World War I prisoners of war in Germany The situation of World War I prisoners of war in Germany is an aspect of the conflict little covered by historical research . However , the number of soldiers imprisoned reached a little over seven million for all the belligerents , of whom around 2 , 400 , 000 were held by Germany . Starting in 1915 , the German authorities put in place a system of camps , nearly three hundred in all , and did not hesitate to resort to denutrition , punishments and psychological mobbing ; incarceration was also combined with methodical exploitation of the prisoners . This prefigured the systematic use of prison camps on a grand scale during the 20th century . However , the captivity organised by the German military authorities also contributed to creating exchanges among peoples and led a number of prisoners to reflect on their involvement in the war and relation with their homeland . The Hague Conventions . At the end of the 19th century , Western nations reflected on the legal aspect of war and of captive soldiers , particularly following the Crimean and Austro - Prussian wars . Tsar Nicholas II initiated the two conferences that fixed the terms of the laws and customs of war at The Hague in 1899 and 1907 . Chapter II of the convention signed in October 1907 is entirely devoted to prisoners of war and begins thus : “ Prisoners of war are in the power of the hostile Government , but not of the individuals or corps who capture them . They must be humanely treated . All their personal belongings , except arms , horses , and military papers , remain their property . " The twenty articles comprising this chapter regulate various aspects of life in captivity such as lodging , work , religion , nourishment , dress , and mail . But this international accord is imbued with 19th - century conceptions of war . Thus , prisoners “ may be set at liberty on parole if the laws of their country allow ” , for example . The principal nations of the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance signed the convention , with the exception of the Ottoman Empire , not among the 44 signatories in 1907 . The Hague Conventions ’ dispositions entered into force in the German Empire and France on 26 January 1910 , but these agreements turned out to be unsuitable in the tumult of World War I . In October 1918 , the number of prisoners held in Germany reached 2 , 415 , 043 , and such a mass of men made it impossible for a country at war to respect fully the conventions in their smallest details . During the conflict , the belligerent parties concluded special accords in order to mitigate these difficulties and in 1929 , a new text was produced , amending the applicable regulatory dispositions . Conditions of detention . From the beginning of the war , the German authorities found themselves confronted with an unexpected influx of prisoners . In September 1914 , 125 , 050 French soldiers and 94 , 000 Russian ones were held captive . Before 1915 , conditions of detention in Germany were very harsh and marked by temporary lodging and the absence of infrastructure . The prisoners slept in hangars or tents , where they dug holes to keep warm . The humid forts requisitioned to serve as places of detention led to numerous cases of pulmonary illness . The German authorities also commandeered schools , barns and various other types of shelters . Camps were established in the countryside as well as near the towns , which had consequences when epidemics of cholera or typhus threatened to spread to the civilian population . Not all the camps were situated on German territory ; a certain number were built in occupied territories , notably in northern and eastern France . They began to be developed starting in 1915 when the number of prisoners being held captive in Germany reached 652 , 000 . According to official directives , each prisoner had to have use of 2 . 5 m² . The camps mixed a large number of nationalities sharing the same quarters : French , Russian , British , American , Canadian , Belgian , Italian , Romanian , Serbian , Montenegrin , Portuguese and Japanese prisoners were found there , as well as Greeks and Brazilians . Equally , soldiers of various social origins rubbed elbows : workers , peasants , bureaucrats and intellectuals were among those held . The number of prisoners rose very quickly . From February to August 1915 , it went from 652 , 000 to 1 , 045 , 232 . In August 1916 , it reached 1 , 625 , 000 , jumping to 2 , 415 , 000 by October 1918 . The camps . The types of camps . The " Mannschaftslager " . These were the basic camps , made up of wooden barracks 10 m wide and 50 m long , covered with tar on the outside . Each of these barracks kept around 250 prisoners . On the inside , a central corridor provided access on each side to straw or sawdust beds stacked two high . Furniture was kept to a minimum : a table , chairs or benches and a stove . Camps also featured barracks for guards , a Kantine ( cafeteria ) where prisoners could sometimes buy little objects and additional food , a barrack for packages , a guardhouse and kitchens . Each camp had its own particular structures , notably sanitary facilities or cultural places like a library , a theatre hall or a worship space . P “ All around the camp , there was barbed wire three metres high ; the wires were spaced fifteen centimetres apart , a wooden post every three metres , and across other barbed wires every fifty centimetres , forming a mesh . ” As many prisoners were put to work , they might in fact spend longer or shorter periods of time away from their parent camp : those engaged in agriculture , for example , might be housed in village assembly halls . Officers ’ camps ( " Offizierlager " ) . From 1915 , imprisoned officers were held in camps reserved for them . By October 1918 , the number of officers ’ camps had reached 73 . Living conditions for officers were usually less harsh than those endured by troops . The " camps " themselves were usually located in requisitioned buildings ( castles , barracks or hotels ) , rather than in compounds of tents and huts . Officers had a higher allocation of space per man than other ranks , they had beds instead of straw - filled palliasses , specific rooms were fitted out for their meals , and they were exempt from labour . In addition , there were no officers ’ camps in East Prussia ( see map ) , where weather conditions were often far worse than in the rest of Germany . One of the main burdens of camp life for officers was tedium . Their daily lives tended to revolve around sport , amateur concerts and plays , lectures , debates , and reading . As the result of an agreement reached in 1916 between the British and German governments , British officers were even allowed to go for walks in groups outside the camp , provided they signed a document giving their word of honour not to attempt escape . Officers ' camps accommodated , in addition to their officer - prisoners , a smaller number of other ranks prisoners known as orderlies , whose role was to act as servants to the officers and to perform menial tasks around the camp . Orderlies appreciated that their situation was safer and more comfortable than that of their counterparts in soldiers ' camps , and so , even when offered the opportunity , they generally