey of each group of captives as far as their firstpermanent camp. Permanent camps are dealt with in geographicalgroups according to the country in which they were situated, subdividedaccording to the categories of captives. The concluding sections of eachchapter deal with negotiations and relief work on behalf of those incaptivity, and each chapter ends with a brief general summary whichattempts to draw together all the threads of the period covered.

For this history there did not exist anything comparable to the WarDiaries that are available as basic source material for those portions ofan official war history which deal with campaigns. There were periodicreports on permanent prisoner-of-war and internment camps, such asthose of the representatives of the Protecting Power and theInternational Red Cross Committee. But these covered only one aspectof the narrative and, even for that, provided only a skeleton whichneeded to be filled out with material from individual eye-witnessaccounts. No useful purpose would be served by trying to record either inthis Preface or in footnotes to the text the multitude of documents used,but a summary is given below of the principal sources of these, dividedroughly

1 The names of those who received awards, together withothers whose escapes seemed sufficiently noteworthy, have beenmentioned either in the text or in footnotes.

into ( a) those which provided the skeleton, and ( b) those whichfilled it out:


(a)

1. Records of captures, transfers, deaths, etc. (Base Records,Wellington).

2. Correspondence and various documents on all aspects of captivity(Prime Minister's Department, Wellington; Army, Navy, and AirDepartments, Wellington; New Zealand House, London;Directorate of Prisoners of War, War Office, London).

3. Documents and minutes of the Imperial Prisoners of WarCommittee.

4. Various reports, documents, and lists (Military IntelligenceBranch, War Office, London).

5. Prisoner-of-war camp histories (Air Ministry, London).6. Reports on camps by representatives of Protecting Powers.7. Reports on camps by representatives of the International Red

Cross Committee.8. Report of the International Red Cross Committee on its activities

during the Second World War.9. Official History of the War Organisation of the British Red Cross

Society and the Order of St. John.10. Papers and reports of the Joint Council of the New Zealand Red

Cross Society and the Order of St. John.11. Various captured enemy documents.12. War diaries of No. 1 NZ Repatriation Unit and of 2 NZEF ( UK).

(b)

13. Reports of interviews with ex-captives (New Zealand WarArchives).

14. Narratives of escape or eye-witness accounts by ex-prisoners ofwar (New Zealand War Archives).

15. Private diaries of ex-prisoners of war and ex-internees.16. Questionnaires filled in by ex-prisoners of war and ex-internees.17. Correspondence between the author and ex-prisoners of war and

ex-internees.18. Interrogation reports of all escapers (Military Intelligence Branch,

War Office, London).19. Interrogation reports of selected prisoners of war on liberation

(Military Intelligence Branch, War Office, London).20. Evidence on War Crimes and court proceedings of War Crimes

Trials (Judge Advocate General's Branch, War Office, London).21. Official narrative of Air Force escapes (Air Ministry, London).22. Various joint compilations and publications by ex-prisoners of

war and ex-internees.

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23. Books and unpublished manuscripts by individual ex-prisoners ofwar and ex-internees.

The author has carefully sifted material available in category ( b). Wherepossible, the contributor has been interviewed in order to gain a betteridea of his reliability; diaries written on the spot have been given morecredence than more polished narratives and impressions written sometime after the event. Occasionally this eye-witness material has tendedto conflict with official reports, and one version has had to be modifiedin the light of others.

The collection and thorough processing of the considerable mass ofmaterial available on New Zealand prisoners of war and internees alonecould have kept a research team occupied for several years. For oneperson, it has been a question of using what is most ready to hand andin most convenient form. There are gaps which might have been filledby further research and for some of the topics covered better materialmight possibly have been found. Some errors in matters of detail havealready been pointed out and corrected, but the author realises that in awork of this nature and size there may be others. There is reason to hopethat they are few and that the overall picture is a true one. The author'sthanks go to all those, too numerous to mention here, who by checkingportions of the book helped towards this end; in particular, his thanks goto Brigadier W. H. B. Bull, OBE, NZMC, Mr K. W. Fraser, Vice-President ofthe New Zealand Returned Servicemen's Association, Mr R. H. Johnstonand the New Zealand Prisoners of War Association, who checked thecomplete text, and to Mr E. N. Hogben, who read the proofs and gavemuch valuable comment and advice.

An impersonal presentation was the one least likely to distort thepicture, but the impressions of individuals are introduced where, in thelight of all other information, they seem to be fair commentary or atleast typical statements of the point of view of the captives. The authorhas also tried to take into account the point of view of the captors, andto weigh one viewpoint against the other. It is sometimes complained


that in official histories objectivity and perhaps even complete accuracyare sacrificed to expediency. There is no foundation for such criticismhere. In writing this book the author has had the fullest support inconstantly striving to determine the facts of captivity and to presentthem in a balanced account.

