They could be put to work on non-war related activities under the Geneva Convention. Many were put to work growing food for the use of the prisoners.
prisoners were not allowed to work on ordnance . tortured.
They were held as prisoners of war. What that entailed depended upon the "enemy" who caught them. In Britain we often made prisoners of war work, but on the whole we treated them fairly well. In Japan many prisoners were treated extremely badly and were frequently tortured.
an exchange of prisoners of war in North Vietnam
The German prisoners of WWII were worked to the bone until they couldn't work again, any weak ones were killed, and many of them were burned alive.
Andre Vulliet has written: 'Preliminary report of the War Prisoners Aid, Young Men's Christian Associations during World War II' -- subject(s): Prisoners and prisons, War work, World Alliance of YMCAs, World Alliance of YMCAs. War Prisoners' Aid, World War, 1939-1945, Young Men's Christian associations
Prisoners of war were enslaved. They were the sources of slaves in antiquity.
Japanese and most German prisoners remained confined to Allied camps. Many Italian prisoners were allowed out to work on farms in Britain and Australia and in many cases left the camps for the duration of the war. As for Allied prisoners in Axis hands, the Japanese and to a lesser extent the Germans required prisoners to work, in the case of the Japanese, often to death.
On the Axis side many prisoners of war were sent to work camps, concentration camps, or stockades based on race, color, or religion. On the Allied side prisoners of war were ether sent to camps in the US. or in camps through out the British empire based on war the fighting was going on.
hard work...
Please clarify: Civil inmates? Prisoners of War? Concentration Camp Prisoners?
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