When studying war history, we tend to focus on the bad things, the drama. While there
was a whole lot of suffering and death, it wasn't all bad. Many people still found time
for a bit of leisure and a laugh. Looking at POW camps, for instance, there were some
pretty atrocious ones, but not every POW camp was hell. Some of them were actually a good
time. Some POWs didn't want to leave the countries they were held in. In this video, we're going
to keep on the sunny side and explore some of the Second World War's best POW camps,
keeping our focus on the camps in Allied nations.
Canada took on mostly German POWs during World War II. The numbers vary, but these men occupied
25 or 26 camps throughout the country, with the camps at Lethbridge and Medicine Hat in
Alberta holding up to 12,500 POWs each, accounting for the majority of the 35,000 POWs in Canada.
At these camps, the POWs were protected under the 1929 Geneva Convention. Provided good
food and shelter, the conditions were often a lot better than they would have been back
on the front line. The POWs had a relative amount of freedom, too, pretty much running
the camps themselves, under the supervision of the Veterans Guards of Canada. The more
trustworthy POWs were allowed to leave the camps to work on farms. At Lethbridge, there
were 350-man dormitories, massive recreational halls, dining halls, educational huts, and
workshops. Many POWs went to work on the nearby sugar beet fields, with 2,200 POWs working
the fields by 1945. According to one Doran Degenstein, the son of a Veterans Guard member
during the war, "My father spoke fondly of his time with the PoWs. They respected him.
He would leave his rifle on the seat of the truck and would often ask a prisoner to move
the truck ahead with his loaded rifle still on the seat." Johaan Pfeffel, a German soldier,
was sent to Lethbridge after getting captured in North Africa. He requested to do farm work,
and after the war, after seeing how bad things were in Germany, he came back to Canada and
became a citizen. According to his daughter, Gisela Kellner, around 10% of the POWs did
this. The POWs at Lethbridge could also participate in sports, such as soccer, tennis, and boxing,
as well as musical groups.
While more than 425,000 POWs—including some 371,000 Germans, 50,000 Italians, and 3,900
Japanese—were held in the United States by May 1945 in just under 700 camps, camp-life
wasn't all that different to how it was in Canada.
Treated according to the Geneva Convention, they were fed and sheltered well and given
plenty to do. POWs could apply for paid labour outside the camp, gain an education, participate
in sports, watch movies, and read books—albeit often movies intended to de-Nazify the Germans
and awaken them to the war's atrocities. Many were even granted passes to visit nearby towns
and hang out with the locals, notably American women. Camp Algona in Iowa housed around 10,000
POWs, mostly German. They were treated well and filled a labour vacuum left by the local
men off fighting the war. According to the curator of the Camp Algona POW Museum, Jerry
Yocum, "They realized they had it pretty good. They remember it as a good, safe place to
be. They had good food and a decent place to sleep." And in the words of historian Michael
Luick-Thrams, "[The locals] were frightened that the P.O.W.s would escape. Once [they]
realized how much money was going to be generated by Camp Algona, that changed. Millions of
dollars were generated in economic activity. The men harvested a lot of crops. [...] They
became friends of us, of the United States." Even one of the camp's POWs, one Alex Funke,
spoke highly of it: "We all were positively impressed. Nobody could become bored [at the
camp]."Nebraska's Fort Robinson was also highly regarded. Around 12,000 POWs were held in
Nebraska throughout the war, and Fort Robinson was one of the state's main base camps. It
was built to house 1,000 POWs but grew to a capacity of around 3,000. According to POW
Hans Waecker, "Our treatment was excellent. Many POWs complained about being POWs—no
girlfriends, no contact with family. But the food was excellent and clothing adequate."
After the war was over, and after repatriation, Waecker returned to the US and became a doctor.