LONDON 15 March 1953

PRISONERS OF WAR

CONTENTS

Contents

PageFOREWORD vAUTHOR'SPREFACE ixINTRODUCTION xxiiiChapter1:

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE WAR IN WESTERN EUROPE (September 1939–May 1940)

I: Early Air Force Prisoners 1II: Civilians in Europe 6III: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians in Enemy Hands7

IV: Organisation of Relief for Prisoners of War andCivilian Internees

12

V: Enemy Aliens in New Zealand 15Chapter2:

FROM THE FALL OF FRANCE TO THE OFFENSIVE IN THE MIDDLE EAST (May1940–March 1941)

I: Prisoners of War captured in Europe in 1940 20II: Servicemen and Civilians captured at Sea 35III: The First Battles in the Middle East 39IV: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians41

V: Work of Relief Organisations 44VI: Germans and Italians interned in New Zealand 49Chapter3:

THE CAMPAIGNS OF GREECE AND CRETE (April–October 1941)

I: The Greek Campaign and Prisoners in Greece 53II: The Crete Campaign—Prisoners in Greece and Germany 60III: Civilians in Europe 93IV: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians95

V: Relief Work 99Chapter4:

THE SECOND LIBYAN CAMPAIGN AND AFTER (November 1941–June1942)

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I: The Desert Campaign of 1941—Prisoners in ItalianHands

104

II: Prisoners in Germany 126III: Civilians in Europe 145IV: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians146

V: Relief Work 150Chapter5:

THE FIRST PHASE OF THE WAR AGAINST JAPAN (December 1941–May1942)

I: Japanese Victories 159II: Early Prisoner-of-war Camps in the Far East 167III: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians184

IV: Relief Supplies for the Far East 186Chapter6:

TURNING POINT OF THE WAR IN EUROPE AND IN NORTH AFRICA (June 1942–July 1943)

I: The North African Campaigns of 1942–43—Prisoners inItalian Hands

190

II: Escapers in Greece 227III: Prisoners of War in Germany 233IV: Civilians in Europe 255V: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians256

VI: Relief Work 262VII: Enemy Aliens in New Zealand 265Chapter7:

THE ITALIAN ARMISTICE (July–December 1943)

I: Events preceding and immediately following theItalian Armistice

274

II: Transit and Permanent Camps in Germany andAustria

291

III: Escapes from Italy after the Armistice 301IV: New Zealanders captured in the Italian and Aegean

Campaigns317

V: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War andCivilians

319

VI: Relief Work 322Chapter8:

THE MIDDLE PHASE OF THE WAR AGAINST JAPAN (June 1942–December1944)

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I: The Turn of the Tide in the Far East 325II: Prisoner-of-war and Civilian Internment Camps 326III: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians350

IV: Relief Supplies for the Far East 353V: Japanese Prisoners of War in New Zealand 356Chapter9:

THE YEAR OF THE ALLIED INVASION OF WESTERN EUROPE (January–December 1944)

I: The Events of 1944 and German Camps from late 1943onwards

364

II: The War in Italy in 1944 and Escapes to Allied Lines 410III: Reception of Ex-prisoners of War in Italy 430IV: Escaped Prisoners in Switzerland 434V: Civilians in Europe 438VI: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians439

VII: Relief Work 442VIII: Enemy Aliens in New Zealand 444Chapter10:

THE LAST MONTHS OF THE WAR IN EUROPE (January–May 1945)

I: Movements of Prisoners and Liberation in Germany 449II: Last Escapes to Allied Lines in Italy 472III: Release and Evacuation of Camps in Austria 476IV: Evacuation of Prisoners released by Russian Forces 480V: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians484

VI: Relief Work 486VII: Enemy Aliens in New Zealand 488Chapter11:

THE RECEPTION OF LIBERATED PRISONERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THEIRREPATRIATION

492

Chapter12:

LIBERATION IN THE FAR EAST AND REPATRIATION (January–September1945)

I: The Last Months of Hostilities and the Capitulation 506II: Recovery and Evacuation after the Armistice 510III: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and

Civilians518

IV: Relief Work in the Far East 520V: Japanese Prisoners of War in New Zealand 520

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CONCLUSION 524

PRISONERS OF WAR

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

List of Illustrations

FrontispieceUnited States troops arriving at the gates of Oflag 79at Brunswick on 12 April 1945

I. McD.MathesonFollowing page126

The guard tower of Stalag 383 R. H. BlanchardPrisoners from Greece and Crete leaving KokkiniaHospital for Germany, 1941

A. J. Spence

British prisoners of war marching back from Sfakia toGalatas, Crete

from a Germanpublication

‘Shellfire Wadi’, near Sidi Rezegh P. Curtiscollection

The compound at Bardia, 1941 British OfficialAfter three months in the main transit camp atBenghazi, 1942

H. R. Dixon

Delousing in Campo PG 57, Gruppignano M. Lee HillLined up for rations, Campo PG 57, 1942 W. A. WeakleyBlowers heating up a meal, Stalag IIIA, Luckenwalde J. H. Wilkinson

collectionPlay acting in Campo PG 52, Chiavari, 1942Inside an Italian working camp on the Austrian border—from a sketch by A. G. DouglasCampo PG 57, Gruppignano, in April 1943—from asketch by A. G. DouglasReady for evacuation from Italy to Germany,September 1943

M. Lee Hill

To Germany in a cattle truck M. Lee HillMess queue for British civilian internees in Ilag VIII,Tost, Germany

InternationalRed Cross

Working party, Stalag XXA, Thorn, Poland, 1941 InternationalRed CrossFollowing page142

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Interrogation camp—Dulag Luft, Oberursel J. M. Garrettcollection

