Prisoner of war

“ We extol the English and French, we feel our bosoms glow with love for them, when we hear accounts of the treatment which prisoners of war, on both sides, have experienced from those generous nations. And what is more, by a custom which equally displays the honour and humanity of the Europeans, an officer, taken prisoner-of-war, is released on his parole, and enjoys the comfort of passing the time of his captivity in his own country, in the midst of his family ”

“ With the roar of the cannon and rattling of musketry falling upon his ear, or with a fair vision of his dear childhood's home before his mind, and a prayer he lisped in days gone by at his mother's knee, his eyes close, his breath ceases, and the brave prisoner's life is ended. Horrid war has given another noble heart to death, and taken the sunshine from another happy home. ”

“ If a prisoner of war attempts to escape and his captors are vigilant to the extent of retaking him before he leaves the territory they occupy, or before he has a chance to rejoin his own army, he may be severely punished. ”

“ It is very hard, bitter, indeed, to endure this cruel, crushing confinement, while our comrades need our aid so greatly. Still I realize the fact that while painful and harrowing to one's feelings to be pent up within despised prison walls during such trying times, it is no disgrace to be a prisoner of war, if not captured under dishonorable circumstances. ”

“ A prisoner of war, who escapes, may be shot, or otherwise killed in his flight; but neither death nor any other punishment is inflicted upon him simply for his attempt to escape, which the law of war does not consider a crime. ”

“ He is subject to no punishment for being a public enemy, nor is any revenge wreaked upon him by the international infliction of any suffering or disgrace, by cruel imprisonment, want of food, by mutilation, death, or any other barbarity. But a prisoner of war remains answerable for his crimes committed against the captor's army or people before he was captured, and for which he has not been punished by his own authorities. ”

“ Give a prisoner his weapons, put him in a pit with beasts of reasonable strength, and let him fight to a finish if you choose, and I can look on there and applaud the strokes. The war prisoner, being a prisoner, has earned death by natural law, and prefers to get his last stroke in hot blood than to be knocked down by the headsman’s axe. And it is any brave man’s luxury either to help or watch a lusty fight. But this baiting in the circus between the gates was no fair battle like that. ”

“ Any prisoner of war, who is liberated on parole and recaptured, bearing arms against the Government to whom he had pledged his honor, or against the allies of that Government, forfeits his right to be treated as a prisoner of war, and can be brought before the Courts. ”

“ As military regulations state that it is the duty of every prisoner of war to make immediate and strenuous effort to escape, and as every man is at heart an adventurer, it is not surprising that our languid community was from time to time regaled by the rumours of impending sorties. ”

“ A prisoner of war may even be paroled by his captors, and this is done sometimes when he is disabled or there are circumstances that prompt his enemies to let him go to those who are near and dear to him. ”

“ The personal experience of soldiers incarcerated in the prisons of the late war would make interesting reading to coming generations but perhaps it is better to let this part of the history pass into oblivion. Contending armies engaged in battle would fight to the finish, damaging each other in every honorable way they could even to extermination, but when a soldier surrendered and became a prisoner he was treated courteously by his captors on either side. ”

“ Others should be repatriated or sent to neutral countries. The imprisonment of civilians is against the usage of war, and it is this fact which gave force to the claim of the German Government that there should be complete release on both sides.
I append extracts from a Swiss appeal to the belligerents on behalf of the civilian prisoners. It was issued in August, 1917, and has already appeared in Common Sense.
A civilian is not a prisoner of war. ”

“ It is a well-understood rule, however, that a prisoner of war obtaining his liberty by exchange or otherwise, with the condition of not serving again during a fixed period against the same power, forfeits his life, if he is found so serving, and is again taken prisoner. Among all civilized nations, quarter is granted in battle whenever it is sought; and there are certain usages universally prevalent with regard to the capitulation of fortified places, and of bodies of troops hopelessly hemmed in by superior forces, etc. ”

“ Fallen, one of the prisoners lately made by you, and his case represented with such circumstances as have induced us to request you to let Mr Fallen go where he will, after taking his parole in writing, that he will not communicate any intelligence, which may be prejudicial to the United States, that he will not take arms against them during the war, and that he will surrender himself prisoner of war, whenever called upon by Congress, or their Ministers at Paris. ”

“ These arose not only from the passions and prejudices inevitably engendered in the course of such a vast conflict between the entire manhood of the nations concerned, but also from the facts that unexpectedly large numbers of combatants were taken prisoners, and that the captors had to deal with men of different nationalities, of varying characteristics and with widely different views as to the accommodation and food requisite for a prisoner of war. ”

“ I ask whether [132] men let themselves be taken prisoner in order to be disarmed and shot down afterwards? Is that chivalry in battle?
It is no longer a secret among the people; one hears everywhere that few prisoners are taken; they are shot down in small groups. ”

“ The great war has brought forth one outstanding fact in criminology—no 64 matter what his instincts may be in times of peace, the convict is a patriot, according to his lights, in time of war, and in all my investigations, covering practically every eastern, southern and middle western State, I have not learned of a single prisoner who violated a parole given him to engage in work that would help win the war. ”

