Turning liabilities into assets: British government policy towards German and Italian prisoners of war during the second world war

Journal of Contemporary History

Volumn 32, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 117-136

  Moore, Bob ^a  

^a MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34248102514     PISSN: 00220094     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/002200949703200108     Document Type: Article

References (70)

1. There are some honourable exceptions which do adopt a comparative framework, notably S.P. MacKenzie, 'The Treatment of Prisoners of War in World War II, Journal of Modern History, LXVI (1994), 487-520
2. Erich Maschke (gen. ed.), Zur Geschichte der deutschen Kriegsgefangenen des Zweiten Weltkrieges, 15 vols (Munich 1962-74).
3. See especially, Henry Faulk, Die deutschen Kriegsgefangenen in Grofibritannien - Re-education (Munich 1970)
4. , and H. Wolff, Die deutschen Kriegsgefangenen in britischer Hand: Ein Überblick (Munich 1974)
5. . Flavio Giovanni Conti, I Prigionieri di Guerra Italiani (Bologna 1986);
6. Romain H. Rainero, I prigionieri militari italiani durante la seconda guerra mondiale: aspetti e problemi storici (Milano 1985)
7. Matthew Barry Sullivan, Thresholds of Peace: Four Hundred Thousand German Prisoners and the People of Britain (London 1979)
8. Ministry of Production Memorandum: Prisoners of War, 30 September 1945, BT168/85
9. See, for example, Report: Employment of Prisoners of War and Enemy Aliens, n.d., MAF47/54
10. G.W. Lambert (War Office) to Secretary (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries), 4 November 1939, MAF47/54
11. Marginal comment by H.J. Johns to file index, MAF47/54. Minutes of inter-departmental discussion, 21 November 1939, WO32/9902
12. Employment of Prisoners of War: Agenda for meeting on 21 November 1939, MAF47/54
13. War Office AG3/PW to Forestry Commission, 27 November 1939, WO32/9902
14. Louis de Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, vol. 3, 'Mei 1940' (The Hague 1970), 402. Carlos de Vlaemynck, Naar Engeland Gedeporteerd (Antwerp/Amsterdam 1984)
15. None of the crucial files relating to the Home Defence (Security) Executive PREM3/418 have been made public, presumably because of continuing governmental sensitivity over civilian internment policy during the second world war
16. The fifth column scare and the panic measures taken by the Churchill cabinet have been well chronicled in Peter and Leni Gillman, Collar the Lot! How Britain Interned and Expelled its Wartime Refugees (London 1980)
17. Government of the Commonwealth of Australia to Dominions Office, 16 June 1940. United Kingdom High Commission for South Africa to Dominions Office, 17 June 1940, F0916/25 80
18. United Kingdom High Commissioner for Canada to Foreign Office, No. 1298 (Secret), 6 June 1940. To Viscount Caldecote (Dominions Office), 10 June 1940, 11 June 1940. Under-Secretary of State, Dominions Office to United Kingdom High Commission for Canada, 7 June 1940. C.S.A Richie, High Commissioner for Canada, London to J.E. Stephenson (Dominions Office), 14 June 1940, FO916/2580
19. Memorandum, Mr Scott (Foreign Office), 15 June 1940. Memorandum, Mr Dixon (Foreign Office), 26 June 1940, FO916/2580
20. Memorandum Mr Dixon (Dominions Office), 1 July 1940, FO916/2580. G.P. Bassler, Sanctuary Denied: Refugees from the Third Reich and Newfoundland Immigration Policy 1906-1949 (St John's, Newfoundland 1992), 165-8
21. Minute 12, 3 July 1940, CAB65/7 WM(40) 192
