Prisoners of War

Concentration Camps in World War 2 Europe were not only used to exterminate hundreds of thousands of Jews, gypsies, and homosexuals, they were also used to house prisoners of war captured by the Axis Powers. During World War 2 runaway Prisoners of War were often sent to work in concentration camps as punishment. The prisoners were often in such terrible condition from capture and travel that they did not live for long once they reached the camps. One of the camps used to house these prisoners of war was Majdanek:

During the entire period of its existence, the Majdanek camp was under construction. Construction on the camp began in October 1941 with the arrival of about 2,000 Soviet prisoners of war. Most of the Soviet prisoners of war at Majdanek were too weak to work; virtually all were dead by February 1942.- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Unlike the hundreds of  stories told by Jewish Holocaust survivors, it was extremely difficult to find any personal accounts of Prisoners of War who had survived a concentration camp during the Holocaust, in fact my search came up completely empty. Perhaps this can be attributed to the fact that the Prisoners of War were in such terrible shape when they arrived at the concentration camps. Soviet Union soldiers were not the only Prisoners of War who were punished in the concentration camps. Mauthausen also contributed to the torture of captured soldiers in the Soviet army, but records also show that  Prisoners of War from Allied armies were sent there:

Among those prisoners who were registered: in 1944, 47 Allied military personnel (39 Dutchmen, 7 British soldiers and 1 U.S. soldier), all of them agents of the British Secret Operations Executive. Further, the SS transported other thousands of prisoners to Mauthausen to be murdered without ever being registered as prisoners in the camp. -United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Compared to many other concentration camps Mauthausen housed few women as well as Jewish people in general:

An estimated 197,464 prisoners passed through the Mauthausen camp system between August 1938 and May 1945. At least 95,000 died there. More than 14,000 were Jewish. -United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The Prisoners of War during the Holocaust were treated just as poorly as the Jewish people in concentration camps, the only notable difference is that the POW’s were in worse condition than most Jews upon arrival at the camps. The Prisoners of War likely had feelings similar to that of Vladek in Maus 2: And Here My Troubles Began:

“It wasn’t so easy like you think. Everyone was so starving and frightened, and tired. They couldn’t believe what’s in front of their eyes. And the Jews lived always with hope. They hoped the Russians can come before the Geman bullet arrived from the gun into their head.”-Maus 2.

We can really only assume that the Prisoners of War during the Holocaust endured circumstances comparable to the situations that plagued Jews at the time. Jews and POWs all endured the concentration camps but we have no personal accounts written by a POW who survived. Based on the information that we have about the horrors faced by the Jews in the concentration camps we can come to the conclusion that the trials faced by World War 2 POWs were far more disastrous and deadly than those faced by POWs in the War on Iraq.

Becoming a Prisoner of War is no longer feared more than death as it was by many in World War 1, World War 2, and Vietnam. Clearly this is not a desirable situation but the real danger and trauma occurs when soldiers are on missions. They are more likely to die during combat than to be murdered after capture. POW Patrick Miller was captured with Jessica Lynch and the 507th Maintenance Company only a few days after the War on Iraq began:

Miller, 28, says that as a captive, he was not roughed up, but some of the guards asked questions. “There was one who asked me why I came to Iraq, and I told him that I was told to come. He was like, ‘Why didn’t you just tell them no?’ I told him that if I tell them no, I go to jail. He couldn’t understand that.” Miller has an injury that continues to plague him, nerve damage he suffered when his arms were tied behind his back with a rubber iv tube—and an Iraqi soldier was stepping on his elbow as he lay on the floor of a truck. Miller says he believes it was an unintentional act in a crowded truck. -Patrick Miller, U.S. News and World Report.

The media covered the events that occurred after the 507th was captured very closely. Jessica Lynch was critically injured in combat, but not by her captors. She was held in an Iraqi hospital but received care for her injuries while she was held captive:

“I learned to put trust in [the Iraqi hospital staff]. I kind of had to,” Lynch says. “If I didn’t, I felt like they could have easily said, ‘Here, just take her; do what you want with her.’”-Jessica Lynch, U.S. News and World Report.

While the experiences of Prisoners of War in Iraq are definitely less than ideal they are difficult to compare to the experiences of World War 2 Prisoners of War. We know little about these men other than the fact that most of them died shortly after their arrival at the concentration camps. We can only imagine the horrors that they must have faced based on personal accounts of Jewish prisoners in concentration camps.

Personal Accounts of Jessica Lynch and Patrick Miller

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Maus 2: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman

October 18, 2009. Uncategorized.