#prisoners of war

[cid5]

Three German prisoners, one wounded, captured in the attack on Vampire Farm near Potijze, during the Battle of the Menin Road, Sept 1917

[thegirlwhohid]

Yesterday, after two years in russian captivity, my sister-in-law's friend returned home.

His relatives didn't recognize him. Shaved head, morbidly thin, quiet, and with an empty stare - he looked nothing like himself. His mother, though, who kept fighting for her son and for his brothers-in-arms, who organized rallies to remind everyone about the prisoners of war and conditions in the russian prisons - she recognized him. I saw the video of their first meeting, how she hugged him and told him everything would be fine now.

The worst part? He didn't recognize her.

[drsonnet]

Strapped down, blindfolded, held in diapers: Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention center..Finally, #CNN SPEAKS (May, 2024)

Sde Teiman: Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention center | CNN

| تحقيق لسي إن إن: - انتهاكات وتعذيب لمعتقلين فلسطينيين على يد جنود إسرائيليين في مركز اعتقال سري بالنقب. - شهادات مخبرين إسرائيليين كشفت أن المعتقلين الفلسطينيين يعيشون ظروفا قاسية للغاية.

Update from #Khan Yunis (May, 2024) :

Palestinian citizens, who have been kidnapped by Israel's military from Khan Yunis | (Jan., 2024)

Palestinian men detained by Israeli forces since the start of the war in Gaza have told Middle East Eye how they were physically tortured with dogs and electricity, subjected to mock executions, and held in humiliating and degrading conditions. (March, 2024)

www.middleeasteye.net

long live the resistance : This is what Farouq looks like after severe... (tumblr.com) Dec, 2023

[adrl-pt]

First Russian Military Operation Outside Its Territory. Ukrainian Armed Forces Combat Operations in Kursk Region.

You are watching the news from the weekly rally at the Russian Embassy in Lisbon. Today is August 10, 2:30 PM.

The five-day war in Georgia from August 8 to 12, 2008, was Russia's first "special operation" outside its territory. Journalist Georgy Kobaladze says that Georgian authorities commemorate the anniversary on August 7, marking the Ossetian army's attack on a Georgian village near Tskhinvali as the beginning. https://www.svoboda.org/a/kapkan-i-vtorzhenie-15-let-s-nachala-rossiysko-gruzinskoy-voyny/32538906.html

The Ossetians trace the origins of the war with Georgia back to 1989, when the USSR was collapsing. https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-45106205

After the Dagomys Agreement, Georgia maintained difficult but peaceful relations with the regions of Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia). In 2008, Georgia began to consider joining NATO. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE7_p7WISo4

Matthew Bryza, who was involved in the US mediation plan for this war, told Dozhd in an interview how steps to contain Russia were removed during the process of working with the German Foreign Ministry. https://youtu.be/uK6pyU5DuQM?feature=shared&t=294

The human rights organization "Human Rights Watch" in its research discusses violations of humanitarian law on both sides, including systematic arson, robbery, and beatings of residents of Georgian villages by South Ossetian forces after the withdrawal of Georgian troops. https://www.hrw.org/reports/georgia0109ruweb.pdf

In 2021, the Strasbourg court found that Russia exercised control over Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region and therefore bears responsibility for these violations. The Russian representative stated in court that the fragments of the Iskander missile used by Russia, presented by the Georgian side, were stolen, dismantled, and planted by the CIA. https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-55737376

Volunteer and activist David Katsarava said in an interview with Dozhd: "For us, the war against Ukraine is a continuation of ours." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK6pyU5DuQM

Since August 6, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been conducting an operation in the Kursk region. The combat zone has already reached 430 square kilometers. The YouTube channel "The Insider" reported briefly on the situation: people are evacuating on their own, Putin is distributing the usual 10 thousand rubles, and Russian generals ignored reports of Ukrainian forces concentrating on the border. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vbljcaYy1k