22. G.W. Lambert (War Office) to Under-Secretary of State (Foreign Office) (PW2), 10 September 1940, MAF47/54
23. Sir Harold Satow and M.J. Sée, The Work of the Prisoners of War Department during the Second World War (London 1950). Library, Ministry of National Defence, Ottawa
24. Interim Report by Manpower Requirements Committee, PX(40)68, 8 November 1940, CAB118/65. R. Hudson (Minister of Agriculture) to Rt. Hon. David Margesson MP (War Office), 8 January 1941, MAF47/54
25. Italian Prisoners of War for Land Reclamation Work, 13 January 1941, CAB67/9 WP(G)(41)6. 16 January 1941, CAB65/17 WM(41) 7
26. Marginal index notes on attitudes of Secretary of State for War and Home Defence (Security) Executive, MAF47/54
27. Stanley (Ministry of Agriculture) to H.J. Johns (Ministry of Agriculture), 5 February 1941. The money would be paid to the War Office to offset the costs of paying and housing the prisoners. Memorandum on meeting with NFU and other unions, 5 February 1941, MAF47/54
28. Parkin, British Policy, 8, cites Memorandum, Sir G. Warner, 12 February 1941, FO916/170
29. R. Hudson (Minister of Agriculture) to Rt. Hon. David Margesson MP, 8 January 1941. Notes on discussions with Country War Agricultural Executive Committees, February 1941, MAF47/54
30. Captain R. Fullerton: Notes on a Meeting on the Employment of Italian Prisoners of War in the United Kingdom at Hobart House, 12 February 1941, WO199/405. Minutes of above meeting, MAF47/54
31. Morton to Churchill, 24 February 1941, PREM3/363/1
32. Churchill to Sir Edward Bridges M243/1, 28 February 1941, PREM3/363/1
33. Churchill to Sir Edward Bridges, M595/1, 29 May 1941, PREM3/363/1
34. CAB66/16 WP(41)120. Minute 8, 16 January 1941, CAB65/17 WM(41) 7 Conclusions. Minute 8, 5 June 1941 CAB65/18 WM(41) 57 Conclusions. War Office Progress Report on the Transfer of Prisoners of War from the Middle East to the United Kingdom for Labour Purposes, 29 April 1942, CAB123/136
35. Summary No. 2, July 1941, W0165/59
36. War Office to W.C. Tame (Ministry of Agriculture), 19 June 1941, MAF47/54
37. Memorandum on report from Major-General Sir Alan Hunter, 11 April 1941, MAF47/54
38. Report by A. Carr Williams to Labour Supply Board (MAF), 12 August 1941, MAF47/54
39. Summary No. 5 October 1941, W0165/59. Memorandum H.J. Johns (Ministry of Agriculture), 25 September 1941, MAF47/54
40. R. Hudson (Minister of Agriculture) to Rt. Hon. David Margesson MP (Secretary of State for War), 28 October 1941, MAF47/54
41. J.M. Ross (Home Office) to H.J. Johns (Ministry of Agriculture), 11 March 1942, MAF47/54
42. W.S. Morrison to Sir John Anderson, 1 July 1941, Board of Trade to Anderson, 6 October 1941, CAB123/136
43. See, for example, Harold Macmillan (Ministry of Supply) to Anderson, 3 December 1941. Minutes of Meeting on Italian Prisoners-of-war, 5 December. War Office to Norman Brook (Personal Assistant to Anderson) 21 February 1942, CAB123/136
44. Minutes of Meeting on Employment of Italian Prisoners of war, 13 November 1941. Memorandum, Ministry of Agriculture to Lord President, n.d. Memorandum J.A. Sutherland-Harris (Ministry of Agriculture), 15 January 1942. Report of 22 February 1942, MAF47/54
45. Meeting of Directorate for Prisoners of War (War Office), 19 June 1942. Home Defence (Security) Executive, SE/258 Secret, 21 May 1943, MAF47/54
46. 1943 Programme, 2 December 1942. Memorandum, Ministry of Works and Planning, 14 January 1943, MAF47/54
