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British Prisoners of War
World War II
Please add Geni profiles of WW2 Prisoners of War from Britain to this project.
See also
World War II - American Prisoners
World War II - Prisoners of War from Canada
Others to Follow
All PoWs were allegedly protected by rules for the treatment of prisoners of war which had been established in the Geneva Convention of 1929.
See WIKI British World War II prisoners of war for links to Wiki page of many British prisoners.
Germany
There were over 100,000 members of the British armed forces captured during the Second World War and placed in one of the different types of prisoner of war camps run by the Germans.
Types of Camps
● An Oflag (Offizierslager) was a prisoner of war camp for officers, although non-commissioned soldiers were often in these camps working as orderlies to care for the officers.
See German army list of Oflags
● A Stalag (short for Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager) was for enlisted personnel
See German army list of Stalags
There were separate camps for navy, aircrews and civilians.
● Stalag Luft (short for Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager- Luft) were for Aircrews and were administered by the Luftwaffe (German air force)
● Dulag - Durchgangslager (transit camp) were intelligence collection centres, Prisoners were always supposed to come to one of these before going on to a ‘permanent’ Stalag/Oflag camp, stay for as little as one or two days.
● Dulag Luft - Durchgangslager der Luftwaffe (transit camp of the Luftwaffe) were transit camps for Airforce POWs. The main Dulag Luft camp at Frankfurt was the principal collecting point for intelligence derived from Allied POW interrogation.
● Marlag or Marine-Lager (marine camp) were Navy personnel POW camps.
● Milag or Marine-Internierten-Lager (marine internment camp) were merchant seamen internment camps, both these and Marlags were administered by the Kriegsmarine (German Navy).
● Feldpost – normally a Kreigslazzarett or field hospital, (literally ‘war hospital’).
● BAB - Bau und Arbeits Battalion (construction battalion)
Camps were split into military districts these were:
District I –in what is now known as Olsztyn, Poland, then it was in East Prussia.
The nearest large city is Kaliningrad (formerly Konigsberg).
District II –in the far North east of Germany, nearest large city Schwerin (German name: Stettin)
District III -in the Central North east of Germany, nearest large city Potsdam or Berlin.
District IV –In the Lower eastern part of Germany bordering The Czech Republic in the south and Poland in the east, nearest large city Magedeburg/Dresden.
District V –In the Far south west of German, the nearest large city being Posen.
District VI –Nearest city Wroclaw, Poland (German name: Breslau)
District VII –Nearest city Munster in the North West region of Germany.
District VIII –Nearest city Koblenz, In the middle west area of Germany.
District IX –Nearest City Altona, near Hamburg in the middle North of Germany.
District X – Nearest city Hanover, in the middle north of Germany.
District XI –Nearest city Kassel, in the centre of Germany.
District XII -Nearest city Dresden, in the North East of Germany.
District XIII- Nearest city Stuttgart in the South west of Germany.
District XIV –Nearest city Karlsruhe, in the southwest of Germany.
District XV –Nearest city Strasbourg, now in France.
District XVI –Nearest city Metz, now in France.
District XVII –Nearest city Gdansk Poland, (German name: Danzig).
District XVIII –Nearest city Frankfurt am main – in the west of Germany.
District XIX –Nearest city Leipzig in the east of Germany.
District XX –Nearest city Olsztyn, Poland (German name: Allenstein)
District XXI –Nearest city Saarbrucken, Germany, on the French border.
Japan
The Japanese Armed Forces captured nearly 140,000 Allied military personnel (Australia, Canada, Great Britain, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United States) in the Southeast Asia and Pacific areas. They were forced to engage in the hard labour of constructing railways, roads, airfields, etc. to be used by the Japanese Armed Forces in the occupied areas. About 36,000 were transported to the Japanese Mainland to supplement the shortage of the work force, and compelled to work at the coal mines, mines, shipyards, munitions factories, etc. By the time the war was over, a total of more than 30,000 POWs had died from starvation, diseases, and mistreatment within and outside of the Japanese Mainland.
POW camps in Japan were repeatedly reformed and rearranged. There were about 130 main camps, branch camps, dispatched camps and detached camps opened during the war, with some being closed. In addition to the seven main camps there were 81 branch camps and three detached camps at the end of the war. 32,418 POWs in total were detained in those camps.
Approximately 3, 500 POWs died in Japan while they were imprisoned.
Achi Yamakita
Akabira (Hakodate 2B)
Akenobe 6B (Osaka 6B)
Amagasaki Branch Camp (Osaka 6-D)
Honami Branch Camp (Fukuoka 22-B)
Aomori (Omori, Tokyo Base Camp)
Halfway between the capital (Tokyo) and Yokohama this artificial island in the bay had barracks surrounded by a bamboo fence.
