 parent camp and welcomed the change of scenery and the money they earned at the working camps. The money often supplemented their food rations until food parcels arrived. Although some prisoners complained about working in heavy industry, where cruelty was sometimes inflicted on them, those working on the land and on farms often ate at the same table as their employer and slept in his house and became part of the family. They were often better fed than many city dwelling Germans.
The photographic postcard on the left, depicted Allied PoW's (English, Scottish
and French at least) and others in civilian clothing with a variety of
'land-implements'. A German officer and two soldiers pose with them for the picture.The photographic postcard on the right, taken and produced by a local
German photographer, depicted a working party of four British PoW's
from an unknown camp and two farm hands. They are overlooked by an
elderly German guard.
Working prisoners did not
receive their pay in official currency, as it was feared that if they could accumulate large sums of money through
working, they could bribe guards to help them escape and then pay their
way through Germany - to freedom. Instead, prisoners were paid in Lagergeld
(camp money). This was paper money (often specially printed for individual
camps) which could only be used to purchase goods at the camp store
or credited to a prison bank account.
German POW's in Britain
Although British PoW's held in German camps
were put to work early in the war, it seems that German prisoners
held in British camps were not.
A message from General Ludendorff
In 1918, an extraordinary document signed by General Ludendorff,
was said to have fallen into British hands. In September of that year it was
published in the Morning Post and part of it read, "Capture at the hands of our
inhuman foes, in view of their unexampled brutality of treatment, which is now
proved beyond question in so large a number of cases, merely means being slowly
tortured to death."
During the German Spring Offensive of 1918, copies of the order had been circulated among "the German rank and file on the battlefield", and it was, said a British source, intended to "nerve the German soldier to fight strenuously to the last ‑ to die rather than be taken prisoner. Many German soldiers were found to be in absolute terror as to what would happen to them in captivity."
In their letters and cards, PoW's frequently talked about their life in and outside British camps. Their relatives and friends ‑ even with censorship of their soldiers' mail ‑ would soon have realized that stories of British brutality to PoW's ‑ was untrue.
A prisoner in a
camp hospital in the UK wrote to a friend in Berlin, '"I always underestimate
England", he said, "the treatment is excellent, from the first moment of my
captivity I have been treated splendidly'" He finished by saying, "You need not
worry, As I write, so it is."
During the last months of the war, many civilians in Germany were suffering terrible hardship. A prisoner in Shrewsbury camp in the UK, had relatives in Kiel, who still managed to send him a food parcel. He wrote back to them, "Send me nothing more, for I live ten times better than you do!"
German Prisoners Working in France
No release for German prisoners
While Allied prisoners of war in German camps were released very soon after the Armistice and most were home by Christmas, the same could not be said for prisoners held by the Allies. Many enemy PoW's had to work as forced labor until 1920 on reconstruction and other tasks. And even then, they were only released after "many approaches by the I.C.R.C. to the Allied Supreme Council." Some German prisoners of war held in Russia did not get their freedom until 1922. The two postal items shown below, confirm the late release of enemy prisoners of war.