prisoner of war

 

in international law, persons captured by a belligerent while fighting in the military. International law includes rules on the treatment of prisoners of war but extends protection only to combatants. This excludes civilians who engage in hostilities (by international law they are war criminals; see war crimes) and forces that do not observe conventional requirements for combatants (see war, laws of).

Historical Attitudes toward Prisoners of War

Attitudes toward prisoners of war have changed over time. Originally slaughtered, captives were later considered war booty. The captor still held life-and-death power, but it became more useful to make slaves of the prisoners. In feudal Europe the nobles were ransomed, and the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary States generally ransomed their Christian captives.

The basis of the modern treatment of prisoners of war was stated by Montesquieu in De l'esprit des lois and by J. J. Rousseau in his Social Contract; both held that the right of the captor over the prisoner was limited to preventing him from taking up arms again and ceased altogether with the end of hostilities. Their view was elaborated by Emerich de Vattel. During the American Civil War, Francis Lieber drew up the first systematic, written regulations on the treatment of prisoners of war.

The first international convention on prisoners of war was signed at the Hague Peace Conference of 1899. It was widened by the Hague Convention of 1907. These rules proved insufficient in World War I, and the International Red Cross proposed a more complete code.

The 1929 Geneva Convention

In 1929 the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was signed by 47 governments. Chief among the nations that did not adhere to the Geneva Convention of 1929 were Japan and the USSR. Japan, however, gave a qualified promise (1942) to abide by the Geneva rules, and the USSR announced (1941) that it would observe the terms of the Hague Convention of 1907, which did not provide (as does the Geneva Convention) for neutral inspection of prison camps, for the exchange of prisoners' names, and for correspondence with prisoners.

According to the Geneva Convention no prisoner of war could be forced to disclose to his captor any information other than his identity (i.e., his name and rank, but not his military unit, home town, or address of relatives). Every prisoner of war was entitled to adequate food and medical care and had the right to exchange correspondence and receive parcels. He was required to observe ordinary military discipline and courtesy, but he could attempt to escape at his own risk. Once recaptured, he was not to be punished for his attempt. Officers were to receive pay either according to the pay scale of their own country or to that of their captor, whichever was less; they could not be required to work. Enlisted men might be required to work for pay, but the nature and location of their work were not to expose them to danger, and in no case could they be required to perform work directly related to military operations. Camps were to be open to inspection by authorized representatives of a neutral power.

In World War II, Switzerland and Sweden acted as protecting powers. The International Red Cross at Geneva acted as a clearinghouse for the exchange of all information regarding prisoners of war and had charge of transmitting correspondence and parcels. With minor and inevitable exceptions on the lower levels, the United States and Great Britain generally honored the Geneva Convention throughout the conflict. Japan at first committed such atrocities as the “death march of Bataan,” but began to abide by the rules after a sufficient number of Japanese prisoners had fallen into Allied hands to make reprisals possible. Germany did not treat all its prisoners alike. Americans and British subjects received the best treatment, Polish prisoners the worst.

The 1949 Geneva Convention

The changed methods of warfare in World War II, the maltreatment of prisoners of war that constituted an important part of the war crimes indictments, and the retention of a great number of German prisoners of war by the USSR for several years after the war showed that the 1929 Convention required revision on many points. A new convention, reaffirming and supplementing the 1929 Convention, was signed at Geneva in 1949 and subsequently ratified by almost all nations. It broadened the categories of persons entitled to prisoner-of-war status, clearly redefined the conditions of captivity, and reaffirmed the principle of immediate release and repatriation at the end of hostilities.

Although the North Koreans promised to respect the Geneva Convention in the Korean War, they refused to recognize the impartial status of the Red Cross and denied it access to the territory they controlled. The unprecedented refusal of prisoners to be repatriated, moreover, established a new principle of political asylum for prisoners of war. The governments of North and South Vietnam, parties to the 1949 Geneva Convention, were charged with violating it in the Vietnam War—the North by not permitting full reporting, correspondence, and neutral inspection, and the South by allegedly torturing captives and placing them in inhumane prisons. The national anguish over the Vietnam War was extended for decades after the war's end in part because of the lack of resolution over the POW and MIA (missing in action) issue. While the Pentagon's MIA list still contains names of missing servicemen, the last official prisoner of war was declared dead in 1994.