On August 9, politician Yulia Navalnaya stated: "Putin's war has finally come to Russia." She addressed those aiding Putin's war efforts: "No one will forget what you did to our country. You are working for a killer, but it's never too late to stop." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-HoR9OJ6mU

On August 7, Vladimir Osechkin held a stream on his YouTube channel in memory of Oleksandr Ishchenko, a member of the Azov regiment who was killed in Russian captivity, and called for information about this crime to be sent to him for investigation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBi3sO5Rq5M

Azov commander Svyatoslav Palamar published a forensic medical examination report on his Facebook page confirming the brutal murder and violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/FWoEAf9XxGmrShd2/

On January 12 of this year, the Memorial Human Rights Center recognized prisoners of war from the Ukrainian Azov Regiment as political prisoners, as they consider the Supreme Court's decision to recognize the Azov Regiment as a terrorist organization to be unlawful. https://memopzk.org/news/my-schitaem-politzaklyuchyonnymi-voennoplennyh-iz-ukrainskogo-polka-azov/

Proofs and links in the description. Subscribe and help!

[shattered-pieces]

The international community is doing too little to ensure that Ukrainian prisoners of war are kept in proper conditions in accordance with the norms of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War! The Olenivka community once again calls on the ICRC and the UN to fulfill their mandates and monitor the conditions of detention of Ukrainian prisoners of war. We also appeal to the representatives of the state bodies of Ukraine to hand over these materials to international partners and international organizations in order to once again show everyone that Russia uses various tools to torture our soldiers, and to find mechanisms for their early return home.

https://t.me/olenivkafamilies/1481

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Ukrainians who stayed on to work at the plant say they did so under duress. Employees report that Russian occupiers coerced them into adopting Russian citizenship and signing contracts with Rosatom. According to a recent IAEA report, the plant has announced that workers still officially employed by Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear company, are barred from the site. The workforce “now consists of former Energoatom employees who have adopted Russian citizenship and signed employment contracts with the Russian operating entity, as well as staff who have been sent to the ZNPP from the Russian Federation.”

On top of that, current and former employees of the ZNPP, some of whom escaped past enemy lines, have said that Russia brutalized the plant’s dwindling workforce, resorting to torture to keep workers in line.They also report that Russia is violating international law by using the plant as a military staging ground, further increasing the risks to the facility. This claim has been supported by satellite evidence.

From the start of the war, Energoatom has objected to the occupation of the ZNPP, and raised alarms about the dangers the plant faces. Recently, the IAEA has also issued warnings about the degrading state of the ZNPP and the continued potential for a meltdown. In February, it issued a bulletin warning that the plant’s last backup external power line had been disrupted, creating a “precarious” situation. Today, the IAEA’s director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, met with President Vladimir Putin and Alexei Likhachev, the head of Rosatom, in a closed-door session to discuss his concerns about the plant. But the agency has thus far been ineffectual in compelling Russia to cooperate, and its authority does not extend to claims of human-rights abuses away from the plant, even when they involve employees.

The result is a crisis unprecedented in the history of nuclear power. A disaster at the facility would be most immediately harmful to the people living near it. But the ZNPP is located in the watershed of the Dnipro River, which flows through southern Ukraine and into the Black Sea. If a meltdown occurs at the ZNPP and affects the waterways, experts indicate that all of southern Ukraine might be at risk for contamination.

...

In their stories of working at the ZNPP after the Russian occupation began, several sources describe incidents of detentions, interrogations, and torture. Kostiantyn Chebaievskyi worked at the ZNPP until August 2022, when he says he was arrested at the end of his shift and imprisoned by Russians. Chebaievskyi says that he was accused of communicating with Ukrainian authorities and that interrogators beat him and tried to force him to make a false confession. Other people employed at the ZNPP at the time say that cells intended to hold four to six people were used to detain up to 20 prisoners without any food, save what their relatives were able to bring on visits.