Asahigawa
Ashio Branch Camp (Tokyo 9-B)
Ashio Detached Camp (Tokyo 9-B Detached)
Inatsuki (Yamano) Branch Camp (Fukuoka 8-B)
Omuta Miike Branch Camp (Fukuoka 17-B)
Funatsu Branch Camp (Nagoya 3-D)
Futase Branch Camp (Fukuoka 7-B)
Hakodate POW Camp
Osarisawa (Hanawa) Branch Camp (Sendai 6-B)
Harima Branch Camp (Osaka 7-D)
Hirohata Branch Camp (Osaka 12-B)
Hiraoka (Mitsushima) Branch Camp (Tokyo 12-B)
Hitachi Motoyama Branch Camp (Tokyo 8-B)
Hosokura Branch Camp (Sendai 3-B)
Ichioka POW Hospital Ward
Ikuno Branch Camp (Osaka 4-B)
Mukaijima Branch Camp (Hiroshima 4-B)
Innoshima Branch Camp (Hiroshima 5-B)
Kamioka Branch Camp (Nagoya 1-D)
Kamikita Branch Camp (Sendai 11-B)
Ofuna Naval POW Camp
Kameda Dispatched Camp (Hakodate 2-D)
Kamiiso Dispatched Camp (Hakodate 1-D)
Kamikita Branch Camp (Sendai 11-B)
Kanose Branch Camp (Tokyo 16-B)
Kumamoto Branch Camp and Fukuoka Branch Camp (Fukuoka 1-B)
Kawasaki Branch Camp (Tokyo 1-B)
Kobe Branch Camp (Osaka 2-B)
Kawasaki Ogimachi Branch Camp (Tokyo 2-B) (aka ‘The Mitsui Madhouse’)
Kobe POW Hospital
Kosaka Branch Camp (Sendai 8-B)
Koyagi Branch Camp (Fukuoka 2-B)
Maibara Branch Camp (Osaka 10-B)
Minato-ku (Osaka) POW Camp
Hiraoka (Mitsushima) Branch Camp (Tokyo 12-B)
Miyata Branch Camp (Fukuoka 9-B)
Mizumaki Branch Camp (Fukuoka 6-B)
Moji Branch Camp (Fukuoka 4-B)
Hitachi Motoyama Branch Camp (Tokyo 8-B)
Kamiiso Dispatched Camp (Hakodate 1-D)
Nakama Branch Camp (Fukuoka 21-B)
Nagasaki Mitsubishi Dockyard Branch Camp (Fukuoka 14-B)
Nagoya POW Camp
Kamioka Branch Camp (Nagoya 1-D)
Narumi Branch Camp (Nagoya 2-D)
Funatsu Branch Camp (Nagoya 3-D)
Iruka Branch Camp (Nagoya 4-D)
Yokkaichi Branch Camp (Nagoya 5-D)
Fushiki Hokkai Electro-Chemical Branch Camp (Nagoya 6-D)
Toyama Nippon Soda Branch Camp (Nagoya 7-D)
Toyama Tateyama Heavy Industry Branch Camp (Nagoya 8-D)
Toyama Nippon Express Branch Camp (Nagoya 9-D)
Fushiki Sea and Land Transportation Branch Camp (Nagoya 10-D)
Toyama Nippon Soda Iwase Ironworks Branch Camp (Nagoya 11-D)
Niigata Sea and Land Transportation Branch Camp (Tokyo 5-B)
Niihama Isoura Branch Camp (Hiroshima 2-B)
Naoetsu Branch Camp (Tokyo 4-B)
Notogawa Branch Camp (Osaka 9-B)
Oeyama Branch Camp (Osaka 3-B)
Ohashi Branch Camp (Sendai 4-B)
Omine Branch Camp (Hiroshima 6-B)
Nishi Ashibetsu Branch Camp (Hakodate 4-B)
Roku Roshi
Sakata Branch Camp (Sendai 9-B)
Sendai POW Camp (main camp)
Kamaishi Branch Camp (Sendai 5-B)
Osarisawa (Hanawa) Branch Camp (Sendai 6-B)
Hanaoka Brach Camp (Sendai 7-B)
Utashinai Branch Camp (Hakodate 3-B)
Yoshima Branch Camp (Sendai 2-B)
Yumoto Branch Camp (Sendai 1-B)
Wakasen/Wakassennin – see Wakayama
Wakayama Branch Camp (Osaka 14-D)
Wakagawa Branch Camp (Sendai 10-B)
Wakinohama (Osaka #18-B)
Kobe Wakinohama Branch Camp (Osaka 18-B)
Yakumo Detached Camp (Hakodate 1-Detached)
Yamashita Camp – see Yokohama Ship Loading Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 19-D)
Yodogawa Branch Camp (Osaka 3-D)
Yokkaichi Branch Camp (Nagoya 5-D)
Yokohama POW camps
Yokohama Branch Camp (Tokyo 3-B)
Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Yokohama Ship-building Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 1-D)
Nippon Steel Tube Tsurumi Ship-building Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 3-D)
Osaka Ship-building Yokohama Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 10-D)
Nippon Steel Tube Asano Ship-building Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 13-D)
Yokohama Proof-brick Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 18-D)
Yokohama Ship Loading Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 19-D)
Yonago
Yura
Zentsuji Headquarters Camp & Zentsuji Subcamp 3 (Hiroshima area POW Camp)
Zentsuji Branch Camp (Hiroshima 1-B)
References, Sources and Further Reading
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