Mia Le

Honors English II

Ms. Ramirez

10 March 2021

Prisoners of World War I

World War I, a war filled with trauma, pain, and hatred, began in 1914, after the

assasination of Archduke Franz Fernidad of Austria. This great war lasted almost 5 years,

November 11 1914 to July 28 1918, and originated in Europe. World War I was a fight between

the Central Powers, Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria, and the

Allied Powers, United States, France, Russia, and Britain. With so many countries involved,

there were also many prisoners taken during the war. With so many prisoners taken, people

began to question whether prisoners were treated with respect. World War I, July 28 1914 to

November 11 1918, had lots of prisoners that survived to tell the stories of the inhumane

treatment, the forced unethical jobs, and the psychological welfare used.

World War I had more than eight million men taken as prisoners that also survived.

Presented by Heather Jones, Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War Britain,

France, and Germany, 1914-1920, prisoners of war were treated inhumanely. Prisoners of war

sometimes slept outside on the fields. The camps were overcrowded, had contaminated sources

of water, and neglected the sick. Prison camps ignored sanitation, which led to the typhus

epidemic outbreak. This epidemic cost the lives of many prisoners especially in

Austria-Hungary's camps, where 186 prisoners died a day. Lots of the camps had trouble with

lice as well, as lice were filled in the clothing and bath houses. Prisoners died from cold and

starvation in the camps and also died from not being fed after long hours of work. Prisoners were
forced to do intense labour such as working on the fronts. This led to the prisoners being exposed

and shortly died afterwards. Those forced into labour were rarely given food after long hours,

and when they were given food, it was poorly prepared. Although there was a law to treat

prisoners humanely, these protocols were broken. In conclusion, prisoners were treated

inhumanely, as they were starved, were not sanitized, were not cared for, were ignored, and were

abused.

Prisoners of the war had unethical jobs depending on the camp they were located in.

According to Gerald Davis, Prisoners of War in Twentieth-Century War Economies, most

prisoners were forced into labour. These range of jobs varied from being close to death to quite

simple. Prisoners were taken to battle, were forced to fight on the opposite side, and then died

of exposure. Other jobs included the build of camps, road building, agriculture, mining, and also

factory production. The men would work hours with no breaks and were not given any food or

water. Some of the work was more dangerous than others, and if not prepared for the work,

prisoners were killed or publically humiliated. In a summary, prisoners were forced into labour

that slowly killed them mentally and physically.

Prisoners of World War I had days filled with nothing but pain. According to Gilly Car and

Harold Mytum, in Cultural Heritage and Prisoners of War: Creativity behind Barbed Wire, the

prisoners adjusted to the camps by bringing their old lives into their new lives. The camps were

filled with creativity attempted by the prisoners for a therapeutic outlet. Creativity included artistic

productions, texts/diaries, material culture, concerts, and even theatre productions (2). These

attempts were the reason some of these prisoners survived, emotionally, psychologically, and

sometimes even physically, as they had something to be excited about. The prisoners created

within the camps a homogenous society. These “normal” societies included roles as an attempt
for emotional survival. The men would have roles like a “normal family” would (29). These roles

included father, mother, son, etc. Typically the older men would act as a father or mother for the

sons, the younger prisoners. Prisoners also created a domestic space such as households.

These households were made to provide support or even at times intimacy. Prisoners used

households as a remembrance of home. To conclude, prisoners of World War I were treated

horribly where they were forced to create therapedic outlets as an attempt to emotionally survive

the pain.

World War I, 1914-1918, had lots of prisoners that survived to tell the stories of their

trauma, their lives, and the way they had survived. Prisoners were abused, were forced into

labour, and barely survived mentally and physically. After completing research on the prisoners

of World War I, I realize the trauma and torture that these prisoners were treated like.
 Works Cited

Car, Gilly and Mytum, Harold. Cultural Heritage and Prisoners of War: Creativity behind Barbed
Wire. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group New York London, 2012. Google Book Search.
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ZwS0rF-PGqMC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=prisoners
+of+ww1&ots=MVJ-EEuuBr&sig=4kgmvNVYWaQdh6C6PN9mMIy1hrs#v=onepage&q&f=false

Jones, Heather. Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War Britain , France, and
Germany, 1914-1920. Cambridge University Press, 2011. Google Book Search.
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=2wIFsguDVdwC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=German+
prisoner+camp+in+world+war+1&ots=pADZnewcwN&sig=ohQWYe5QvaQbFjYm9FXAJI5EWzE
#v=onepage&q=German%20prisoner%20camp%20in%20world%20war%201&f=false

Davis, Gerald H. “Prisoners of War in Twentieth-Century War Economies.” Journal of

Contemporary History, vol. 12, no. 4, Oct. 1977. Sage Journals.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/002200947701200401?journalCode=jcha#article
CitationDownloadContainer

Van Zyl Smit, Dirk & Dunkel Frieder. Prison Labour: Salvation or Slavery? International
Perspectives. Routledge Revivals, 2018. Google Book Search.
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=aPiADwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT7&dq=Prisoner
+labour+in+world+war+1&ots=KtuCsdUe6E&sig=P3qPaqn4cmlJgwUY0T6WCaYbSMM#v=one
page&q=Prisoner%20labour%20in%20world%20war%201&f=false