Combatants captured and held by the United States as a result of its operations in Afghanistan against the Taliban government and Al Qaeda forces were not recognized as as prisoners of war by the Bush administration and were termed “unlawful combatants” instead. This decision was criticized by human rights groups as a failure to abide by international law, and drew criticism from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as well. In June, 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that these prisoners, which the Bush administration had claimed it could hold indefinitely (most them at the Guantánamo, Cuba, naval base), had the right to challenge their detention.

A month before the ruling, U.S. prestige had suffered a significant blow when it was revealed that U.S. forces had abused Iraqi prisoners in 2003–4. Later revelations suggested that the abuse may have been an outgrowth of U.S. prisoner policy in place since the 2001 terror attacks on the United States, and the ICRC expressed concern that the United States might be continuing to hide prisoners from it, as had been attempted in Iraq. The ICRC subsequently privately charged that U.S. treatment of some prisoners at Guantánamo was “tantamount to torture.” Also in 2004 the Bush administration determined that some non-Iraqi prisoners captured in Iraq were not subject to the Geneva Conventions, and that such prisoners could be transferred out of Iraq, as the CIA secretly had done with a small number of prisoners since 2003.

A prisoner of war (POW, PoW, or PW) is a combatant who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict.

Ancient times

For most of human history, depending on the temperament of the victors, combatants of the losing side in a battle could expect to be either slaughtered, to eliminate them as a future threat, or enslaved, bringing economic and social benefits to the victorious side and its soldiers. Typically, little distinction was made between combatants and civilians, although women and children were certainly more likely to be spared, if only to be raped by men or captured for sale as slaves.

Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, all religious wars were particularly ferocious. Extermination of the heretics or "non-believers" was considered desirable. Examples include the 13th-century Albigensian Crusade and the Northern Crusades ^[1]. Likewise the inhabitants of conquered cities were frequently massacred during the Crusades against the Turks in the 11th and 12th centuries, or during the Muslim and Turkish incursions in Europe throughout the period.

Rulers and army commanders were frequently used to extract tribute by granting their freedom in exchange for a significant ransom in treasury or land.

The 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War, is considered the first to establish the rule of releasing prisoners at the end of hostilities and allowing them to return to their homelands^[2].

Modern times

During the nineteenth century, efforts increased to improve the treatment and processing of prisoners. The extensive period of conflict during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815), followed by the Anglo - American War of 1812, led to the emergence of a cartel system for the exchange of prisoners, even while the belligerents were at war. A cartel was usually arranged by the respective armed service for the exchange of like ranked personnel. The aim was to achieve a reduction in the number of prisoners held, while at the same time alleviating shortages of skilled personnel in the home country.

Later, as result of these emerging conventions a number of international conferences were held, starting with the Brussels Conference of 1874, with nations agreeing that it was necessary to prevent inhumane treatment of prisoners and the use of weapons causing unnecessary harm. Although no agreements were immediately ratified by the participating nations, work was continued that resulted in new conventions being adopted and becoming recognized as international law, that specified that prisoners of war are required to be treated humanely and diplomatically.

Hague and Geneva Conventions

Specifically, Chapter II of the Annex to the 1907 Hague Convention covered the treatment of prisoners of war in detail. These were further expanded in the Third Geneva Convention of 1929, and its revision of 1949.

Article 4 of the Third Geneva Convention protects captured military personnel, some guerrilla fighters and certain civilians. It applies from the moment a prisoner is captured until he or she is released or repatriated. One of the main provisions of the convention makes it illegal to torture prisoners and states that a prisoner can only be required to give their name, date of birth, rank and service number (if applicable).

However, nations vary in their dedication to following these laws, and historically the treatment of POWs has varied greatly. During the twentieth century, Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were notorious for atrocities against prisoners during World War II. Torture of prisoners was routine in conflicts in Korea and Vietnam^{[citation needed]}.

The United States Military Code of Conduct

The United States Military Code of Conduct, Articles III through V, are rules for United States servicemembers who have been taken prisoner. They were created in response to the breakdown of leadership which can happen in an atypical environment such as a POW situation, specifically when US forces were POWs during the Korean War. When a person is taken prisoner, the Code of Conduct reminds the servicemember that the chain of command is still in effect (the highest ranking servicemember, regardless of armed service branch, is in command), and that the servicemember cannot receive special favors or parole from their captors, lest this undermine the servicemember's chain of command.

