Sexual Intercourse in Prisoner of War Camps

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by Drew5233, Mar 3, 2011.

  1. leccy

    leccy Senior Member

    Germany was a signatory of 'Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 27 July 1929' signed on 27/07/1929 and ratified on 21/02/1934 after Hitler came to power so even if the USSR had not Germany was still bound by the Treaty.

    Something which seems to be glossed over is that Japan never signed the POW treaty never mind ratified it although it did sign the 'Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field. Geneva, 27 July 1929' on the 27/07/1929 and ratified it on 18/12/1934, which seems a bit odd.
     
  2. nedrutland

    nedrutland Junior Member

    My father recalled seeing Italian PoWs (in a camp in northern Kenya in early 1942) having sex through the wire fence with a local woman.
     
  3. Nicola_G

    Nicola_G Senior Member

    My father recalled seeing Italian PoWs (in a camp in northern Kenya in early 1942) having sex through the wire fence with a local woman.

    Must have been a bit uncomfortable for both parties, surely lol
     
  4. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    Must have been a bit uncomfortable for both parties, surely lol

    Barbed wire is never good for your sex life!o_O

    barbed wire.jpg
     
  5. Nicola_G

    Nicola_G Senior Member

    Barbed wire is never good for your sex life!o_O

    View attachment 53431

    Don't think barbs were mentioned, just wire lol. But yes can't imagine barbs put you in a romantic frame of mind unless you're that way inclined lol
     
  6. Ray Hanson

    Ray Hanson Member

    Many German POW's in Canada were put to work on local family farms so I suspect there are a few "farmers daughter" stories to be told.

    This documentary is worth watching:

    The Enemy Within by Eva Colmers - NFB

    In this clip, a former POW in northern Ontario, describes how he was paid for his work in a lumber camp, chummed around with the guards and even romanced a local girl.

    "It was while Billet was on work leave that he became romantically involved with a local woman. This was not a rare occurrence".

    Canada's Forgotten PoW Camps | CBC Archives

    A remarkable film, thanks for sharing it.
     
  7. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    From the CBC clip, it was quite amusing to hear the former POW state that he really didn't 'escape'. He just went AWOL in order to visit his girlfriend.
     
  8. Nicola_G

    Nicola_G Senior Member

    The CBC one doesn't play for me, says there is a missing plugin, but not which one. I have flash loaded - any suggestions?
     
  9. Vitesse

    Vitesse Senior Member

    The CBC one doesn't play for me, says there is a missing plugin, but not which one. I have flash loaded - any suggestions?
    You need the Windows Media Player plugin.
     
  10. Nicola_G

    Nicola_G Senior Member

    Ah I'm on a mac
     
  11. Vitesse

    Vitesse Senior Member

  12. Nicola_G

    Nicola_G Senior Member

    Txs, that worked :)
     
  13. Robert Brown

    Robert Brown Junior Member

    The Germans set POWs to work as they were able to by the terms of Geneva Convention.There were others such as commisioned ranks who were exempt from these rules for work was not mandatory.NCOs and Warrant Officers could be put to work provided they were detailed to carry out supervisory duties only.

    The background to the use of POW labour was the acute shortage of manpower required for the German war economy to function.Consequently a POW could find himself detailed to working parties that were set to work in German heavy industry such as mining.Here, hardous working conditions often supervised by National Socialist indoctrinated foreman and that along with inadequate rations for manual labour,made it work with little benefits if any.There was little opportunity here for a POW to fraternise with the opposte sex.

    However,one of the problems of the German home front was the ever reducing numbers of males working on farms and the like that were conscripted into the Wehrmacht.Further, some of these farms previously were manned by a single male and it was this that the POWs had opportunity to meet the opposte sex on their "day release" working party.So,as regards working off camp,the opportunity was recognised as a chance to skive, perhaps, on particular jobs,perhaps to get engaged in minor sabotage and any benefits that would come their way.Some looked forward to working off camp and there were a number of NCOs and Warrant Officers who saw the opportunity to gain intelligence for the purpose of escape.

    Regarding the sentences imposed for sexual intercourse with German females or females of other nationalities,these acts,as long as they were defined as consenting,would not be recognised by the Allied Powers as a crime and would not be included in their military records.

    If you look at the document,there are over 600 Privates recorded on stength and a large number of working parties (460) operating out of the camp.This suggests that the working parties were of small number,some probably down to individuals only, which fits into the likelihood that some were employed in situations where they would meet the ordinary Volksfolk.

    Phylo,


    Interesting points here. My father whilst working on the Bahn had a number of meetings with other inducted female labour (Russian/Polish) working in the neighbouring fields, but he didn't say (or edited it out later!) whether this developed into anything.

    About the sabotage aspect, they certainly attempted low-level sabotage, but obviously very carefully as the guards on the detail would have taken punitive action. From memory, (I haven't read through the Diary recently) this consisted mainly of putting abrasive materials into wagon axleboxes in the hope that they would seize up.

    However by the end the damage done by low-level strafing by the USAF and RAF made such efforts irrelevant.
     
  14. Lew Stalwarter

    Lew Stalwarter Junior Member

    Gibbo likes this.
  15. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    I've been meaning to find this thread:

    When I was at Kew the other week I was looking through 1,000's of British Soldiers names in Courts Marshal Registers and in the back of one (About 10 pages-250 names ish) there were lists of German and Italian names that were PoW's charged with offences committed whilst in British camps. Some of them were for sexual offences which indicated IMO were against other PoW's. I can't remember the exact offence - It may have been buggery but I'd need to check again if anyone is looking for confirmation. They were held in camps outside of the UK as the registers I was looking in were from the 'overseas' section.
     
  16. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

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