did not try to escape , knowing that if recaptured they would be sent to far worse conditions . The " Durchgangslager " . The rapid progression of the German offensive in the early part of the war led to a massive influx of prisoners . From 1915 , transit camps , the " Durchgangslager " , were built to manage and redirect this wave toward detention camps . There was a special transit camp for Allied prisoners of war at the former Europäischer Hof at 39 , Ettlinger Strasse , in Karlsruhe . This was known as " the Listening Hotel " by the inmates , who recognized that it was a camp devoted to intelligence collection . This " Listening Hotel " was similar in organization and purpose to the Dulag Luft camp at Frankfurt in the Second World War . Reprisal camps . These camps were often located in regions where the climate or the terrain made life difficult , but also near the front , where the prisoners might be taken to rebuild trenches or cart away bodies . The goal of the reprisal camps was to put pressure on enemy governments to ameliorate conditions of detention for German prisoners , and to punish prisoners ( for instance following an escape ) . Life for prisoners sent to reprisal camps was so harsh that many of them died . Robert d ' Harcourt describes the arrival of a prisoners ’ convoy coming from such a camp : “ These men – these soldiers – marched , but they were dead ; beneath each blue greatcoat was the head of a dead man : their eyes hollow , their cheekbones jutting out , their emaciated grimaces those of graveyard skulls ” . Often kept in tents resting in mud , these prisoners were forced into exhaustive work with their entire diet consisting of soup or perhaps stewed acorns . At certain camps , for instance at Sedan , some prisoners were executed . Reprisal camps for officers existed , too : the fortress at Ingolstadt held Charles de Gaulle , Georges Catroux , Roland Garros , the journalist and World War II Resistance member Rémy Roure , the editor Berger - Levrault and the future Soviet Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky . Guard personnel . The camp guard personnel were divided into two categories : the officers and sub - officers who directed the camps , and the sentinels who kept watch . This division was also found in the perception the prisoners had for these people , the second group receiving greater sympathy or indulgence . A German adjutant was responsible for prisoners ’ companies and was tasked with all the administrative measures . These German officers were most often unsuited for combat and were thus posted to the camps . In effect , they were either too old : “ Saw the general commanding the camp : old fogey with black red - striped pants [ … ] and a big iron cross , he limps ” or unfit due to alcoholism or war wounds . Starting with the camp director , a very strict hierarchy was in place . The director gave orders to the sub - officers , who were often young . The prisoners dreaded the latter : “ Finally the fourth German corporal , the youngest , Red Baby , a worthy student who did honour to Savage and Steel Mouth , only sought to do harm , always provoking , having several acts of savagery to his name ” . For their part , the prisoners had fun giving them nicknames such as " Gueule d ’ Acier " ( “ Steel Mouth ” – lit . “ Stainless Steel Trap ” ) , " Jambes de laine " ( “ Woolen Legs ” ) , " Je sais tout " ( “ Know - it - all ” – lit . “ I know everything ” ) , " Rabiot des tripes ' ( “ Tripe leftovers ” ) , or even " La Galoche " ( “ The Clog ” ) and " Sourire d ’ Avril " ( “ April Smile ” ) . “ The deliberate ferocity , when we had to endure it , was above all displayed among the ruling class , the officers , the administrators , and most particularly it came to us through ministerial orders drawn up in Berlin . " The guards seem not to have been judged in the same manner as the officers , hated for their zeal . Most often , they were part of the territorial army , the Landsturm , and tended to be family fathers who were there only under obligation . Numerous accounts are found regarding their occasional benevolence . Food . According to the Second Hague Convention , “ The Government into whose hands prisoners of war have fallen is charged with their maintenance . In the absence of a special agreement between the belligerents , prisoners of war shall be treated as regards board , lodging , and clothing on the same footing as the troops of the Government who captured them . " Nevertheless , prisoners frequently suffered from hunger . As a general rule , breakfast was served between 6 : 00 and 7 : 30 am , lunch around 11 : 00 am and dinner at about 6 : 30 pm . From the start of their captivity , the food posed a problem for prisoners , who complained of a diet that was insufficient to ward off hunger . Soup became the symbol of this regimen : it might be made with beans , oats , prunes , beets , codfish . Bread was replaced by “ KK bread ” ( from the German “ Kleie und Kartoffeln ” : bran and potatoes ) , the ingredients of which remain unclear : potato flour , sawdust or ox blood . Malnutrition became a daily affair for the prisoner ; after the war , many suffered serious digestive problems and adapted with difficulty to a new dietary regimen . The Allied blockade of Germany played a role in this : from 6 November 1914 , Germany was subjected to an economic blockade by the Entente nations . The military administration responsible for supplying the camps had much difficulty in feeding the troops , considered a priority , which partly explains the catastrophic state of supplies in the camps . Prisoners were not the only ones to suffer from the situation ; the general population was also affected . According to official directives concerning nourishment issued at the beginning of 1916 , each week the prisoner was to have 600 - 1 , 000g of potatoes , 200 - 300g of vegetables at lunch , meat three times , fish twice and 150g of legumes . The reality could be far from what these menus prescribed . Not only was the food insufficient , it was often quite detrimental to health : “ The other day I saw , in our kitchens , quarters of refrigerated beef of which the smell and greenish tint were so pronounced that our cooks refused to prepare them . The German head doctor , called to arbitrate , ordered them soaked in a solution of permanganate and , the day after the morrow , this meat , thus disinfected , decorated the ordinary one ” . The food served in the camps , often the cause of illness , weakened the prisoners more than it kept them in shape . Only parcels and shipments from charitable bodies including the Central Prisoners of War Committee ( in Britain ) , the " Vetement du Prisonnier " ( in France ) , and the Red Cross , allowed them to hang on . By the end of the war , some 9 , 000 , 000 food parcels and 800 , 000 clothing parcels had been despatched to British prisoners abroad . Prisoners ' families were also able to send food and other luxuries ( although there were restrictions on what these parcels could contain ) . British prisoners , in particular , received parcels regularly and in abundance : French prisoners received far fewer , and Italians and Russians virtually none . As the blockade increasingly affected the Germans , and as the system of food parcels became established , prisoners – especially the British , and especially officers – were sometimes better fed than the military personnel guarding them and the local civilian population . This naturally prompted resentment among the Germans , and food , like mail , became a means of pressure and revenge on the part of the camp authorities . Package inspections often gave rise to wasteful scenes : “ At the kommandantur everything had been rummaged : the cans had all been punctured or opened , the chocolate broken into little pieces , the sausages cut lengthwise [ … ] I saw them mixing in the same mess kit , or in the same container , meat , fish , vegetables , prunes , biscuits , pastries , jam [ … ] What deplorable waste ; it ’ s a crime against humanity . [ … ] Our indignation could be read in our eyes ; these sons of dogs , or rather of wolves , sniggered with joy at it ” . Hygiene and illnesses . From the beginning , questions of hygiene posed a problem in the camps , built in haste . The goal was to quickly build a maximum number of installations , which relegated sanitary considerations to the back burner . Camps in Germany featured only a simple faucet in the yard for thousands of people . Very often , latrines consisted of a simple board with a hole in the middle above a pit , which the prisoners were tasked with emptying at regular intervals . Because of their basic construction , the toilets often overflowed during powerful rains , making an unbreathable atmosphere prevail in the camps . Moreover , the clayey soil turned to muck from the first rains . Diseases such as typhus or cholera appeared very fast . The close confinement of the accommodations and the number of prisoners per barrack , on average 250 , partly explains the phenomenon , as the foul air circulated very little . An official policy of integration of different nationalities mean that typhus tended to spread rapidly from Russian troops , among whom it was endemic , to the French and British who had little immunity to it . In February 1915 , the camp at Chemnitz was placed under quarantine ; one prisoner wrote that the only vehicles approaching the camp were those transporting coffins . Serious outbreaks of typhus occurred at the camps at Wittenberg , Gardelegen , Cassel and Cottbus , among others : at Cassel , for example , of 18 , 300 prisoners , there were 7 , 218 cases of typhus , with a mortality rate of 11 per cent . In November 1915 , a circular from the war ministry was sent to the various camps to put in place rules of hygiene . The fight against lice was at the centre of measures to be taken by using hair - removing creams and disinfecting rooms . Vaccines were also ordered , and a vaccination frenzy ensued . For instance , Charles Gueugnier was vaccinated against typhus on 28 September 1915 , only to be re - vaccinated on 2 and 7 October . At Merseburg camp , the blankets were de - loused for the first time on 5 June 1915 . Cemeteries for deceased prisoners were gradually opened near the camps . It was a point of honour for the survivors to take care of their comrades ’ final resting places . Most often , each nationality had its own reserved patch . In certain camps , such as Gardelegen , veritable monuments were erected . Roger Pelletier motivated his comrades : “ Doesn ’ t it fall to us , who have known them , to all of us here who are their great family , to raise , in the cemetery where they rest , a monument of the French soul that , spreading above them like an aegis , will be above our dead , when we have left , as a memory and a goodbye ? ” Wilhelm Doegen estimates the number of dead in the camps at 118 , 159 but serious doubts surround this number , notably because Doegen failed to take certain diseases into account . Also according to Doegen , Russia suffered the heaviest losses ( perhaps explained by the poorer nutrition of Russians , most of whom did not receive packages from their families ) with a little over 70 , 000 dead , followed by France with 17 , 069 deaths , Romania with 12 , 512 , and then Italy and the United Kingdom . Psychological illnesses . A confinement that was visual as well as physical very quickly led to psychological illnesses among the prisoners , illnesses generally grouped under the heading of “ barbed - wire psychosis ” or “ prisoner ’ s syndrome ” , around which the Anthelme Mangin affaire revolved . This psychasthenia was recognised by the " Kriegsministerium " ( German War Ministry ) in April 1917 . In addition , cases of epilepsy and of madness were identified due to physical or moral persecutions undergone in the camps . As for suicides ( by hanging , throwing oneself onto the barbed - wire fences , etc . ) , as no formal statistic was drawn up , it is difficult to give a precise figure . However , based on documents from the Prussian War Ministry covering the years 1914 to 1919 , Doegen counts 453 suicides by Russian prisoners and 140 by French ones . Mail . Mail was vital for the prisoners of war . Letters allowed them not only to receive news from home but also to ask their families to send parcels and inform them of their receipt . Every month , a prisoner had the right to write two letters ( limited to six pages each for officers , and four pages for other ranks ) , on paper that he had to buy at the camp , and four postcards . These were the numbers in theory , at least , though very often the practice differed . For the German authorities , mail represented a considerable source of pressure ; the right to write and receive mail was regularly denied . In the first half of 1915 , French prisoners sent 350 , 000 letters to France ; the figure doubled in the second half of the year . On an average week , French prisoners received 45 , 000 letters containing money . This number fluctuated significantly : 8 , 356 such letters between 8 and 24 October 1914 , 79 , 561 between 22 and 28 November 1915 . Many prisoners did not know how to write and asked others to write for them . Censorship and package inspections were daily occurrences . As the rations distributed in the camps were not sufficient to live on , and the prisoners wanted more than biscuits from the Red Cross , they survived thanks to parcels . Although French and British detainees tended to receive enough food in the mail , this was not the case for the Russians , the majority of whom were condemned to eat from rubbish bins or die of hunger . Cultural and religious life . In most camps , libraries were opened at the end of October 1915 . The books were generally offered by prisoners ’ aid committees . For example , in 1914 , the camp at Münsigen received 220 books from the Stuttgart Red Cross . In 1915 , the camp ’ s library featured 2 , 500 titles in French and a thousand in Russian . Newspapers were also highly valued as they could bring news from the outside and the discovery of the smallest sheet excited a prisoner ’ s eyes : “ Read a fragment of a newspaper from Orléans [ … ] Finally this bit of paper did us some good , for we were sick of all these German victories that they never stopped talking about ” . Sometimes , theatrical troupes and orchestras performed , while camp newspapers saw publication in places like Zwickau , Ohrdruf and Stendal . Religious practice had a place in prisoners ’ lives . From 1915 , prayer rooms were built for Christians , Jews , and Muslims . If no prisoner capable of celebrating services or practicing ceremonies was found , it was prescribed that a German clergyman fill that role on the premises . The churches launched several initiatives and , at the end of August 1914 , an inter - confessional aid commission was created , aiming to take care of spiritual life . Detention and sentencings . Falling afoul of camp rules exposed a prisoner to sanctions , which could come about for various reasons : refusal to salute , refusal to answer during roll call , insubordination , possession of banned objects like paper , wearing civilian clothes , escape or attempted escape . Detention could take three forms . First , the " Gelinder Arrest " ( “ mild detention ” ) of up to nine weeks simply involved locking up the prisoner , but theoretically with no further deprivation . Second was the " Mittelarrest " , lasting up to three weeks . The prisoner could receive nothing from the outside except 10000 g of potato bread and a supplement on the fourth day of captivity . Finally , the " Strenger Arrest " , lasting two weeks , was similar to the " Mittelarrest " but included light deprivation . If no detention cell was available in the camp , standing at a post was used as punishment , in which case German military regulations specified that prisoners punished with " Strenger Arrest " must also stand at a post for two hours a day . Post punishment would become the symbol of this detention . The principle was simple : the prisoner was attached to a post , a tree or against a wall , hands behind his back , and had to remain in this position , which prevented him from moving , for a certain amount of time , without eating or drinking . Several variations on this punishment were invented , such as one where the prisoner was raised onto bricks while being attached and once he was solidly attached , the bricks were removed , rendering the punishment even more painful . The Hague Convention specified that “ Prisoners of war shall be subject to the laws , regulations , and orders in force in the army of the State in whose power they are . Any act of insubordination justifies the adoption towards them of such measures of severity as may be considered necessary ” . Post punishment was applied in the German Army until its abolition on 18 May 1917 ; for prisoners , abolition came at the end of 1916 after a complaint by France . Sabotage , espionage , sexual crimes , and murder were the most serious crimes , consequently judged by military tribunals . These could impose the death penalty , which , however , was never used except in the case of four British prisoners shot on 24 June 1918 upon the order of two German military tribunals for having killed a German guard during an escape attempt . From 1915 to 1918 , the high court martial of Württemberg handed down 655 sentences . Prison terms might be for one year for aggravated insubordination or one to three years for bodily harm to a superior . Harsher penalties could reach up to 15 years ; for instance , this was the term given to two French prisoners who murdered a guard in 1916 . Work . “ The State may utilize the labour of prisoners of war according to their rank and aptitude , officers excepted . The tasks shall not be excessive and shall have no connection with the operations of the war . " A huge number of prisoners were used to work for the German Reich . Of 1 , 450 , 000 prisoners , 750 , 000 were employed in agricultural labour and 330 , 000 in industry . As able - bodied men were at the front , the lack of manpower was felt in all European belligerents and especially in Germany . The armaments industry , agriculture and mines were the three branches concerned . Prisoners of war represented an indispensable segment of the workforce . This is strikingly apparent , for instance , with regard to farm labour . In April 1915 , 27 , 409 prisoners were working in agriculture in Prussia . Eight months later , their number had risen to 343 , 020 and in December 1916 , 577 , 183 . While prisoners ’ labour was voluntary at the beginning , it very quickly became mandatory , organised into " kommandos " . The Ministry of War even set daily work quotas . Work in mines and swamps was dreaded as particularly painful ; most of the time , agricultural work allowed for slightly better detention conditions . Certain prisoners , when they were employed by individuals , as was the case for Robert d ’ Harcourt and his comrade - in - arms , might be kept in castles , the city taking care to find them shelter . Food was also better than in the camps . Work was fixed at ten hours daily and guard surveillance was reduced ( which allowed some prisoners to escape more easily ) . The case of Russian prisoners demonstrates just how crucial the need for manpower was . The Treaty of Brest - Litovsk between Germany and Russia stipulated that prisoners of war “ will be released to return to their homeland . " However , most of the Russian prisoners were kept in order to sustain the German war effort through the end of the conflict . Although prisoners were forced to work , some refused , which led to severe penalties , going up to prison terms of a year . Cases of “ sabotage ” were also reported , principally in factories , but also on farms . In Roger Pelletier ’ s memoirs , there is an account of French prisoners suspected of having placed bits of iron into a crusher ( of grains or beets ) in order to damage it . Some acts of sabotage were more radical , above all a scheme involving the procurement of foot - and - mouth disease virus in order to decimate German livestock . However , the attitude most often adopted ( and also the safest ) was to work as little as possible . Since their labour was forced , the detainees did not expend all their effort on the enemy : “ We worked with a certain constancy and a minimum of effort . " The prisoners , although they contributed significantly to the German war effort , might also be considered as burdens due to their lack of qualifications or their unsuitability as workers on behalf of the enemy . For example , an imprisoned bureaucrat finding himself working in a field gave less results than if a civilian farmer had been given the work . Propaganda . Prisoners far from their country were , by definition , easy prey for propaganda which , partly oriented toward them , could be classed into two types : that made among the German population ; and that distributed inside the camps , meant to take effect in France . Among the population . When the first prisoners of war were captured , the German Army ’ s superiority was put on display by making them march through towns , which produced scenes of collective hate . In certain train stations , mannequins dressed in Allied uniforms were hung , visible to prisoners passing by in trains : “ I noticed that in many stations , the Krauts hung mannequins depicting sometimes a zouave , other times a grunt or an artilleryman ” . Camp visits were organised for schoolchildren . “ Sunday , schoolchildren ordered about by their teachers with drums , fifes and flags toured the camp . We had to tour the cinemas and the … menageries surrounding the city , for the public would not stop flooding in . They were especially curious to see the troops from Africa ” . During the war , this curiosity and propaganda underwent a transformation . Most of the German population realised that the fate of the prisoners of war was shared by their own absent detainees , and , from 1915 , the prisoners noted that the visitors ’ vehemence had cooled . Little by little a relationship built on understanding developed , as Charles Gueugnier , a simple zouave , noted in his daily diary : “ Beautiful day , many visitors around the camp ; among this crowd black dominates : grief has driven away their insolent smugness . All these griefs that pass through , I sympathise with them and salute in them those who have died for their fatherland . Especially , all these little ones hurt me a lot , because it ’ s sad ” . Work also allowed prisoners to know the population better and better , and the longer the war dragged on , the more relaxed these relationships became . Robert d ’ Harcourt notes : “ The inhabitants seemed rather indifferent to the war . The neighbourhood barber ’ s wife [ … ] told me one day : ‘ What the f _ _ _ do we care about Alsace - Lorraine ? Let them give it to the French and let the slaughter cease ’ . " Inside the camps . Newspapers played an essential role in the propaganda effort . Prisoners needed to know their countries ’ and their families ’ situation , a fact well understood by the German authorities . Several sets of newspapers intended for prisoners were printed so that rumours would spread , in particular through mail to their families . In order to sap the enemy ’ s morale , each newspaper had its targeted recipient group . For British prisoners , " The Continental Times " was printed ; by 1916 , this journal had a circulation of 15 , 000 . The French and the Belgians had their own analogous newspaper : " La Gazette des Ardennes " , founded in 1914 at Charleville and described by Charles Gueugnier as “ true German poison ” . The lack of information led the prisoner to believe whatever he read , notably what was written in these newspapers . This was all the more so because expressions reinforcing the appearance of truth were inserted to convince the detainees , as seen in the 1 November 1914 edition of " La Gazette des Ardennes " , its first issue : “ " La Gazette des Ardennes " will rigorously refrain from inserting any false news [ … ] The sole objective of this newspaper is thus to make known events in all their sincerity and we hope thereby to accomplish a useful endeavour ” . Escapes . Escapes had been discussed by the Hague Convention : “ Escaped prisoners who are retaken before being able to rejoin their own army or before leaving the territory occupied by the army which captured them are liable to disciplinary punishment . Prisoners who , after succeeding in escaping , are again taken prisoners , are not liable to any punishment on account of the previous flight . " “ Upon arriving in a camp , a prisoner ’ s first care is to get to know his enclosure [ … ] I observed right away that there was little hope in this regard ” . For prisoners , escape signified not only flight from the conditions of detention but also regaining their status as soldiers and being able once again to fight and lead their country to victory . Military honour and patriotism were powerful motivators . Most of the time , escapes occurred from work " kommandos " , from which it was easier to hide . Escape required great psychological and physical preparation . Going to the nearest town to take a train or walking to the border implied a considerable effort , especially considering that prisoners were underfed . Moreover , they could not use well - travelled roads lest they be found . A prisoner had to blend in , adopt local mannerisms so as not to appear suspicious , know how to speak German and have credible civilian clothing : “ The state of an escapee ’ s soul ? It ’ s not fear . It ’ s tension of the spirit , a perpetual ' who goes there ? ' ” Officers were more likely than other ranks to attempt to escape : first , from a sense that it was their duty to return to active military service , or at least to divert German manpower into searching for them ; second because , exempt from labour and in more regular receipt of parcels from home ( in which escape equipment was often smuggled ) , officers had more time and opportunity to plan and prepare their escapes ; and third because the punishment on recapture was generally limited to a period in solitary confinement , considered by many to be an acceptable risk . One of the best - known escapes of the war was from Holzminden officers ' camp on the night of 23 / 24 July 1918 , when 29 British officers escaped through a tunnel which had been under excavation for nine months : of the 29 , ten succeeded in making their way to the neutral Netherlands and eventually back to Britain . Other noted Allied escape attempts were from the " Listening Hotel " at Karlsruhe ( also British ) and from Villingen ( primarily US ) . Certain Germans helped prisoners in their escape attempts . During his second try , Robert d ' Harcourt hid in a warehouse , where a German found him . The latter did not denounce him , instead helping him leave the city that night : “ [ … ] then he guided me across a maze of back - alleys and yards , through which I would never have found my way alone , until the entrance to a street where he left me , not without first vigorously shaking my hand and wishing me good luck . " The sympathy of women is equally remarked upon by Riou and d ' Harcourt . Once the escape was successful , the prisoner was sent to his regimental barracks to undergo an interrogation . In effect , the home authorities had to make sure the escape was authentic and not a spy trick . If the operation failed , the escapee was taken back to the camp to be punished . The frustration generated by failure very often led the recaptured prisoner to develop plans for the next attempt ; this was the case for Charles de Gaulle and Robert d ’ Harcourt . Of 313 , 400 escapes counted for the war ’ s duration , 67 , 565 succeeded . The role of humanitarian organisations . Ever since the Red Cross was founded in 1863 , humanitarian societies have played an important role in wartime , and World War I , together with its prisoners , was no exception . It was first and foremost responsible for feeding them ; the distribution of food packages from the Red Cross , most of the time containing biscuits , was highly anticipated . By December 1915 , 15 , 850 , 000 individual packages had been distributed and 1 , 813 railcars chartered for the transport of collective shipments . The action of the Red Cross and other humanitarian societies was facilitated by their official recognition through the Second Hague Convention : “ Relief societies for prisoners of war , which are properly constituted in accordance with the laws of their country and with the object of serving as the channel for charitable effort shall receive from the belligerents , for themselves and their duly accredited agents every facility for the efficient performance of their humane task within the bounds imposed by military necessities and administrative regulations . Agents of these societies may be admitted to the places of internment for the purpose of distributing relief , as also to the halting places of repatriated prisoners , if furnished with a