Living quarters for a working camp in Germany—froma sketch by A. G. DouglasA village in the Sudetenland E. C. Cottrell

collectionFollowing page142

‘Barbed-wire fever’—a cartoon by J. WelchBetween the barracks of Stalag VIIIA at Görlitz F. Crandle

collectionA barrack interior at Stalag VIIIA F. Crandle

collectionChristmas Eve 1943 inside the perimeter wire, Stalag383, Bavaria

R. H. Blanchard

Half of Stalag 383 from the sentry box on the northside

R. H. Blanchard

Stalag 383—Winter in Germany, 1943–44 R. H. BlanchardStalag 383—The restlessness of spring R. H. BlanchardStalag 383—Mud after the thaw R. H. BlanchardStalag 383—Hut interior at night R. H. BlanchardStalag 383—‘At the tables’ A. H. Kyle

collectionStalag 357 at Fallingbostel—Ablution stand for a groupof over 1000 men

J. M. Garrettcollection

Stalag 357—Dividing up swede peelings from theGerman mess

J. M. Garrettcollection

Stalag XVIIIA at Wolfsberg, Austria—An Anzac Dayparade in 1943

J. Ledgerwoodcollection

Stalag XVIIIA—The shoemakers' shop J. Ledgerwoodcollection

Shakespeare played at Oflag VIIB, at Eichstaett G. R. Cowiecollection

Oflag VIIB—Another play G. R. Cowiecollection

The handicrafts section of an arts and craftsexhibition at Stalag 383

R. H. BlanchardFollowing page322

Manacles used by the Germans on Allied prisoners ofwar as a reprisal for British action in tying the

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hands of German prisoners taken in the Dieppe raidHut interior at Stalag 383 A. J. SpenceLunch from Red Cross parcels R. H. BlanchardA hut scene after transfer from Italy to Germany,drawn by A. G. Douglas during captivityA cartoon on escaping, drawn by J. WelchThe punishment fortress of Campo PG 5, Gavi, Italy C. N. Armstrong

collectionBrigadier James Hargest in his disguise as a Frenchrailwayman

permissionMichael JosephLtd

Passo Moro, over which some of the escapers fromItalian camps crossed into Switzerland

P. W. BatescollectionFollowing page322

A Swiss frontier post D. J. Gibbscollection

Escaped prisoners' footwear after reaching Switzerland P. W. Batescollection

Men from Stalag 383 at Etehausen during the forcedmarch south

R. H. Blanchard

A rest during a forced march M. Lee HillLiberated prisoners waiting to be flown from Landshutairstrip to the United Kingdom

R. H. Blanchardcollection

C. B. Burdekin, OBE, head of the prisoner-of-warwelfare section of New Zealand House, LondonPrisoners of war repatriated from Italy in May 1942reading mail at Maadi

NZ Army, M. D.Elias

At Cracow, in Poland, before being transported by theRussians to Odessa

W. A. Weakley

Reception at 2 NZEF ( UK) Reception Group, a cartoonby J. WelchOutside the sergeants' mess at the Reception GroupWing at Folkestone

R. H. Blanchard

Following page338

On the Andes on the voyage home R. H. BlanchardHome again NZ Army, F. A.

Marriott

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A Japanese press officer at Shanghai Internment Camp from aJapanesepropagandapaper

The Argyll Street Camp, Hong Kong InternationalRed Cross

Selarang Barracks, Singapore, crowded by the Japanesewith 17,000 prisoners of war because they had refusedto sign pledges not to escape

Australian WarMemorial

Four scenes in Selarang Barracks A. H. Hardingcollection

Changi Jail, Singapore Australian WarMemorial

Women's quarters inside the crypt of Changi Jail—painted by Gladys Tompkins during captivityPrisoners of war working on a hillside in Japan M. Menzies

collectionUnloading sick prisoners from sampans at Chungkai—apainting by J. B. ChalkerThe Kwei Noi River, seen from a northbound train,Thailand, in October 1945

Australian WarMemorial

Hospital ward—Thailand Railway, painted by MurrayGriffinA trestle bridge on the Burma-Thailand Railway Australian War

MemorialFollowing page338

Malnutrition case from Hong Kong on a hospital ship The Far EastPrisoner of WarSocial Club

A German internee in New Zealand NZ Army, F. A.Marriott

Japanese prisoners of war in the Wairarapa, NewZealand

Dept InternalAffairs, JohnPascoe

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PRISONERS OF WAR

LIST OF MAPS

List of Maps

Facingpage

Prisoner-of-war and Internment Camps in Germany, 1939–42

7

2 NZEF Losses in Prisoners of War and Killed in Action 41Greece and Crete: Escape routes and routes of evacuation byenemy

59

North Africa and Italy, 1941–42 93The Far East, 1941–44 159North Africa and Italy, 1942–43 193Movements of Prisoners of War in Germany, 1944–45 355


PRISONERS OF WAR

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

THERE comes a stage in battle when the members of one side who arestill alive, if unable to withdraw, are either incapacitated by wounds, orweaponless, or opposed by incomparably superior force. To avoid apurposeless death they have no alternative but to make some gesture ofsurrender and throw themselves on the mercy of their enemies. Since, innormal circumstances, no soldier desires to be a prisoner in enemyhands, almost all of those who are captured have surrendered only onfinding themselves in one or other of these hopeless situations. To theWestern mind of today there is nothing inherently dishonourable in sucha choice of action. But this point of view and the enhanced status ofcaptives which it implies have only become widely acceptedcomparatively recently.