47. L.C. Hollis to Churchill, 24 April 1942 records the likelihood that the United States would agree to accommodate German and Italian prisoners taken by the British, PREM3/364/7
48. Minute 5B, 18th Meeting of Sub-Committee A, 3 March 1943, Imperial Prisoners of War Committee, W0165/59. While most accessible International Red Cross reports on camps in the UK give a positive view of conditions, there were cases of illness and disorientation among some prisoners brought to the country from the Middle East via South Africa (and occasionally the United States). FO916/308
49. PWE Internal Memorandum, 2 April 1943, F0898/323
50. C.R.S. Harris, Allied Military Administration of Italy, 1943-1945 (London 1957), 151. Resident Minister in Algiers to Foreign Office, No. 212, 5 February 1944, quotes the Italian government figure of around 27,000 officers and 420,000 NCOs and men. F0898 and PREM3/364/2. A table in PREM3/364/2 gives a total of 556,780 prisoners but this may have included a large number of Italian colonial troops
51. For the development and extent of this use of Italian labour by the British Army, see Report: Italian Co-operators and GHQ 2nd. Echelon in the Mediterranean Theatres, n.d. (1945), CAB106/452
52. A.F.H.Q. Algiers to AGWAR, W1362/44503, 29 January 1944. Noted Badoglio's refusal to sign the agreement and his preference for resignation, ADM 116/5182
53. Harris, op. cit., 152-3. Foreign Office to Washington Embassy, No. 3004, 8 April 1944, ADM116/5182. Bob Moore and Kent Fedorowich, 'Britain, the Allied Negotiations on Italian Cobelligerency and the Prisoner of War Question, 1943-45', International History Review XVII (1996), 28-47
54. Minute 4, 13 September 1943, CAB65/35 WM(43) 127. Minute 1, 16 September 1943, CAB65/35 WM(43) 128
55. The reason for their exclusion was presumably to assist the Political Warfare Executive in its campaign to win hearts and minds in Italy by arranging repatriations to Sicily. Major C.A.H. Harrison (Acting Regional Director PWE Italian Region) to Director of Plans, 13 July 1943, F0898/325
56. A.F.H.Q. Algiers to War Office, No. 4473, 7 October 1943, ADM116/5182
57. Churchill to Lord President of the Council, M587/3, 16 September 1943, PREM3/364/2
58. Churchill to Eden, M602/3, 29 September 1943. Churchill to Foreign Office, M683/3, 13 October 1943, PREM3/364/2
59. W. Gorell Barnes to General E.C. Gepp (DPW, War Office), 14 October 1943, PREM3/364/2
60. Memorandum by Lord President, C.R. Attlee, 18 January 1944, CAB66/45 WP(44)36
61. Ministry of Agriculture, Internal Memorandum, 21 December 1943, MAF47/54
62. Memorandum by PWE on the proposal to employ Italian POWs on work prohibited by the Geneva Convention, 14 April 1944, F0898/325
63. Memorandum by PWE, 14 April 1944, F0898/325
64. Office Note, 9 May 1944, W032/11123
65. Committee for the Allocation of Prisoners of War, 19th Meeting, 6 November 1944, BT168/84
66. Memorandum by Minister of Labour and National Service, 31 July 1944, PREM3/364/13 WP(44)421
67. Minute 5, 29 September 1944, CAB55 WM(44) 129
68. Memorandum: Prisoners of War, Ministry of Production, 30 September 1945, BT168/85
69. Employment of German Prisoners of War outside Germany after the cessation of hostilities in Europe, Memorandum by the Secretary of State for War, 10 May 1945, CAB66 WP(45)292
70. The Ministry of Labour reports to the Cabinet contain only two mentions of prisoner of war labour between 1941 and the end of 1943. Report: Manpower Mid-1942, Survey by Ministry of Labour and Nat. Service, PREM4/54/1 and Memorandum by Lord President, 27 October 1941, PREM4/54/2