Qualifications

To be entitled to prisoner of war status, the captured service member must have conducted operations according to the laws and customs of war: be part of a chain of command and wear a uniform and bear arms openly. Thus, francs-tireurs, terrorists, saboteurs, mercenaries and spies may be excluded.

In practice, these criteria are not always interpreted strictly. Guerrillas, for example, may not wear a uniform or carry arms openly yet are sometimed granted POW status if captured (although Additional Protocol 1 may give them POW status in some circumstances).

However, guerrillas or any other combatant may not be granted the status if they try to use both the civilian and the military status. Thus, uniforms and/or badges are important in determining prisoner of war status.

World War I

About 8 million men surrendered and were held in POW camps until the war ended. All nations pledged to follow the Hague rules on fair treatment of prisoners of war, and in general the POWs had a much higher survival rate than their peers who were not captured.^[3] Individual surrenders were uncommon; usually a large unit surrendered all its men. At Tannenberg 92,000 Russians surrendered during the battle. When the besieged garrison of Kaunas surrendered in 1915, 20,000 Russians became prisoners. Over half the Russian losses were prisoners (as a proportion of those captured, wounded or killed); for Austria 32%, for Italy 26%, for France 12%, for Germany 9%; for Britain 7%. Prisoners from the Allied armies totaled about 1.4 million (not including Russia, which lost between 2.5 and 3.5 million men as prisoners.) From the Central Powers about 3.3 million men became prisoners.^[4]

Germany held 2.5 million prisoners; Russia held 2.9 million, and Britain and France held about 720,000, mostly gained in the period just before the Armistice in 1918. The US held 48,000. The most dangerous moment was the act of surrender, when helpless soldiers were sometimes gunned down. Once prisoners reached a camp in general conditions were satisfactory (and much better than in World War II), thanks in part to the efforts of the International Red Cross and inspections by neutral nations. Conditions were terrible in Russia, starvation was common for prisoners and civilians alike; about 15-20% of the prisoners in Russia died. In Germany food was short but only 5% died. ^[5]

The Ottoman Empire often treated prisoners of war poorly. Some 11,800 British soldiers, most of them Indians, became prisoners after the five-month Siege of Kut, in Mesopotamia, in April 1916. Many were weak and starved when they surrendered and 4,250 died in captivity.^[6]

The most curious case came in Russia where the Czech Legion of Czech prisoners (from the Austro-Hungarian army), were released in 1917, armed themselves, and briefly became a military and diplomatic force during the Russian Civil War.

Release of prisoners

At the end of the war there were believed to be 140,000 British prisoners of war in Germany, including 3,000 held in Switzerland. The first British prisoners were released and reached Calais on 15 November. Plans were made for them to be sent via Dunkirk to Dover and a large reception camp was established at Dover capable of housing 40,000 men, which could later be used for demobilisation.

On 13 December 1918 the armistice was extended and the Allies reported that by 9 December 264,000 prisoners had been repatriated. A very large number of these has been released en masse and sent across Allied lines without any food or shelter. This had created difficulties for the receiving Allies and many had died from exhaustion. The released POWs were met by cavalry troops and sent back through the lines in lorries to reception centres where they were refitted with boots and clothing and dispatched to the ports in trains. Upon arrival at the receiving camp the POWs were registered and “boarded” before being dispatched to their own homes. All officers had to write a report on the circumstances of their capture and to ensure that they had done all they could to avoid capture. Each returning officer and man was given a message from King George V, written in his own hand and reproduced on a lithograph. It read as follows:

The Queen joins me in welcoming you on your release from the miseries & hardships, which you have endured with so much patience and courage.

During these many months of trial, the early rescue of our gallant Officers & Men from the cruelties of their captivity has been uppermost in our thoughts.

We are thankful that this longed for day has arrived, & that back in the old Country you will be able once more to enjoy the happiness of a home & to see good days among those who anxiously look for your return. George R.I.

World War II

Germany and Italy generally treated prisoners from the British Commonwealth, France, the U.S. and other western allies, in accordance with the Third Geneva Convention (1929), which had been signed by these countries [4]. Nazi Germany did not extend this level of treatment to non-Western prisoners, who suffered harsh captivities and died in large numbers while in captivity. The Soviet Union and the Empire of Japan also did not treat prisoners of war in accordance with the Geneva Convention.