Until the latter half of the nineteenth century the soldiers of abeaten army who surrendered to the enemy had no generally recognisedrights. Their treatment in ancient times was at the whim of thevictorious commander or of the person into whose power they passed. Ifthey were not slaughtered, they became more often than not merechattels in the possession of enemy citizens, and their subsequent lifewas likely to be one of servitude in an enemy country. Indeed, eventhose of the civilian population of a defeated country who fell withoutresistance into the hands of the enemy often shared the fate of thetroops who had striven unsuccessfully to defend them.

History, however, provides plenty of examples of humane treatmentof captives taken in battle both by their immediate captors and by theirlater masters, no less than of consideration of the local inhabitants byinvading enemy forces. Philosophers and religious teachers have atvarious times been able to influence their rulers against both the ill-treatment of defenceless civilians and the brutal discipline and bad

living conditions endured by war captives, practices which mightotherwise have gone on being accepted as normal. But it is only over thecenturies that there has slowly spread acceptance of the idea that asoldier disarmed and taken prisoner is a defenceless human being with aclaim to protection against further violence and ill-treatment; and that,moreover, he is entitled, during his temporary detention, to treatmentcomparable to that of soldiers of the country in which he is detained. Itis less than a hundred years ago that this claim began to receiveinternational recognition.

The first Geneva Convention of 1864, which followed thehumanitarian efforts of Henri Dunant and the Geneva Committee ofwhich he was the moving spirit, protected only the sick and wounded ofopposing armed forces. Similar provision for the protection and relief ofprisoners of war was the next step in the Committee's plans for helpingthe victims of war. But it was not until 1899, in the Hague Conventiondealing with the laws and customs of war on land, that the major powersagreed that prisoners ‘must be humanely treated’ 1 and set down indetail the manner in which this undertaking should be carried out. Asslightly amended at the Hague Conference of 1907, this was theauthority for the treatment of prisoners in the First World War. For thefirst time, an international convention with safeguards for prisoners ofwar against neglect and ill-treatment was applied on a large scale andbecame widely known.

Approximately a decade after the end of this first world conflictthese safeguards were again reviewed. The result was a separateConvention dealing entirely with prisoners of war, signed in Geneva in1929 by 47 countries. 2 The 97 articles of this Convention coveredbroadly almost every contingency then thought likely to arise duringcaptivity; and their observance according to a liberal interpretationwould have ensured the welfare of prisoners of war from almost everyaspect. Thus, some ten years before the events described in this book, astage had been reached where a considerable part of the world hadaccepted not only the principle that prisoners should be humanely

treated, but the detailed standards of conduct towards them which suchan undertaking implied. Paradoxically, the Second World War producedsome of the worst examples of the ill-treatment and neglect of prisonersthat have been recorded.

For the protection of civilians in enemy or enemy-occupied territoryduring hostilities there existed at the outbreak of the Second World Waronly the draft for an international agreement similar to that forprisoners of war. This draft had been approved by the fifteenthInternational Conference of Red Cross Societies in Tokyo in 1934, and adiplomatic conference to secure governmental agreement to a treaty inthese terms was to have been held in 1940. Instead, the InternationalRed Cross Committee had, on the outbreak of war, to invite belligerentseither to accept the draft convention or to treat enemy civilians in theirhands along the lines laid down by the 1929 Convention for prisoners ofwar. Both Britain and Germany agreed to the latter alternative, and thiswas the basis adopted for the treatment of civilian internees in NewZealand.

Two agencies were recognised which might assist in the protectionof those regarded as being covered by the Prisoners of War Convention of1929: the ‘Protecting Power’ and the International Red CrossCommittee. The Protecting Power, a neutral government accepted asrepresenting the interests of one belligerent state within the territoriesof another, was authorised to send either diplomatic personnel orspecially appointed delegates to visit all places of internment. Theserepresentatives could have conversations in private with prisoners of warand could receive complaints from them. In general they were to act asintermediaries between the prisoners and the camp authorities, and theywere to mediate in the settlement of disputes between belligerentsregarding the provisions of the Prisoners of War Convention.

The International Red Cross Committee was concerned mainly withthe organisation of a central agency for the exchange between thebelligerent powers of information regarding their respective captives,and with the distribution of relief supplies to them. But it was also


stipulated in the 1929 Convention that there should be no restriction ontheir engaging in other humanitarian tasks on behalf of prisoners ofwar, including the visiting of camps and the conduct of negotiationswith the governments of belligerent powers.

The outbreak of war in 1939 found the International Red CrossCommittee well prepared. As far back as September 1938 it had plannedin minute detail the conversion of its organisation to a war footing.Adequate premises and staff for the future central information agencyhad been arranged; the text of the Notes to be sent to belligerent powersoffering its services had been drafted; its future delegates had beenselected. By mid-September 1939 the Committee had moved itsaugmented staff into a large building formerly used by the League ofNations and had set to work.

It is probable that few people of the countries which becameinvolved in the Second World War knew in these early stages anything ofthe arrangements made to protect their compatriots who fell into enemyhands. In the First World War only 500 New Zealand servicemen hadbeen taken prisoner, and the problems of their protection and relief hadnot become widely known. Nearly every one of the 9000-odd NewZealanders held captive in the Second World War will say that the lastthing to which he had given any thought was the possibility of beingcaptured. A few had heard of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention of1929, but the vast majority knew nothing of its provisions. To many ofthem it came as a pleasant surprise to find the extent to which their safety and welfare were protected. It goes without saying that beforelong nearly all these men had more than a nodding acquaintance withthe international law governing their position. It is also true that manythousands of their relatives and friends soon heard of the GenevaConvention and learnt something of the protection it gave. Even withthis protection the story of captivity in the war of 1939–45 is at timesgrim and sombre. The fate of many of those who were without it givessome idea of the terrible story this might have been had protection notexisted at all. Those who laboured over the centuries to achieve it have

earned the gratitude of humanity.