“ At the sight of these men, magnificent in their youth, physical force, good temper and dash, the Germans fled 'with every leg' or surrendered without awaiting the order to throw away their arms and take off their suspenders, which is the first thing a prisoner is told to do, in order that he may be compelled to keep his hands employed and out of mischief. ”

“ Despite the terrible suffering inflicted upon them by their captors in harsh prisons and camps in Europe and Asia, American prisoners of war steadfastly demonstrated their devotion to duty, honor, and country. ”

“ The fact that, in the early days of the war, British prisoners were invariably treated worse than the French cannot be denied, and will be amply proved from the evidence of returned prisoners, and from other sources of information at present unavailable. It is the truth that nearly all British soldiers taken prisoners and sent to Germany during the first months of the war were made the object of special contempt, neglect, or cruelty. ”

“ I was startled too, but finding him quite harmless, I bade him: “Guten Abend!” [10] and, laughing, walked on.
Everywhere through this farming country I saw prisoners of war at work, often more numerous than the German laborers. ”

“ That prison, where these victims of war—our foemen, it is true, but patriots, and foemen worthy of our steel—pined in prolonged confinement, surrounded by prison walls, held down by cannon, muskets, and bayonets, hoping for release which never came, enduring an agonising longing for freedom—a longing so keen that many of them purchased it by enlisting in the ranks of Britain, their country’s enemy—and suffering, alas! ”

“ Enduring with patience and determination, prisoners of war are a powerful reminder that the indomitable spirit of the American soldier cannot be broken, even by brutal treatment in violation of international law and morality. ”

“ To know the agony of despair that must on such a day have seized those 6,000 men, one must have shared their captivity and gone through their experiences.
The news from the outside world, the progress of the war, the successes and defeats on either side, the prospects of peace, must have varied the mood of the prisoners from day to day; we can only hope that the national contentment and cheerfulness was for the majority the usual tone. ”

“ Gathering courage from Allen's silence he continued: "We are told that no prisoners are to be treated as prisoners of war, but as outlaws and rebels, to shoot whom will be considered a meritorious act." ”

“ We dare not look for the speedy return of peace, for an early peace would mean the cause of the Entente was lost, the triumph of wrong over right, which must surely be impossible; and so the prisoners made it their duty to laugh, and say “Oh! three or four years longer,” when asked surreptitiously by some German soldier or other as to how long the war would go on.
I wonder if the people at home ever realise that the prisoners in Germany number amongst their ranks some of the greatest heroes of this war. ”

“ But it is not too much to say that the treatment of the prisoners of war on the eastern and western fronts must, so long as the terrible story is remembered, bring indelible disgrace on the German nation, and on those responsible for the appalling cruelty inflicted on defenceless men. ”

“ If prisoners of war, having given no pledge nor made any promise, on their honor, forcibly, or otherwise escape, and are captured again in battle, after having rejoined their own army, they are not punished for their escape, and are treated as simple prisoners of war, although they will be subjected to stricter confinement. ”

“ To be prisoners of war is an honourable estate, almost the only captivity to which no shame attaches: yet this is but cold comfort to compensate for loss of freedom.
All down the column and on each side of it marched a file of red-coated militia-men with guns loaded and bayonets fixed, not as a complimentary escort, but a stern necessity, a fact that had been proved not an hour before, when some desperate fellow had broken through the guard, and flung himself from the parapet of the bridge over the Nene at Peterborough, and was shot the moment he rose to the surface of the water. ”

“ And yet, between 1793 and 1815, literally hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war were held in captivity by the various nations engaged in the conflict, and this confinement meant for the great bulk of them years of misery, long vistas of monotonous restraint, periods of indifferent treatment, occasionally great physical suffering, and, worse than all, for many, moral deterioration and degradation inseparable from the conditions in which they dragged out their existence. ”

“ One saw on either side rows of long, newly erected, unpainted sheds, separated by side streets of muddy ground and fenced off from the main camp street by more barbed wire. One's first impression was that prisoners of war are among the piteous objects on the face of the earth. You see swarms of shuffling men who before the fortunes of war went against them must have looked smart and soldierly. Now in their uniforms they seemed self-conscious and absurd, sheepish almost because they had to wear regimentals in the presence of the enemy. ”

“ Save their hell-heart who stab man’s hope to live
In mutual freedom, peace and brotherhood.
{39}
OUR PRISONERS OF WAR IN GERMANY
October, 1918.
Prisoners to a foe inhuman, Oh! but our hearts rebel:
Defenceless victims ye are, in claws of spite a prey,
Conquering your torturers, enduring night and day
Malice, year-long drawn out your noble spirits to quell. ”

“ But when the time came for the civilian to take up arms and supplement the professional fighting force, there fell into our hands an industrial fighting machine in the guise of a military prisoner.
We have the impression that a military prisoner is an individual whose one desire is to escape and jump at our throats; and that the safety of the nation compels us to stand over him with a bayonet and regard his every movement with suspicion. ”