personal permit by the military authorities , and on giving an undertaking in writing to comply with all measures of order and police which the latter may issue ” . The Red Cross , not content merely with helping prisoners , also lent assistance to families who did not know where their loved ones were being held , by ensuring that the latter received mail or money intended for them . Its International Prisoners - of - War Agency in Geneva was the largest non - governmental institution to have come to the prisoners ’ aid . With a daily average of 16 , 500 letters asking for information on prisoners over the course of the war , this organisation became a " sine qua non " . The camps were also inspected by delegations from neutral countries , notably Switzerland , and most often by representatives of the Red Cross . During these visits , most prisoners noticed a perceptible improvement in ( for instance ) food quality , the German authorities seeing to it that the inspectors were fooled . At the end of the war , the Red Cross took part in prisoners ’ repatriation , but it also helped initiate prisoner exchanges and internments in Switzerland . Civilian prisoners and deportees . Soldiers were not the only ones made prisoner during the war ; civilian populations were also impacted . Historian Annette Becker has extensively studied this aspect of the war . After the invasion , the German Army started by taking hostages , first of all the towns ’ leading citizens . Several invaded countries were affected by civilian deportations : France , Belgium , Romania , Russia , etc . 100 , 000 were deported from France and Belgium . From 1914 , both male and female civilians aged 14 and over from the occupied zones were forced to work , quite often on projects related to the war effort , such as the rebuilding of infrastructure destroyed by fighting ( roads , rail tracks , etc . ) . In short order , the civilians began to be deported to forced labour camps . There , they formed the " Zivilarbeiter - Bataillone " ( civilian workers ’ battalions ) and wore a distinctive mark : a red armband . Becker indicates that their living conditions resembled those of the prisoners – that is , they were harsh . The hostages were sent to camps in Prussia or Lithuania , and some of them remained prisoners until 1918 . Like the military prisoners , civilians were subject to exchanges , and a bureau for the repatriation of civilian detainees was created at Bern in 1916 . At the end of the war , civilian prisoners formed an association , the " Union nationale des prisonniers civils de guerre " . By 1936 , three decorations had been established intending to honour their sacrifices : the Médaille des victimes de l ' invasion ( 1921 ) , Médaille de la Fidélité Française ( 1922 ) and the Médaille des prisonniers civils , déportés et otages de la Grande Guerre 1914 - 1918 ( 1936 ) . Wounded prisoners . Wounded prisoners benefited from the 1864 Geneva Convention , article 6 of which stated : “ Wounded or sick combatants , to whatever nation they may belong , shall be collected and cared for . " Wounded soldiers were transported to a “ " Lazarett " ” , the most important of which was the " Lazarett Saint - Clément " of Metz . In his book , Robert d ’ Harcourt gives a very detailed description of the treatments practiced on prisoners . Amputation was commonplace , even when unnecessary , and care quite rudimentary . Charles Hennebois touches on a wrenching aspect concerning the wounded . Some of them , instead of being transported to the hospital , were finished off on the field of battle : “ Men wounded the day before were calling them from afar and asking to drink . The Germans finished them off by butting them with their rifles or bayoneting them , then despoiling them . I saw this from several metres away . A group of seven or eight men , felled by machine - gun crossfire , found itself at that point . Several were still alive , as they were begging the soldiers . They were finished off like I just said , shaken down and heaped up in a pile ” . This claim is refuted in a German propaganda book about what happened in the camps published in 1918 . Prisoner exchanges , internment in neutral countries , and repatriation . In all , 219 , 000 prisoners were exchanged . During the war , some prisoners were sent to neutral Switzerland on grounds of ill health . Internment conditions were very strict in Switzerland but softened with time . Only the following illnesses could lead to departure from Germany : diseases of the circulatory system , serious nervous problems , tumors and severe skin diseases , blindness ( total or partial ) , serious face injuries , tuberculosis , one or more missing limbs , paralysis , brain disorders like paraplegia or hemiplegia and serious mental illnesses . From 1917 , the criteria were extended to prisoners older than 48 or who had spent over eighteen months in captivity . The Red Cross helped initiate these internments , which it proposed at the end of 1914 and were implemented starting in February 1915 . Approval for departure in no way meant permanent freedom but instead transfer to Konstanz , where a medical commission verifying the prisoners ’ state was located . Those who managed to pass the controls did not begin lives of relaxation in Switzerland . By the end of 1916 , there were 16 , 637 French and Belgian prisoners interned , 1 , 866 British , and 8 , 487 German and Austrian . These figures remained fairly steady through the rest of the war : on 1 May 1917 , for example , there were 13 , 640 French internees . They were accommodated in hotels , boarding houses and sanatoria . At the beginning , meals were a great improvement on camp offerings : “ Morning , 7 o ’ clock , we had " café au lait " , jam , and 225 grams of bread for the day . Noon , " soupe grasse " , beef , potatoes , salad and coffee . Evening , at 6 : 30 , " soupe légère " , beef tongue in sauce , potatoes , spinach and rhubarb in compote ” . The home countries of those interned in Switzerland had to continue to pay for the prisoners ’ upkeep . France , for example , had to pay four francs per soldier per day , and six for officers ( tuberculosis patients cost five and eight francs respectively ) . The situation rapidly deteriorated , especially with respect to food , which became insufficient . The restrictions , characteristic of those in the camps , were highly resented by the prisoners . French detainees pointed the blame at their own government . Prisoners interned in Switzerland had to perform obligatory labour . Some were released early and managed to rejoin the French Army before the Armistice was signed . In order to relieve the pressure on Switzerland , from the middle of 1917 British and German prisoners also began to be interned on similar terms in the Netherlands . Early in 1918 , France and Germany , followed in July by Britain and Germany , reached agreement on the repatriation , subject to conditions , of older soldiers and NCO s ( those over 45 ) , those over 40 with at least three children , and those who had been in captivity for at least 18 months . These arrangements did not apply to officers , who were to remain in internment . The return from captivity . One clause of the 11 November 1918 Armistice dealt with the matter of prisoner - of - war repatriation : " The immediate repatriation without reciprocity , according to detailed conditions which shall be fixed , of all allied and United States prisoners of war , including persons under trial or convicted . The allied powers and the United States shall be able to dispose of them as they wish " . By 10 October 1918 , 1 , 434 , 529 Russians had been made prisoner since the start of the war , as had 535 , 411 Frenchmen , 185 , 329 Britons , 147 , 986 Romanians , 133 , 287 Italians , 46 , 019 Belgians , 28 , 746 Serbs , 7 , 457 Portuguese , 2 , 457 Americans , 107 Japanese and 5 Montenegrins . Of the non - Russians , some 576 , 000 had been repatriated by the end of December 1918 , and all by the beginning of February 1919 . French prisoners ’ return . Numerous prisoners left Germany however they could : on foot , by wagon , automobile or train . General Dupont was charged with the task of repatriating 520 , 579 French prisoners . 