1 Annex on Regulations respecting the Laws and Customs ofWar on Land, Section I, Chapter 2, Article 4.

2 The British Minister in Berne signed on behalf of New Zealand.

PRISONERS OF WAR

CHAPTER 1 — THE BEGINNINGS OF THE WAR IN WESTERN EUROPE(SEPTEMBER 1939–MAY 1940)

Contents

I: Early Air Force Prisoners p. 1

II: Civilians in Europe p. 6

III: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and Civilians inEnemy Hands

IV: Organisation of Relief for Prisoners of War and Civilian Interneesp. 12

V: Enemy Aliens in New Zealand p. 15

PRISONERS OF WAR

I: EARLY AIR FORCE PRISONERS

I: Early Air Force Prisoners

NEW ZEALAND entered the war against Nazi Germany on the same dayas the United Kingdom, and some of the New Zealanders at that timeserving with the Armed Forces in Britain 1 were in action almostimmediately. One of the first military tasks of the war was airreconnaissance of the German Fleet and its bases on the shores of theNorth Sea and the Baltic, followed by aerial attack where practicable toprevent the exit of raiders and so help to reduce the dangers to ourshipping. On 5 September 1939 a New Zealand officer was piloting anAnson on such a mission near Dogger Bank. He was unlucky enough tohave his plane shot down into the North Sea, and recoveredconsciousness in time to find the attacking German seaplane preparingto land on the water close by. The only survivor, he was picked up andflown to a Luftwaffe hospital on the island of Norderney, where he ‘…was very well treated…. and found the German officers and men goodscouts, but all the same [he] was pretty dashed lonely and the fact that[he had] lost [his] crew of three did not help matters ….’ He had goodreason for feeling lonely, for he was at the time the only Royal Air Forceofficer in enemy hands.

In this first month of our participation in the war the Germanorganisation for dealing with prisoners was still in its infancy. For thehandful of British prisoners there were as yet no separate camps.Accordingly, after ten days the captured airman was removed to a darkcell in a German detention barracks at Wesermunde, where he was takeneach day to the local hospital. It appears that in this early stage guardswere a little uncertain how to treat prisoners of war, especially officers;and in the absence of detailed instructions or knowledge of theinternational law regulating such treatment, some tended to treat themas civilian


1 These comprised New Zealand officers in the Royal Navyrecruited over a number of years; some New Zealanders servingwith the British Army; Air Force officers to the number of about80 recruited with both short- and long-term commissions,including those of the flight organised to take the firstWellington bombers out to New Zealand.

criminals. After a hungry and generally unpleasant three weeks atWesermunde, the New Zealander was taken some sixty miles east toItzehoe. Here, in a camp for Polish officers, he and some other capturedRoyal Air Force personnel lived under reasonably good conditions. Thecamp was ‘quite comfortable’ and there was ample space for exercise.But it was rapidly filling up with Polish prisoners, and after a week or sothis comparatively pleasant interlude was cut short.

The number of British prisoners steadily grew, and in mid-October allBritish officers were moved to the high country north of Kassel. Therethey were housed in a twelfth-century castle perched on a rocky hill,which overlooked the village of Elbersdorf on one side and Spangenburgon the other. Built of grey stone, with a clock-tower and small turret,and surrounded by a deep moat with a drawbridge, this first British‘camp’ could have been a castle from one of Grimm's fairy tales.Originally a hunting lodge, it had housed prisoners in the Thirty Years'War, but prior to 1939 had been used as a hostel for agriculturalstudents, the interior having been renovated so that it conformed insome degree to modern standards.

By December 1939 this ‘camp’, known as Oflag IXA, 1 containedsome thirteen officers and the same number of non-commissionedofficers and other ranks. Although, in their opinion, their treatment lefta lot to be desired, it is clear that relations with the Germancommandant were quite amicable. Rations appear to have been ratherinadequate, though officers could sometimes purchase extra foodthrough the canteen. Requests for other canteen supplies, ranging fromsuitcases to wine for ‘celebrations’, seem also to have been met. Other

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ranks without pay found the food insufficient, and the arrival thereforein November of gift parcels of food and other immediate necessities fromthe War Organisation of the British Red Cross and the Order of St. Johnwas very welcome. Time was killed by playing cards, reading such booksin English as could be got hold of, and walking when permitted in afenced-off exercise area. The airmen found the confinement in thecastle irksome, as many hundreds more were to find it as the warprogressed. By the end of the year it had been decided that Air Forceprisoners were to be in the charge of the Luftwaffe, which would beentirely responsible for their custody and interrogation. The Luftwaffewould build special camps for the purpose, but

1 German prisoner-of-war camps were numbered according tothe military area in which they were located, e.g., Oflag IXASpangenburg was in Webrkreis IX. Oflag was an abbreviation forOffizier-lager, or officers' camp. The letters ‘A’, ‘B’, etc., servedto indicate different officers' camps in the same area.