Chebaievskyi says that one form of torture involved what his captors called “a phone call to Lenin.” According to Chebaievskyi, the men would clip one cable to his earlobe and another to his finger, and then interrogate him while they turned the crank on a modified field telephone that would deliver a shock. “Everything goes dark,” he said. “All that you see is white lighting.” Chebaievskyi said that the interrogators repeated the procedure over and over, demanding to know his supposed contact in Ukraine. He also reported that some prisoners were forced to give interviews for Russian television crews, reciting prewritten scripts that were complimentary toward Russia. Chebaievskyi was released after 18 days, and then managed to escape from the city.

Other ZNPP employees corroborate allegations of abuse and torture. Volodymyr Zhaivoronok is a 50-year-old former equipment operator who says he was imprisoned for 53 days, many of them in the same cell where Chebaievskyi ended up. Zhaivoronok says Russian personnel beat the prisoners, targeting their backs, necks, and shoulders. “One is bringing you into the room, and another six people come there,” Zhaivoronok told me and my colleagues at the Reckoning Project. “They come in with batons, pistols.” He recalled that the torture room was covered in blood, and prisoners were forced to clean it. Zhaivoronok said that during one of the sessions, his torturers shot him in the side with a rubber bullet.

...

ZNPP employees claimed in 2022 that their plant also became a shield [like Chernobyl]. They reported that they heard what they believed to be Russian mortar shells launched from within or near ZNPP territory, and also saw Russian military equipment in crucial locations of the plant, including turbine halls near reactors. This equipment included armored personnel carriers and trucks, tanks, anti-aircraft systems, and rocket launchers. These sources also stated that Russian soldiers—possibly hundreds of them—have been deployed to the plant, and have complete access to spaces designated for evacuation and sheltering. These claims were supported in a September 2023 report, commissioned by Greenpeace, that used satellite imagery to identify signs of military activity in the vicinity of the plant. An accident involving military equipment and ordnance could damage the systems needed to cool the reactors, and could lead to a leak of radioactive material.

The operation of Zaporizhzhia, like that of all nuclear-power plants, is subject to international law, and to regular inspections by the IAEA, a treaty organization that reports to the United Nations. Since the beginning of the occupation, the IAEA and its director general, Grossi, have made several visits to Ukraine and to the ZNPP in particular, and have offered ongoing assistance to the plant’s administrators. In May, Grossi told the UN Security Council that the situation at the ZNPP “continues to be extremely fragile and dangerous,” and noted that the plant did not have enough staff to maintain safety measures, even with the reactors shut down. Grossi added that there had been seven occasions since the occupation began when the plant lost off-site power and had to rely on diesel generators, “the last line of defence against a nuclear accident.” (The plant has since suffered another external power loss.) In that address, Grossi asked that Russia abide by certain principles in its operation of the plant, including refraining from using it for military weapon storage."

- Nataliya Gumenyuk, "Looming Disaster at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant," The Atlantic. March 6, 2024.

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

Americans who spent time in Russian captivity (after came to Russia on own their will) vs. Ukrainians who spent time in Russian captivity (after they fought protecting own country), August 2024...

[bruceburgdorf]

When Santa’s Elves Were German

German POWs held at St Erth, Cornwall making toys

Between the years 1945 and 1948 400,000 Axis POW’s were imprisoned in UK Prisoner of War camps.

During these years thousands of Christmas toys were made by the former Wehrmacht soldiers and initially given to orphaned children and children of injured British soldiers however many other children can remember receiving the extremely well made toys which were made primarily from scrap materials.

A jewellery box made by the POWs at St Erth of which the recipient still lives in the village.

A musical box made by German POWs in the UK.

In my current village of St Erth, Cornwall many of the villagers can remember the POWs and a few continued to visit after the war and often their families get in touch on the village Facebook page.

The POWs were given a number of freedoms in the years after the war and many of them worked for the village farmers in their fields and lived in their homes alongside their families. Some of the prisoners were little older than boys and the villagers received letters from their parents thanking them for their kind treatment.

