1 WW 2 History Club 27-May-2015 POWs

2 Meeting Agenda 1.Pledge of Allegiance 2.Administration 3.POW Introduction 4.Video 5.Q&A 6.Closing

3 WW2 Vets WW2 vets are meeting before each regular Wednesday meeting ( 1:30 to 3:00 ) See Lou Branch

4 WW2 Vets WW2 vets are meeting for breakfast at Lil’ Bits Cafe (off Rte 466) the Tuesday following each regular Wednesday meeting See Lou Branch

5 Web Site The place to find out what is going on The place for interesting items on WW2 (daily)

6 Future Meetings 4 th Wednesday of the month Colony Cottage  Jun 2015:German Military Commanders  Jul 2015:British Military Commanders  Aug 2015:End of War Alternatives  Sep 2015:Beginning of War Alternatives  Oct 2015:  Nov 2015:Radio and WWII  Dec 2015:FDR’s Tightrope

7 Movie Night 3 rd Wednesday of the month Seabreeze Rec Center  May 2015:Unbroken  Jun 2015:TBD  Jul 2015:TBD

8 WWII Book Club NEW!! 4 th Friday of the month Colony 1PM to 3PM May 2015:Unbroken Jun 2015:Hitler’s Enforcers Jul 2015: Aug 2015:Hell To Pay Sep 2015: Oct 2015: Nov 2015:The Murrow Boys Dec 2015:Those Angry Days

9  WW2 Vets flown to Wash DC  Over 450 vets so far  Lots more in the queue  Next regular Mission is today  WW2HC donated $3,500 in Feb’15  WW2HC now #2 in donations

10 WW 2 History Club 27-May-2015 POWs

11 POWs A prisoner of war is a person, whether combatant or non-combatant, who is held in custody by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict.

12 POWs Belligerents hold prisoners of war in custody for a range of legitimate and illegitimate reasons, such as:  isolating them from enemy combatants still in the field,  releasing and repatriating them in an orderly manner after hostilities,  demonstrating military victory,  punishing them,  prosecuting them for war crimes,  exploiting them for their labor,  recruiting or even conscripting them as their own combatants,  collecting military and political intelligence from them, or  indoctrinating them in new political or religious beliefs.

13 POWs During WWII, millions of soldiers and non-combatants were taken prisoner. The Geneva Convention dictates how prisoners should be treated but since not all nations signed and even those that did had "lapses" of memory, hundreds of thousands of POWs were treated less than humanly and for tens of thousands of POWs, "barbaric treatment" would be kind. How a given nation/military treated its prisoners often depended on the nationality of the prisoner. One tabulation (from Wikipedia): % that Died Russian POWs held by Germans 57.5% German POWs held by Yugoslavians 41.2% German POWs held by Russians 35.8% American POWs held by Japanese 33.0% German POWs held by Eastern Europeans 32.9% British POWs held by Japanese 24.8% German POWs held by Czechoslovaks 5.0% British POWs held by Germans3.5% German POWs held by French2.58% German POWs held by Americans 0.15% German POWs held by British0.03%

14 POWs

15 POWs