Given the limited choices provided, C is the best overall match, in my opinion.
For the purpose of your question, a "Prisoner of War" is a captured
soldier, sailor, airman, or marine as opposed to civilan
non-combatants.
The two theaters were different and should be treated separately.
-Asian-
Prisoner of Imperial Japan:
A is best match, in my opinion.
Captured Allied Prisoners of War (soldiers, sailors, airmen, and
marines) routinely suffered systematic and wanton deprivation and
torture.
A secret Japanese biological warfare unit, UNIT 731, conducted fatal
experiments on humans.
http://www.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/~macer/EJ106/ej106c.htm
Captured civilians (e.g. non-combatants in Japanese-occupied
Manchuria) fared even worse but beyond the scope of your question.
Very few Japanese combatants surrendered or were captured.
-European-
Prisoner of Nazi Germany:
'A' is best match, in my opinion.
There was the Eastern Front, in which titanic land battles between the
two totalitarian entities raged for four brutal years. Allied Soviet
soldiers captured as Prisoners of War in the great encirclements of
1941 and 1942 were worked to death.
On the Western Front, Allied non-Soviet captured Prisoners of War were
reasonably well treated, especially those airmen held by the
Luftwaffe.
With the exception of Goring, the Luftwaffe had many people who tried
to do it with chivalry and honor, such as General Adolph Galland.
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/bookrev/baker.html
Some Allied non-Soviet PoWs captured on the Western Front were turned
over to the Gestapo (escapees) or the SS (soldiers thought to be
Jewish) to be executed or sent to concentration camps like Buchenwald.
Since the majority of Allied prisoners were captured on the Eastern
Front the answer is weighted towards 'A'.
Prisoner of Soviet Union:
'A' is best match, in my opinion.
Nazi combatants captured by Soviet forces on the Eastern Front were
held beyond the end of WW II. Of nearly 100 000 German 6th Army
soldiers captured at Stalingrad, only 5% survived to the releases in
the early 1950s.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Paulus.html
"The battle for Stalingrad was over. More than 91,000 men were
captured and a further 150,000 had died during the siege. The German
prisoners were forced marched to Siberia. About 45,000 died during the
march to the prisoner of war camps and only about 7,000 survived the
war"
Prisoners of non-Soviet Allied Countries
Most PoWs captured before D-Day were shipped to internment camps in
Canada or the USA. Their treatment was excellent. After repatriation
at the end of hostilities, many immigrated to North America by choice.
http://www.pastforward.ca/perspectives/feb_152002.htm
"Canada and the US, to their credit, followed the Convention
remarkably well. One of the main reasons the Convention was followed
in North America was the desire to not offend the enemy who had our
PoWs even though, in hindsight, this made little difference. In Canada
there were only 187 deaths over five years in PoW camps, and most were
due to natural causes. There were a few forced suicides, a few
murders, a few executions for murder, and a few deaths while
escaping."
-I am not a Researcher- |