When soldiers of lower rank were made to work, they were compensated, and officers (e.g. in Colditz Castle) were not forced to work. The main complaint of prisoners of war in German Army camps, especially during the last two years of the war, was the poor quality and miserly quantities of food provided, a fate German soldiers and civilians were also suffering due to the blockade conditions. Fortunately for the prisoners, food packages provided by the International Red Cross supplemented the food rations, until the last few months when allied air raids prevented shipments from arriving. The other main complaint was the harsh treatment during forced marches in the last months, resulting from German attempts to keep prisoners away from the advancing allied forces.

In contrast, Germany treated the Soviet Red Army troops that had been taken prisoner with neglect and deliberate, organized brutality. The first eight months of the German campaign on their Eastern Front were by far the worst phase, with up to 2.4 of 3.1 million POWs dying in unimaginable conditions. Soviet POWs were held under conditions that resulted in deaths of hundreds of thousands from starvation and disease. Most prisoners were also subjected to forced labour under conditions that resulted in further deaths. An official justification used by the Germans for this policy was that the Soviet Union had not signed the Geneva Convention; this was not legally justifiable, however, as under article 82 of the Third Geneva Convention of 1929, signatory countries had to give POWs of all signatory and non-signatory countries the rights assigned by the convention.^{[citation needed]}

German POWs were used for forced labour under conditions that resulted in deaths of hundreds of thousands of them. One specific example of the Soviets' cruelty towards the German POWs was after the Battle of Stalingrad, during which the Soviets captured 91,000 German troops. The prisoners, already starved and ill, were marched to war camps in Siberia to face the freezing bitter cold. Of the German troops captured in Stalingrad, only 5,000 survived the war. The last German POWs were released in 1955, only after Josef Stalin had died.^[7]

Between 1941 and 1945, the Axis powers took approximately 5.7 million Russian prisoners. Approximately 1 million of them were released during the war, in that their status changed but they remained under German authority. A little over 500,000 either escaped or were liberated by the Red Army; 930,000 more were found alive in camps after the war. The remaining 3.3 million prisoners (57.5% of the total captured) died during their captivity.^[8] In comparison, 8,348 British or American prisoners died in German camps in 1939-45 (3.5% of the 232,000 total).

On 11 February 1945, at the conclusion of the Yalta Conference, the United States and the United Kingdom signed a Repatriation Agreement with the USSR.^[9] The interpretation of this Agreement resulted in the forcible repatriation of all Soviets regardless of their wishes. The forced repatriation operations took place from 1945-1947.^[10] Millions of Soviet POWs and forced laborers transported to Nazi Germany were on their return to the USSR treated as traitors and cowards. The Soviet POWs and the Vlasov men were put under the jurisdiction of SMERSH (Death to Spies). Over 1.5 million Red Army soldiers imprisoned by the Germans were sent to the Gulag.^[11][12]

The Soviets captured 3.5 million Axis and German soldiers, of which more than a million died.^[13] By contrast, allied nations such as the U.S., UK, Australia and Canada, tried to treat Axis prisoners strictly in accordance with the Geneva Convention. This sometimes created conditions for POWs better than those their fellow soldiers enjoyed at home. The lower ranked prisoners were used for work on farms and road maintenance and were compensated for their work as required by the Geneva Convention. In addition, as word spread among the enemy about the attractive conditions of Allied POW camps, it encouraged surrenders, which helped further Allied military goals. It may have raised morale among the Allied personnel when the usefulness of this approach was accepted by reinforcing the idea that this humane treatment of prisoners showed that their side was morally superior to the enemy. At the end of the war in Europe, the victorious allied nations were not able to treat all prisoners in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, something which had been expected from Germany during the war, though, even with the millions of POWs captured. The U.S. created the designation of Disarmed Enemy Forces (DEF) so as not to treat prisoners as POWs.

In the Pacific War, the Empire of Japan neither signed or followed the Third Geneva Convention of 1929. Prisoners of war from China, the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, Netherlands and New Zealand held by the Japanese armed forces were subject to murder, beatings, summary punishments, brutal treatment, forced labor, medical experimentation, starvation rations, and poor medical treatment. No access to the POWs was provided to the International Red Cross. This treatment resulted in a death rate of 37% in Japanese prisoner of war camps. Escapes were almost impossible because of the difficulty of men of European descent hiding in Asiatic societies.^[14]

Post World War II

Following World War II, treatment of prisoners generally improved.^{[citation needed]} This, however, may be related to the fact that most world armies are no longer huge, conscripted forces.^{[citation needed]} For example, in several battles during Operation Barbarossa, German troops captured several hundred thousand prisoners in several isolated pockets. Modern armies are mostly professional and smaller in number. One exception to this is that the American POWs in Vietnam were treated quite poorly.