Nearly 400 POW camps were set up throughout Britain to house over 400,000 German, Italian,
and Ukrainian POWs during the war. Some POWs were allowed to work as labourers, mostly
in agriculture, but after Germany's surrender, all the POWs—except the officers—had to
work. Most of the POWs remained POWs for a couple of years after the war. After they
were let go, some 25,000 German POWs chose to stay and make lives in Britain. Camp Eden
in North Yorkshire is one of the most well-reserved POW camps and a war museum, able to house
some 1,200 POWs back in the day. The first 250 Italian POWs transported to the camp built
it into a far larger camp, comprising 45 huts. The POWs worked on nearby farms and crafted
things they were able to sell to the locals. They even participated in dances in the town.
According to a BBC News article by Duncan Leatherdale, one of the locals said, "The
[Italian POWs] spent most of their time singing, posing and trying to catch the eye of any
female, while the Germans proved more hardworking and reliable than their Latin counterparts."
According to the museum's archivist, Johnny Pye, "The POWs] became well-known and a part
of the community and came to be seen as people just like us. They would make toys for the
children that they had befriended on local farms. And they would make items to trade
as well." While we've covered Trent Park in a previous video, it's worth another mention
because it's gold. Located in Cockfosters, London, Trent Park was a country house that
housed captured German officers. The POWs were treated to a life of luxury, plied with
good food and better whiskey and allowed to roam the verdant grounds. The catch? The house
was bugged, and MI19 listened in to gather vital intel they might not have gained through
more traditional means of interrogation. According to POW Kurt Kohncke, "Our involuntary hosts
are thoroughly gentlemanlike."
The next two POW camps get bad raps because of a couple of unfortunate incidents that
occurred at them. But, ignoring those incidents, the conditions of the camp were far from atrocious.
Around 8,000 people were sent to camps in Australia during World War II, with this figure
including POWs and civilians sent there from Britain. Over 1,100 Japanese POWs were housed
at Camp B of Cowra POW Camp Site in New South Wales. On the 5th of August 1944, the POWs
staged a breakout in which 231 of them were killed, 108 were wounded, and 359 escaped.
Of the escapees, many committed suicide or were killed by fellow POWs, and the survivors
were all rounded up within a matter of 10 days. You might think they tried to escape
because of mistreatment, but this doesn't seem to have been the case. According to the
National Archives of Australia, a September 1944 inquiry into the conditions confirmed
that the camp was run in accordance with standards of the Geneva Convention and that none of
the POWs complained about the conditions of the camp prior to the incident. According
to the Australian Prime Minister at the time, the attack was characterised by a "suicidal
disregard for life."
It's unclear how many POWs were held by Australia's neighbour, New Zealand, in total, but around
900 Japanese and Koreans were held in Featherstone POW Camp on the North Island during the war.
The US asked New Zealand to set up the camp in September 1942 and take on Japanese and
Korean POWs from the Guadalcanal Campaign. Of the 900 POWs, 240 were Japanese, and the
rest were Koreans from forced labour units. On the 25th of February 1943, 240 Japanese
POWs refused to work, and kicked up a bit of a fuss. In the chaos, a Japanese officer
was shot but not killed. The POWs then charged, and the camp guards opened fire. Forty-eight
POWs died, and a further 70 were wounded. Like Cowra, the camp was run in accordance
with the 1929 Geneva Convention, which didn't rule out compulsory labour. The POWs lived
in huts and were allowed to cultivate their own gardens. They played sports and games
(like mahjong), watched movies, and put on traditional Japanese plays. They even carved
works of art and used them to trade with the guards. According to historian Richard Bullen,
"[The POWs] made their own tools out of bits of wire and nails and from them they carved
objects. A way a lot of these objects came out [of the prison] is they were made and
then exchanged with camp guards for cigarettes."
According to a master's thesis by Massey University student Yashurio Ota, "Japanese prisoners
of war were interned in Featherston, New Zealand and in Cowra Australia during the Asia-Pacific
War. Because of cultural misunderstandings of military traditions, there were violent
incidents between prisoners and guards. [They] had no objection to the living conditions
of the camps [They were] seeing opportunities to die with honour."
But we're interested to know what you think. Had you heard of these Allied POW camps before
today? Which camp would you have wanted to go to, if you had to pick one? And lastly,
why do you think the Japanese did what they did at Featherston and Cowra? Please feel
free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.