At least two of the POWs settled in the village after the war and a few returned for holidays and often a reunion was held at the village pub.

The POWs also built the first mechanical water pump for the village which still stands today.

The St Erth village water pump built by POWs in 1943.

[straight-from-gaza]

On Palestinian Prisoner's Day, Israel continues to arrest 9,400 Palestinians, including 200 children and 71 female prisoners. 253 Palestinians were executed in the occupation prisons, including 17 since October 7.

[nando161mando]

When workers are treated like prisoners

[cid5]

American soldiers captured by the Chinese People's Volunteer Army near the Chosin Reservoir. November 1950.

[clove-pinks]

I was reading an (open source) journal article last night about the medical treatment of American POWs in the War of 1812.

A British officer inspecting the sick in hospital, 1813.

The gist of the article is that American claims of mistreatment are overblown, and most prisoners received adequate medical care (under the circumstances) from their British captors. Relevant to my interests in both military history and the history of medicine, it gives an overview of the treatment of wounds and illness and the results. The author notes:

Few formal conventions dealt with the treatment of prisoners of war during the period. While it was common for combatant nations to agree upon temporary conventions once hostilities commenced, generally it was quasi-chivalric sentiments, notions of Christian conduct, and a sense of humanitarian obligation that moderated treatment of prisoners, allowing, for example, parole for officers and sometimes for enlisted personnel and care for sick and wounded soldiers.

It seems odd that military personnel could switch between trying to kill the enemy and trying to save his life with medical intervention, but it's well-known that soldiers actually don't like killing people (see Men Against Fire by S.L.A. Marshall and numerous other studies).

[ceevee5]

[todaysdocument]

Women’s Army Corps Cpl. Barbara Fenster (left) and Cpl. Genevieve E. Guethlein secure information from German prisoner of war Pvt. Frederick Bonk, captured in Tunisia. September 7, 1943, at Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation.

Record Group 336: Records of the Office of the Chief of Transportation

Series: Photographic Albums of Prints of Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation

Image description: Inside a tent, a young man in a German uniform with “AFRIKAKORPS” on his sleeve stands to the side of a desk. Seated at the desk are two women in Women’s Army Corps uniforms, who are writing. In the background are more desks and more German prisoners of war. 

[shattered-pieces]

“Dying is not as scary as being in Russian captivity.” Confessions of liberated Ukrainians

[ruinedbytouch]

Concentration camp?

No, those were a lot more horrific. However, it is a POW camp. Germany? UK? Europe?

Nope. Texas. Huntsville, Texas to be exact.

Huntsville is known for two things in modern times. Sam Houston State University and its large number of prisons. As a SHSU graduate, there really isn't a lot there other than retail and food service type work outside of the aforementioned prisons and university.

(If you want to take a weird supernatural'esque trip down my memory lane, Google Demon's Rd Huntsville, Texas.)

In 1942, the POW camp was built in Huntsville, TX, and it opened in April 1943.

More than half a million POWs from WWII were housed in the United States. It is something that most people don't seem to realize or remember.

Approximately 50,000 POWs were housed in Texas across various camps.

Camp Huntsville was the largest and first in Texas. It was known for fair and humane treatment of prisoners who received ample food, fair working conditions, and a wide array of recreational activities. I'm sure the POWs might tell a different story. Especially the POWs that weren't white.

In late 1943, a riot broke out between the nazi and anti-nazi prisoners. Yes, while the captured men were German troops, not everyone supported the nazi regime.

After the riot, the camps tried to re-educate the prisoners about American style democracy and all that.

If you would like to read about Camp Huntsville, there is a pretty good book called The Enemy Never Did Without by Jeffrey L. Littlejohn.

Texas actually has a fair sized German ancestry population given the German settlers arrived in the mid-19th century.

If you do speak German or are around German speakers often, it is....different. Granted, Texas is pretty different from most places in general.