would meanwhile take over certain accommodation from theWehrmacht. 1

In the first month of the war the German Army authorities had setup a temporary Off-Dulag, 2 or officers' transit camp, on the site of aformer poultry farm at Oberursel, a suburb four miles out of Frankfurt-on-Main. Here the farm buildings were used as administrative quartersand a two-storied house known as the ‘Stone-house’, formerly for farmpupils, was set aside for the prisoners. The first officers to be held here,some Frenchmen, were moved away to permanent quarters in December,and the Luftwaffe took over the camp site. It was renamed ‘Dulag Luft’,a name by which it became notorious among Allied airmen over the nextfive years as the main German Air Force interrogation centre and transitcamp. The first arrivals were a small advance party of British andFrench on 15 December from the old castle at Spangenburg. The latterwas to be cleared of Air Force prisoners as soon as practicable, but thiswas delayed by the influx at Oberursel resulting from the German


successes in Norway and France. The new camp compared favourably, insome respects, with Spangenburg. An RAF officer wrote:

The setting is not so romantic but the place is modern, warm andclean. The bathing arrangements are V.G.—hot water at any time—and I can get my morning shower which I have missed so muchto date. The food is much better.

The Luftwaffe seemed out to show that airmen (even enemy airmen)were worthy of higher standards of treatment than those normal to theWehrmacht. But concealed microphones had been installed in the livingquarters, and the comfort may have had the additional object ofencouraging prisoners to relax and talk. As the ‘Stone-house’ wasdifficult to guard, it had the additional drawback for prisoners that theircubicle windows were fitted with iron bars and that they were locked infrom 10 p.m. until 6 a.m., with only an hour's exercise twice a dayoutside the building.

In April 1940 the prisoners, whose numbers had grown to 35, weretransferred to three newly erected wooden huts across the road. Thiscame as a pleasant relief from the strictly guarded ‘Stone-house’, whichwas now reserved for housing prisoners during their interrogation periodand for storing records. Each of the two new sleeping huts containedsmall rooms for two heated by stoves, its own washroom and showerswith plenty of hot water, a boiler room, lavatories, and even a sittingroom after the guards originally housed in each barrack had been movedelsewhere. The third barrack comprised a large dining room with a stage,two

1 German Army.

2 Abbreviation of German Offizierdurchgangslager.

other small officers' messrooms, kitchen, canteen, parcels store,clothing store, and a room for those of the advance party who had

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become part of the permanent staff of the camp. It contained in factmost of the amenities necessary for the treatment of prisoners accordingto the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention of 1929. But the Germansfound it impossible to mass produce amenities like these when, later inthe war, they had to find permanent accommodation for tens ofthousands of prisoners from France, from Greece and Crete, from the airoffensive on Germany, and from Italy.

It soon became obvious that a large percentage of all Air Forcepersonnel taken prisoner would require medical attention. As additionalevidence of their adherence to humane and civilised standards oftreatment towards Allied airmen, the Luftwaffe requisitioned part of thenearby Hohemark hospital, 65 beds of which were from then on reservedfor wounded prisoners. At the same time a number of private rooms wereset aside, ‘ … where high-ranking Allied prisoners of war could beinterrogated in circumstances which the Germans consideredappropriate to their rank.’ 1 The comfortable quartering of high-rankingofficers in the Hohemark hospital, the convivial parties arranged forthem, and the trips into the countryside on which they were taken, wereapparently designed to create an impression of friendliness andhospitality in the minds of newly-arrived prisoners, which would help tolull their suspicions and break down their reserve. Medical requirementsseem to have been subordinated to those serving an obvious opportunityfor interrogation and propaganda. Only the lightly wounded were cateredfor, the more serious cases being treated in regular military hospitalsand not sent to Hohemark until in the convalescent stage. TheHohemark hospital rapidly became a hotbed of activity for the spies and‘stool-pigeons’ 2 which the German camp staff began to use as part oftheir interrogation scheme.

In this early stage of the war little thought had yet been given bythe German High Command to the systematic appreciation ofstatements made by captured airmen, nor in fact to the whole businessof prisoner-of-war interrogation. To quote a German report: 3

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1 From an Air Ministry report on German interrogation methods.

2 ‘Stool-pigeon’ (in prisoner-of-war slang ‘stooge’). Here used tomean a German masquerading as an Allied airman (or otherserviceman) or an Allied traitor placed among Allied prisoners ofwar by the Germans for gaining information of use to GermanIntelligence.

3 Prisoner interrogation and documents evaluation and theirintelligence value to the Higher Command, by the Director ofAuswertestelle West, 1945 (Translation).

Prisoner-of-war interrogation was organised on a very small scale,without a clear line which was to be followed or definite aims, notto mention a theory or method. The information which wasassembled frequently only served to satisfy the desire forsensational news and the detective story romanticism on the partof those on the distribution list.

