Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War
Britain, France and Germany, 1914–1920

First in-depth, comparative study of the treatment of prisoners of war during the First World War.

Heather Jones (Author)

9781107638266, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 August 2013

468 pages, 20 b/w illus. 12 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.6 kg

'… an important work that explores the dynamic relationships that drove Britain, France, and especially Germany to adopt increasingly harsh methods in dealing with military prisoners.' American Historical Review

In this groundbreaking study, Heather Jones provides the first in-depth and comparative examination of violence against First World War prisoners. She shows how the war radicalised captivity treatment in Britain, France and Germany, dramatically undermined international law protecting prisoners of war and led to new forms of forced prisoner labour and reprisals, which fuelled wartime propaganda that was often based on accurate prisoner testimony. This book reveals how, during the conflict, increasing numbers of captives were not sent to home front camps but retained in western front working units to labour directly for the British, French and German armies - in the German case, by 1918, prisoners working for the German army endured widespread malnutrition and constant beatings. Dr Jones examines the significance of these new, violent trends and their later legacy, arguing that the Great War marked a key turning-point in the twentieth-century evolution of the prison camp.

Introduction
Part I. Propaganda Representations of Violence Against Prisoners: 1. Encountering the 'enemy': civilian violence towards prisoners of war in 1914
2. Legitimate and illegitimate violence against prisoners: representations of atrocity, 1914–16
Part II. Violence and Prisoner of War Forced Labour: 3. The development of prisoner of war labour companies on the Western Front: the spring reprisals of 1917
4. From discipline to retribution: violence in German prisoner of war labour companies in 1918
5. Inevitable escalation? British and French treatment of forced prisoner labour, 1917–18
Part III. The End of Violence? Repatriation and Remembrance: 6. Contested homecomings: prisoner repatriation and the formation of memory, 1918–21
7. La grande illusion: the interwar historicisation of violence against prisoners of war, 1922–39
Epilogue: the legacy of First World War captivity in 1939–45
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]