Geneva convention & POWs

[Jonone]

I saw this in a letter from Kurt Vonnegut dating back to the end of the Second World War:

"Under the Geneva Convention, Officers and Non-commissioned Officers are not obliged to work when taken prisoner "

Does anyone know why this was so ?

[Peter]

I remember the line in 'Bridge on the River Kwai'

"Officers doing manual work? I shall have a word with that colonel"

I guess the rules were made by officer types, usually drawn from the upper classes, so they didn't want their public school chums getting their hands dirty. Leave that to the working class scum who formed the rank.

[Sam Slater]

Classism?

[spider]

I remember reading Sam Kydd's autobiography



He was a Private and had to do hard manual work during his time as a POW.

He was very critical of the different treatment received by Officer POWs and Cannon Fodder POWs.

[andy at handiwork]

It would be familiar to anyone who has seen the Bridge over the River Kwai. Not having ratified the Geneva Convention, the Japanese felt no compunction to abide by it, whereas the Germans, in the West at least, generally (not exclusively) did when it came to Allied POWs. This meant that officers were on the whole excused from work, though it would probably have helped their mental health if they had worked as it would have done something to alleviate the crushing boredom of years of captivity.
On the other hand they had a duty to try and escape that was not expected of other ranks.

[Arginald Valleywater]

One of the islands in Lake Windermere has a very pleasant private house where several German high rank POW's were "imprisoned" for the latter part of WW2. For some strange reason they made no attempt to escape.....it transpires some of them had been schooled in England or went to Oxbridge and as such were often sent gifts of fine clothes and food from their old chums in the UK!! Wot Ho Adolf!!

[andy at handiwork]

I think it was more the British officer POWs that were required to try and escape. German POWs would have had a much harder time escaping, especially if they were in Britain or the Americas. 'The One That Got Away' starring Hardy Kruger, tells the story of probably the only German POW to escape from Allied hands. It also has to be remembered that for many German combatants, capture by the western Allies probably wasn't a bad thing, all things considered.

[Jonone]

It occurred to me a couple of years ago watching Robert Bresson's 'A Man Escaped' that where people attempt to escape from a prison in a wartime situation there are reprisals in terms of executions of inmates to reinforce discipline and to act as a deterrent.

Whilst officers may have had a duty to attempt to escape, doing so would probably result in the likely death of a few inmates, however these would be drawn from the ranks of the 'expendables' and so perhaps wouldn't trouble the conscience ?

What this looks like is a very stratified organisation in which some are relatively advantaged and many disadvantaged. It would seem that during a war as during a recession, the idea that 'we're all in this together' is promoted by the people who are less at risk, presumably in an attempt to obscure this obvious inequality.

[RoddersUK]

I think it was because they would be fucking useless at work and get in the way of the OR's doing the work.
I've met some brilliant officers and a few fucking useless ones, but I preferred the brilliant ones to do the thinking and organising and let us do their bidding. The useless ones needed us to do the thinking and organising and it was better if we did and kept the bleeders out of the way until it was done and then they could bask in the glory.

[bamboo]

'Officer types, usually drawn from the upper classes'.

On the contrary, most of the POWs in these camps, in Europe anyway, were downed airmen, either commissioned, or non-commissioned.
The vast majority of aircrew, of either type, was 'working class'.

Admittedly, when it comes to Singapore etc, the POWs were probably more likely to be captured Army personnel, after the British surrendered to the Japs.

The fact that officers and the rank and file were being treated differently and housed separately, probably, perversely, gave all the prisoners some kind of comfort i.e. some kind of discipline and structure that they'd been used to. I dare say it saved many lives.

If it was every person for themselves, then I reckon a lot more would have died. Either gobbing off at their captors, trying to escape on their own, snitching on others to guards to gain favour, stealing others' food etc.