This was borne out by what is known of the first commanding officer ofDulag Luft, ‘whose qualifications for the job consisted of an ability tospeak some French.’ The same report also blames the ‘amateurishmanner’ in which ‘unsuitable persons’ attempted to carry out apreliminary interrogation near the place of capture, with resultsdetrimental to later questioning. It was found necessary for the GermanHigh Command to issue an order in October 1939 forbidding suchinterrogation of Air Force prisoners and the ‘souveniring’ of equipmentand prisoners' personal effects which often accompanied it. The reportgoes on to refer to the impossibility of segregating Allied airmen orpreventing them from conversing while on their way to the interrogationcentre, and so improvising a story or boosting each other's morale. Thefirst installation of microphones in the barracks of Dulag Luft alsoapparently bore little fruit, as ‘the voices of 50 prisoners producednothing but a hopeless din in the headphones’. But, whatever may havebeen thought of the shortcomings of the interrogation centre in its early


stages, a system was soon established by which all Air Force prisonerswere transported to Oberursel after capture and put through aninterrogation routine before being released to a permanent camp. Thestaff thus gradually became specialists in interrogation on Air Forcematters, and as time went on a formidable organisation was built upunder the control of the Intelligence Section of the Luftwaffe operationsstaff.

Letters from prisoners indicate that the Germans in control ofSpangenburg and Oberursel were, in the earliest stages, not only‘correct’ in their treatment but also perhaps even kindly. An officerwrote, when he was leaving Spangenburg, ‘The General came up to saygoodbye to us, which was a very nice gesture. I have told you before weliked him very much ….’ On his arrival at Oberursel, the same officerwrote, ‘The C.O. and 2nd in Command both appear very nice and speakEnglish.’ At this period of the war, confident in their country's militarystrength already demonstrated in Poland, German prison-camp officerscould perhaps afford to be ‘nice’. The British blockade had not yet takeneffect, nor had extreme Nazi influence made itself felt among prison-camp staffs. Enemies tend to be more gentlemanly at the beginning of astruggle than after it has become a matter of life or death. On theprisoners' side there is evidence in these first weeks of something akin toa schoolboy holiday spirit, as yet unaware of the dreary years ahead andrevelling a little in relief from responsibility and former routine. Withthe approach of Christmas these high spirits were tempered withnostalgic thoughts of home and anxiety about mail, mingled with vaguehopes of a possible exchange of prisoners and the first ideas aboutescape.


PRISONERS OF WAR

II: CIVILIANS IN EUROPE

II: Civilians in Europe

It is not known how many New Zealand civilians were on theContinent at the outbreak of war, either in Germany or in countrieslikely to come under German control. A good many were able to leavebefore the invasion of Poland, but some chose to stay even after theGerman entry into the Low Countries and France. Their position becameofficially known only as inquiries concerning them reached theGovernment in New Zealand or the High Commissioner's Office inLondon. Of the numerous inquiries some sixty related to people who hadbeen born in New Zealand or who had acquired New Zealand citizenship.Most of them were people living in the islands of Jersey and Guernsey.But there were nurses, teachers, evangelists, and art studentstemporarily working in France and Holland, as well as others who hadsettled there. There were also smaller numbers in Poland, Denmark, andin Germany itself.

No immediate wholesale rounding up of British civilians took placein Germany or Poland, and only a few hundred who might constitute adanger if left at liberty were interned up to the end of October 1939.Some of those seeking repatriation were able to make their way toEngland after hostilities had begun. 1 For those who had not arrived inEngland the usual practice was to initiate a ‘whereabouts and welfare’inquiry 2 through the Protecting Power. This was a lengthy process, theinquiry going through the British Foreign Office to the United StatesEmbassy in Berlin and so eventually to the locality where the person wasliving. Often news would not be received for some months, especially ifthe person was one of those not interned.

For the latter the most urgent problem was financial assistance.Many were living on pensions or other income derived from England orNew Zealand. When these payments ceased, these people, especially

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those who were unable to earn a living locally on account of their age ortheir nationality, were almost destitute. To relieve urgent distress insuch cases as came to their notice, the

1 The same applied to German nationals in England. Only acomparatively small number were immediately interned, and uptill April 1940 small parties of them were returning to Germanythrough Belgium and Holland.

2 The phrase used by the United States Embassy in Berlin.Inquiries were also made through the International Red CrossCommittee.

United States Embassy in Berlin made small advances, which theBritish Government, and later the New Zealand Government, undertookto refund. Through the same channel relatives and friends in England orNew Zealand could send remittances (limited by Trading with the Enemylegislation to £10 sterling a month) on application to the Trading withthe Enemy Branch in the United Kingdom or to the United States Consulin Wellington. Beyond the arrangement of financial assistance, littlecould be done except to open the way for some direct communicationwith relatives. In December 1939 it became possible to send 25-wordfamily messages through the International Red Cross Committee. 1

1 The scheme had been first used by the International Red CrossCommittee in the Spanish Civil War. The first messages fromGermany were sent in December 1939 and the first from theUnited Kingdom in February 1940.


Prisoner-of-War and Internment Camps in Germany 1939-42

For those interned, not only was communication much simpler 2 butrelief in kind, including contributions from relatives, could be sent byNew Zealand House in London through the British Red Cross 3 in muchthe same way as for prisoners of war.

2 It was practically the same as that for prisoners of war.

3 For the sake of brevity and the avoidance of confusion withother war organisations, the War Organisation of the British RedCross and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem is henceforwardreferred to in the text as the British Red Cross, the abbreviationadopted in the discussions of the Imperial Prisoners of WarCommittee.