129 , 382 of these were returned by sea , 4 , 158 through Italy , 48 , 666 through Switzerland and 338 , 373 through northern France . German soldiers also helped in the operation . There were no scenes of vengeance , the prisoners ’ sole wish being to return home . Upon their arrival in France , the former prisoners were brought together to undergo medical examinations . Then they were sent to different barracks to fill out forms and be interrogated . The authorities sought to assemble proof of ill - treatment , which the prisoners tended to deny so as to be reunited more quickly with their families . The poor condition of accommodations in France was noted by a number of men , including Charles Gueugnier : " Entering there , the heart tightened ; one was caught by an irrepressible disgust . They dared call this Augias pigsty American Park ! Really , we were better and more properly housed by our Prussian enemies ! Poor mothers , what will they do with your children ? Those among you who miraculously came back from that ghastly mêlée more or less wounded or sick were treated here worse than dogs or pigs " . The return to their homes was chaotic and deeply unorganised ( no information on trains , etc . ) . The Ministry of War gave instructions meant to lend more warmth to the former prisoners ’ return : “ The people should give them a cordial welcome , to which the sufferings of captivity have given them the right ” . By mid - January 1919 , all French prisoners had returned home . British and American prisoners ’ return . Overall , these prisoners were speedily repatriated . There were fewer to deal with from these countries : some 185 , 000 Britons and 2 , 450 Americans , compared to the over half - million France had . The first British ex - captives reached Calais on 15 November , slated to be taken to Dover via Dunkirk . Russian prisoners ’ return . In December 1918 , there were still 1 . 2 million Russian prisoners on German territory . They had been kept as workers following the signature of the German - Russian armistice in 1917 . The Russian Revolution had been one of the pretexts allegedly making their repatriation impossible . An inter - allied commission fixed the deadline for their return at 24 January 1919 . However , 182 , 748 Russian prisoners on German soil were counted by the 8 October 1919 census , and some were left as late as 1922 . Other prisoners ’ return . Italian prisoners , most of whom were held in Austrian camps , were repatriated in disorganised fashion . In November 1918 , some 500 , 000 prisoners were placed under quarantine in Italian camps ; the operations were finished in January 1919 . The prisoners and historiography . Historiography has played a vital role in emphasizing and giving the proper place due to the theme of World War I prisoners of war , though at first it ignored them and they were only gradually rehabilitated . The historiography of the Great War can be divided into three phases . The first is the military and diplomatic phase . Antoine Prost and Jay Winter ( 2004 ) speak of preserving the national atmosphere . Captivity was absent from all that was written on the conflict at the time . For instance , in 1929 Jean Norton Cru published a study of writings by former combatants : “ The goal of this book is to give an image of the war according to those who saw it up close ” . None of the 300 collected writings was by a former prisoner of war . The second phase was social , and the third is the social - cultural phase , wherein the prisoners have retaken their place . The first French book to describe the conditions of prisoners ’ captivity appeared in 1929 . Georges Cahen - Salvador described his book as a “ tribute to the truth ” . However , it was not until the end of the 20th century that historians conducted research on this subject . Annette Becker , Stéphane Audoin - Rouzeau and Odon Abbal are among this group . In Germany , one of the few complete studies of the phenomenon was written by a university professor , Uta Hinz . As for Italy , Giovanna Procacci ’ s book " Soldati e prigionieri italiani nella grande guerra . Con una raccolta di lettere inedite " discusses Italian prisoners through their letters . Several studies have been published in other countries but the subject remains little discussed overall . Recognition for the prisoners . Repatriated prisoners were welcomed with various sorts of demonstrations , especially if they returned before the war ended ( for instance those interned in Switzerland ) . British prisoners received a message in the hand of King George V welcoming them . In France , prisoners were disappointed as they did not receive the honours they had hoped for . Their moral fight in the camps was not recognised : " At Nîmes , they gave me 500 francs from my savings and a costume made from bad sheeting that they called the Clemenceau costume [ … ] A new life was beginning for me but it was no longer the same thing . 25 years old , not a " sou " in my pocket , my health weakened by poison gas , bronchitis … In sum , I was disgusted by life " . Bitterness took root . Prisoners were excluded from the Médaille militaire and the Croix de guerre . Wounded men could receive the " Insigne des blessés " but prisoners obtained no distinction and were also excluded from war memorials . The fact that one had been a prisoner was perceived as shameful by public opinion . In addition , war narratives were transformed into literature by ( among others ) the publishing houses , which distorted the perception and treatment of captivity . Nicolas Beaupré cites the letter of one of Éditions Berger - Levrault ’ s directors in which he insists on giving a direction to the publication of war stories , more for vainglory than a depiction of events : “ Currently we , more than any other publishing house , are editing , as much at Nancy as in Paris , with very restrained means . If we can hold on and publish only good publications on the war , the House will emerge from the conflict in more of a starring role than before ” . Still , sales for war stories quickly dropped as popular demand shifted elsewhere . Besides the payment of indemnities to soldiers , former combatants received 20 francs for each month spent on the front . Prisoners received 15 francs and were not recognised as veterans . Thus , prisoners united to try to claim their rights . The Fédération Nationale des Anciens Prisonniers de Guerre included 60 , 000 former prisoners . One of these wrote , “ Our glory is to have had , instead of citations , ribbons and stripes , the honours of the post , the hot room , the cold room , the reprisal prison ” . Politically , they managed to secure several rights , notably the ability to repatriate the bodies of soldiers who had died in captivity and especially to have them benefit from the distinction Mort pour la France , which they obtained in 1922 . The Sarrebourg Necropolis was dedicated to them . However , the ex - prisoners did not manage to lay hold of the 1 . 