During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the Indian Armed Forces captured more than 90,000 Pakistani soldiers in East Pakistan (which became an independent nation following the war)^[15]. It was one of the largest surrenders since World War II. India originally wished to try some 200 of them for war crimes for the brutality in East Pakistan, but eventually acceded to releasing them as a gesture of reconciliation.

Regardless of regulations determining treatment to prisoners, violation of their rights continue to be reported. Many cases of POW massacres have been reported in recent times, including October 13 massacre in Lebanon and June 1990 massacre in Sri Lanka.

During the Kargil War, an Indian Air Force MiG-21 was shot down in Kashmir and the body of the pilot, Ajay Ahuja, was returned to India by Pakistan after the war ended. However, a post-mortem examination conducted by Indian military authorities said that Ahuja had landed safely after ejecting from his plane, but had been killed by Pakistani soldiers^[16]. The report revealed that Ahuja had been shot twice through the ear and chest.

During the 1990s Yugoslav Wars, Serb forces committed many POW massacres, including: Vukovar, Škarbrnja and Srebrenica massacres.These massacres were also committed by Croat forces, known as Ustaše in: Topusko, the village of Rujevac and many others.

Numbers of POWs

This is a list of nations with the highest number of POWs since the start of World War II, listed in descending order. These are also the highest numbers in any war since the Geneva Convention, Relative to the treatment of prisoners of war (1929) entered into force 19 June, 1931. The USSR had not signed the Geneva convention. ^[17]

Prisoner nationality	Number	Name of conflict
U.S.S.R	4 - 5.7 million (2.7 - 3.3 million died in German POW camps) [18] (ref. Streit)	World War II (Total)
Germany	3,127,380 taken by U.S.S.R. (474,967 died in captivity) [19]	World War II
France	1,800,000	Battle of France in World War II
Poland	675,000 (420,000 by Germans, 240,000 by Soviets in 1939; 15,000 Warsaw 1944)	World War II
Britain	~200,000 (135,000 taken in Europe, does not include Pacific or Commonwealth figures)	World War II
U.S.A	~130,000 (95,532 taken by Germany)	World War II
Pakistan	90,368 taken by India	Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

List of notable POWs

List of POWs that attracted notable attention or influence by this status:

• Floyd James Thompson - America's longest-held POW; he spent 9 years in POW camps in Vietnam (1964 - 1973)
• Ali Akbar Abotorabi Fard- Iranian cleric , was a POW in Iraq imposed war against Islamic Republic of Iran for more than 10 years
• Ron Arad - Israeli fighter pilot, shot down over Lebanon in 1986. Rumored to be in Iran, he is widely presumed dead.
• Douglas Bader - British leg-less fighter pilot, squadron commander in Battle of Britain
• Leonard Birchall - The "Saviour of Ceylon"
• Fernand Braudel - the famous historian, was a POW in World War II.
• Winston Churchill - during the Second Boer War; escaped
• John Cordwell - forged documents to help fellow English soldiers get out of Germany as part of the Great Escape
• Charles de Gaulle - French general and political leader, captured at Verdun, POW 1916-18
• Jeremiah Denton - Awarded the Navy Cross for resistance in captivity during the Vietnam War
• Roy Dotrice - British actor
• Werner Drechsler - killed by fellow German POWs during WWII for informing on other prisoners
• Weary Dunlop - an Australian surgeon and legend among prisoners of the Thai Burma Railway in WWII
• Yakov Dzhugashvili - Joseph Stalin's first son, was captured by Germans during WWII and killed in 1943.
• Denholm Elliott - British actor
• Henri Giraud - French general, escaped German captivity in both World War I and WWII
• Ehud Goldwasser - One of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in 2006, sparking the 2006 Lebanon War.
• Ernest Gordon - Author of "To End All Wars" and former Presbyterian Dean of Princeton University chapel
• E.R. (Bon) Hall - Australian Officer, prisoner of the Thai Burma Railway in WWII
• James Hargest - New Zealand politician
• Heinrich Harrer & Peter Aufschnaiter - escaped from India to Tibet
• Erich Hartmann - "The Blond Knight of Germany"
• Rudolf Hess - acted as Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party
• Bob Hoover - American WWII pilot, test pilot and airshow performer; captured in 1944 and escaped from Stalag Luft 1
• Wilm Hosenfeld - most remembered for saving Polish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman from death in the ruins of Warsaw.
• Alija Izetbegovic - President of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was held as hostage for several days by JNA forces during the Bosnian War
• Andrew Jackson - Seventh President of the United States, captured in the American Revolutionary War as a thirteen-year old courier
• Stanley D. Jaworski - Polish POW freed by American soldiers
• Harold K. Johnson - U.S. Army Chief of Staff 1964; captured at Bataan (1942-45)
• Arthur Koestler - interned in a camp for enemy aliens at the beginning of World War II
• Tikka Khan - Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army
• Yahya Khan - last president of a united Pakistan
• Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski - Commander of the Polish Home Army, and in the Warsaw Uprising
• Gustav Krist - Adventurer and traveler, Austrian soldier in WWI, captured by Russians in 1914. Interned in Russian Turkestan
• Desmond Llewelyn – went on to a notable acting career, most famously as Q in the James Bond film series
• Jessica Lynch
• Keith Matthew Maupin - captured on April 9, 2004, STILL MISSING IN ACTION
• Charles Cardwell McCabe - a prisoner and chaplain at Libby Prison during the American Civil War
• John McCain - American political leader, captured in Vietnam
• Olivier Messiaen - French composer
• Dusty Miller - Executed for his faith during internment under the Japanese in Thailand in 1945.
• François Mitterrand - French president, captured during WWII in 1940, escaped 6 times before arriving home in Dec. 1941
• W. H. Murray - Scottish mountaineer
• Airey Neave - British politician
• A. A. K. Niazi - commander of Pakistan Army in East Pakistan who surrendered along with nearly 93,000 prisoners
• Manuel Noriega - Ex-Panamanian dictor captured by US troops in 1990 then jailed for drugs trafficking offences. Only detainee in held by US authorities presentally designated as a POW by the federal government.
• Friedrich Paulus - German field marshal, surrendered Stalingrad to the Soviets in 1943; outspoken critic of Hitler
• Eldad Regev - One of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in 2006, sparking the 2006 Lebanon War.
• Patrick Reid - non-fiction/historical author
• Jerry Sage - OSI agent - WWII - Steve McQueen character was loosely based on him in the movie "The Great Escape"
• Jean-Paul Sartre - French philosopher and writer, POW 1940-41
• Kazuo Sakamaki - First POW captured by U.S. forces in World War II
• Ronald Searle - English cartoonist
• Léopold Senghor - Senegalize writer and political leader, captured 1940 in France
• Gilad Shalit - Israeli soldier whose capture in 2006 sparked Israel's war against Hamas and later Hezbollah
• William Stacy - lieutenant colonel of the Continental Army, captured during the Cherry Valley massacre; General George Washington attempted to orchestrate a prisoner exchange for Lt. Col. Stacy^[20] but was unsuccessful.
• James Stockdale - candidate for Vice President in 1992; decorated member of the U.S. Navy; POW in Vietnam
• Ronald E. Storz - Vietnam War prisoner who showed exceptional bravery and toughness despite horrible conditions and treatment. Inspired others towards perseverance and courage. Died in captivity.
• E W Swanton - captured by Japanese in Singapore; after war, was renowned BBC sports commentator.
• Josip Broz Tito - president of Yugoslavia, Austrian soldier in WWI, captured by Russians in 1915
• Mikhail Tukhachevsky - Soviet military leader and theorist, captured by Germans in WWI
• Charles Upham - Awarded the Victoria Cross twice.
• Laurens van der Post - South African writer and war hero, captured by Japanese 1942
• Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach - German anti-Nazi general captured at Stalingrad by Soviets
• Kurt Vonnegut - American writer; captured in the Battle of the Bulge and witnessed the Bombing of Dresden in World War II
• Jonathan Wainwright - Commanding General US forces in Philippines; captured at Bataan (1942-1945)
• D.C. Wimberly - POW in WWII from Springhill, Louisiana, past commander of American Ex-Prisoners of War
• Louis Zamperini - American athlete, member of Olympic team, captured by Japanese 1943

See also

• KIA – Killed In Action
• MIA – Missing In Action
• WIA – Wounded in action
• American Revolution prisoners of war
• British prison ships (New York)
• Combatant
• Disarmed Enemy Forces
• Eisenhower and German POWs
• Illegal combatant
• Katyn massacre
• Laws of war
• Postal censorship