MetaFilter posts tagged with prisonerofwar

The Economic Organisation of a P.O.W. Camp

pharm — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 07:37:42 -0800

In the latter years of the second world war, the economist RA Radford was a prisoner of war. After the war ended, he wrote this now well known (if you're an economist) article on the economic structures that emerged in the POW camps. (JSTOR link) I originally came across this article via Crooked Timber & although it was mentioned in a recent AskMefi I thought it deserved its time in the MeFi limelight.

Servigliano Calling

amyms — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:54:50 -0800

‘Even to this day the diary has a slight aroma of cocoa,’ says Steve Dickinson about a diary kept by his uncle Robert Dickinson while a prisoner at Servigliano, an Italian war camp, in the 1940s. The diary has a cover made of old cocoa tins (hence the smell) with a broadcast aerial design incorporating the title 'Servigliano Calling.' It begins with his capture by the Germans in November 1941, and finishes, about six months before his death, in September 1944. Via The Diary Junction blog.

POW Camps in the US

Dome-O-Rama — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 18:07:27 -0800

I didn't know there were POW camps in the US during World War II, let alone so many of them. The list of camps is extensive, but not on any list I've seen so far is the former Wright Field (currently Wright-Patterson Air Force Base). The base is preserving the walls of the former mess hall where German POWs left a cool set of freaky demonic murals filled with old germanic folklore. The story behind them is a interesting read.

Kiss the Boys Goodbye

drakepool — Mon, 30 May 2005 07:35:22 -0800

"I am Colonel Tom C. McKenney, You must know how to reach Bobby Garwood. I directed an official mission to assassinate him behind enemy lines, because I believed what they told me. Would you tell him that I will crawl on my hands and knees to beg his forgiveness?"

Unprivileged in my belligerentness

humuhumu — Fri, 11 Jun 2004 01:36:33 -0800

You, Sir, are an unprivileged belligerent... The US charge David Hicks, the one Australian in Guantanamo, with being an "unprivileged belligerent". Confused? Try this brief (PDF) from Harvard's Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (cached HTML) and learn how to ensure that your belligerentness stays privileged (and thus grants you rights as a prisoner of war).

Torture and Truth and The Logic of Torture

y2karl — Fri, 04 Jun 2004 12:49:51 -0800

Torture and Truth and The Logic of Torture--Mark Danner writes about Article 15-6 Investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade (The Taguba Report) and Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the Treatment by the Coalition Forces of Prisoners of War and Other Protected Persons by the Geneva Conventions in Iraq During Arrest, Internment and Interrogation in the former and concludes thusly in the latter:

Behind the exotic brutality so painstakingly recorded in Abu Ghraib, and the multiple tangled plotlines that will be teased out in the coming weeks and months about responsibility, knowledge, and culpability, lies a simple truth, well known but not yet publicly admitted in Washington: that since the attacks of September 11, 2001, officials of the United States, at various locations around the world, from Bagram in Afghanistan to Guantanamo in Cuba to Abu Ghraib in Iraq, have been torturing prisoners. (More Within)

Ollie ollie oxen free!

ewagoner — Tue, 05 Aug 2003 13:36:10 -0800

The last World War Two Japanese soldier surrendered in the Philippines in 1980, ending a stream of holdouts. This is their story.