26 billion francs in indemnities that they had claimed . In Italy , the prisoners of war were forgotten , a fate seen in other countries too . In the United States , a Prisoner of War Medal was established , but only in 1986 . Prisoners symbolised what the public did not wish to see . For the latter , they were not part of the war , did not defend their country and were living symbols of defeat . Thus , the memory of the prisoners was voluntarily buried , just as they themselves tried to forget in order to continue to live . However , they were the ones best suited to reflect on the Germans with whom they lived . The richness of their memoirs reveals analyses that are sometimes quite advanced , as is for instance the case with Jacques Rivière . For historiography , the prisoner is a hinge between two countries , who can reveal the importance of what was culturally and nationally at stake during the period . Leipzig trials . Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles , a series of trials of alleged German war criminals was held in Leipzig , Germany , in May – July 1921 . Of the twelve accused , seven , whose rank ranged from a private to a major - general , were charged with mistreating prisoners of war . Four were found guilty , and sentenced to prison terms ranging from a few months to two years . Outside Germany , the trials were regarded as a travesty because of the apparent leniency of the court ; while inside Germany they were seen as excessively harsh . Memoirs . There were prisoners who , from the beginning of the war , began writing down the events they witnessed , usually in diary form . Soldiers could write on the front , but in the camps they were forbidden not only to write but even to possess paper . All writings found during searches were systematically confiscated and their authors punished . Thus attempts began to hide the notes from the enemy , which gave rise to some ingenious discoveries on the prisoners ’ part . Diaries were most often used , first of all , because they were the simplest format . Thus the journal acquired historic value because the events recorded there had a vivid immediacy to them . The fact that many of them were written every day removed some critical distance , which one must account for when examining these writings . Memoirs written after the period of captivity are of an entirely different sort . These later writings became the place where a profound reflection on the situation could be made , something less suitable for the daily diaries . Following the example of Gaston Riou in France , some prisoners became writers or resumed their occupation as writers . In 1924 , Thierry Sandre won the Prix Goncourt for three volumes , one of which was his captivity narrative , " Le Purgatoire " . Some of these authors entered the literary tradition : in " Le Purgatoire " , for instance , Sandre dedicates each chapter to influential members of the era ’ s literary society such as Claude Farrère or Christian - Frogé , secretary of the Association des écrivains combattants . Robert d ' Harcourt , who had also been a prisoner , published a memoir that was reprinted several times . Jacques Rivière is one of the authors who thought seriously about the meaning of captivity . In his book " L ’ Allemand " ( “ The German ” ) , reprinted in 1924 , the reader finds a thorough psychological and philosophical analysis of the former enemy . In France , intellectuals , because they had a chance of being published and could call on their “ audience ” to purchase their books , were able to express themselves on the subject of captivity . Their message , which naturally was not representative of all prisoners ’ experiences , took several forms . Gaston Riou developed European themes in 1928 in his best - known work , " Europe , ma patrie " . The rapprochement with Germany that he outlined remained solely cultural , indeed superficial . Jacques Rivière , a prisoner since 24 August 1914 , took an entirely different approach , developed in " L ’ Allemand " : “ I must confess frankly : a relationship is described here , rather than an objective , rather than an appearance [ … ] The subject of my book is Franco - German antagonism ” . Rivière developed a theory of economic rapprochement that would find fruition after the next world war : “ Forgetfulness will develop , in Germany and here , if we know to organise industrial unity in the Rhine basin , if we know to harmoniously regulate trade there [ … ] There is all the same , in our current occupation of the Ruhr , with whatever intensity it has borne the Franco - German crisis , the foreshadowing of an equilibrium and a possible harmony between the two countries ” . Robert d ' Harcourt fought against prejudice in order to render the most objective image of Germany he could , whether positive or negative . Former prisoner Charles de Gaulle firmly believed that the countries ’ populations lay at the base of Franco - German relations . These former prisoners allowed themselves to transcend their captivity and all it had engendered . However , such men were never designated as former prisoners of war " per se " . Prisoners appeared as men who should indirectly use their experiences in order to be recognised as a result . The status of prisoner was not one that was proclaimed proudly . It forced its owner to leave behind a part of his own story in order to allow another part of history to develop : the history of reconciliation . In the arts . Cinema . " La Grande Illusion " , a 1937 film by Jean Renoir , depicts the story of two French officers of the First World War sent to a prisoners ’ camp in Germany . They decide to escape by digging a tunnel in perilous conditions . After several aborted escape attempts and repeated transfers , they are placed in a mountain fortress . The story does not portray negative characters : soldiers or guards , the Germans are good guys , while the Allied prisoners perform their duties conscientiously but without excessive heroism . As shown , the prisoners ’ camps of 1914 - 18 do not give the impression of a frightening inferno ( at least the officers ’ camps ) . " Who Goes Next ? " , a 1938 film directed by Maurice Elvey , was a fictionalised account of the tunnel escape from Holzminden . " The Enemy Within " , also inspired by the story of the Holzminden escape , is currently ( 2012 ) under development in Australia . Theatre . " Le voyageur sans bagage " is a play by Jean Anouilh written in 1937 ( reprinted in 1958 ) and deals with the true story of the Anthelme Mangin ( Octave Monjoin ) affair . A French soldier and former prisoner of war afflicted with barbed - wire psychosis returns to freedom .