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PRISONERS OF WAR

III: PROTECTION OF THE INTERESTS OF PRISONERS OF WAR ANDCIVILIANS IN ENEMY HANDS

III: Protection of the Interests of Prisoners of War and Civilians inEnemy Hands

It had been arranged beforehand that if and when war broke out, theUnited States should assume the responsibility of protecting theinterests of British subjects in Germany. Although there existedinternational treaties for the protection of prisoners of war, it was notknown whether the Nazi Government would accept responsibility for theactions of a previous German Government in signing or ratifying them.Early in September the United States Ambassador in Berlin madeapproaches to the German Foreign Office in order to determine to whatextent Germany was prepared to honour these treaties. By 19 Septemberhe was able to quote a German Foreign Office official as saying that, ‘ …as Germany had adhered to the Geneva Convention of July 17th 1929,relative to the treatment of prisoners of war ( Reichs Gesetzblatt II April30th 1934), the German Government would be governed accordingly’.Britain had already given an assurance that she intended to abide by theterms of this Convention. Thus the rights of British prisoners inGermany were guaranteed on paper at least.

One of the first tasks of the United States Embassy staff, asrepresentative of the power protecting British interests, was to traceBritish civilians in German territory, ascertain their condition, and ifnecessary arrange financial assistance for them. From the beginning ithad to deal with a constant stream of requests for this kind of action. Inaddition, as soon as the existence of an internment camp was heard of,one of the Embassy staff in Berlin or a member of the consular staffelsewhere in Germany was sent to investigate and report fully andcandidly on the conditions he found. One of the earliest of these reportsdrew attention to defects in the civilian internment camp at Wülsburg,


Ilag XIII. 1

It may appear picturesque, but the fact is that the Wülsburg Castle isan old and run-down building which presents a dilapidated appearance….In my opinion the camp is overcrowded…. The air is bad, the light isbad, there is no space for a man to put his things…. In bad weather thesituation is in my opinion next to unbearable….

This system of inspection and reporting kept the British Governmentinformed on the unsatisfactory aspects of German treatment so that theappropriate protest could be made.

Immediately after the outbreak of war the International Red CrossCommittee placed itself at the service of all belligerent governments, ‘ …to contribute in a humanitarian way, in its traditional role and with allits resources, towards lessening the evils brought by war.’ 2 At a timewhen national hatreds were aroused, it was able as a long-establishedneutral and impartial body to remind leaders of belligerent states of theirtreaty obligations and of considerations of humanity towards their fellowhuman beings even though enemies. In pursuit of these objects itproposed to organise:

(1) a Central Agency for information about prisoners of war, with whichit invited Information Bureaux 3 to get in touch,

(2) the exchange of sick and wounded prisoners, and of medicalpersonnel,

(3) the forwarding of letters and parcels,(4) the co-ordination of unofficial relief measures.So far as civilians in enemy hands were concerned, it invited thebelligerents to abide by the Tokyo Draft of 1934. 4 It also remindedbelligerents of the special position of medical personnel duringhostilities. At the same time the Committee wrote to national Red Crosssocieties to inform them of its appeal to the belligerent governments,and to request their co-operation both in drawing their governments'attention to humanitarian considerations


1 Ilag ( Interniertenlager), camp for internees.

2 Letter to all belligerent powers from IRCC (signed by M. MaxHuber), dated 2 September 1939.

3 Set up by belligerent powers under Article 77 of the GenevaPrisoners of War Convention.

4 See Introduction, p. xxiv.

and in themselves facilitating the exchange through the Central Agencyof news regarding war victims.

As soon as possible the Committee sent special missions to Germany,France and Poland, and permanent delegations to Great Britain, Egyptand the Argentine, 1 as the latter countries were less easily reached fromGeneva. Besides organising a base for future operations and arrangingfor liaison with the Central Agency at Geneva, the first task of thesemissions was to visit prisoners' camps. These visits were usuallyentrusted to doctors, as, ‘…. Knowing just how much trained men canendure without undue risk, medical practitioners are less easilyimpressed than laymen by apparent deficiencies not detrimental tohealth. On the other hand they are able to recognise defects whichwould escape the inexperienced eye.’ 2 Similar visits to civilianinternment camps, the securing of information through national RedCross societies regarding non-interned civilians, and the arranging of25-word family messages through the British and German Red Crossorganisations were also part of their duties.

The Central Agency 3 for information about prisoners of war wasopened in the Palais du Conseil-General at Geneva on 14 September,formal notification of its establishment being sent to the governmentsconcerned and contact made with the bodies doing similar work in thosecountries. Three days later the first requests for information regarding


prisoners of war were received and passed on by International Red Crossdelegates, and the Central Agency began the card-indexes, files, andcorrespondence which developed into the enormous record system forwhich it became well known. 4

Prisoners of war information bureaux were set up in London andBerlin, and from the latter official lists of British prisoners and theirparticulars were eventually transmitted to the United States Embassyand the Central Agency in Geneva. But as the Geneva Prisoners of WarConvention specified that addresses as well as other particulars were tobe given, compilation of the lists was held up until the prisoners reachedpermanent camps. In the meantime the only information obtainablecame in reports from the International Red Cross Committee, based onwhat its own delegates or the local German Red Cross and other bodieshad been able to ascertain, or in the prisoner of war's own letters. Itsometimes happened that mail from a prisoner in enemy hands reachedhis

1 The Argentine delegation was to be the base for SouthAmerica.

2 Report of the IRCC on its activities during the war of 1939–45, Vol. I, p. 66.

3 As laid down in Article 79 of the Geneva Prisoners of WarConvention,

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