A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. [a]

In international armed conflict, such persons are known as prisoners of war (PoWs) and have always been particularly vulnerable to abuse, due to their affiliation with the enemy and the fact that their captivity usually occurs against the backdrop of wartime animosity.

Prisoners of war during World War II faced vastly different fates due to the POW conventions adhered to or ignored, depending on the theater of conflict, and the behaviour of their captors. During the war approximately 35 million soldiers surrendered, with …

Prisoners of war live in pyramidal tents, usually six to eight men in a tent. In the case of Hawai‘i, many POWs were brought over with labor in mind. An ongoing labor shortage on the islands left work gaps that POWs could easily fill, and, adhering to the Geneva Convention, work would only last a typical eight hours on site. ...

More than 120,000 Americans were held prisoner by the enemy during World War II. In order to pass the time and to make life easier, POWs used the scarce resources available to design and build practical and artistic pieces.

2025年2月21日 · Prisoner of war (POW), any person captured or interned by a belligerent power during war. In the strictest sense it is applied only to members of regularly organized armed forces, but by broader definition it has also included guerrillas, civilians who take up arms against an enemy openly, or

The Third Geneva Convention provides a wide range of protections for prisoners of war. It defines their rights and sets down detailed rules for their treatment and eventual release. International humanitarian law (IHL) also protects other people deprived of liberty as a result of armed conflict.

2022年10月25日 · In the largest war of the Twentieth Century — World War II - thousands of Americans were held as prisoners of war. In Europe, nearly 94,000 Americans were imprisoned as POWs. Many of these had been shot down while flying missions over Germany or had fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

Whether they were held by the enemy for five months or five years, prisoners of war routinely faced torture, starvation, and disease. Often cut off from any communication with their loved ones, POWs relied on each other for support and survival. Here, we present stories from POWs who endured some of the worst that these wars had to offer.

Who is a combatant under IHL and what does their ‘privilege’ consist of? Who is a prisoner of war (“POW”) and how should they be treated? Do ‘terrorists’ belong to a different category? Do such categories equally apply in international and non-international armed conflicts?