During WWII, the treatment of prisoners of war was supposedly governed by the Geneva Conventions, the first of which was signed in 1906, and was operative during WWI, and the second of which was sign in Switzerland, 1929. The second Geneva Convention had been signed by the powerhouses of the Western world, including Britain, Italy, the US and Germany. The Allied Forces were under stern orders to treat Axis prisoners according to the conventions, and this order was mostly followed. Generally, the Axis countries treated prisoners from Australia and other Allied Forces in accordance with the conventions. The Germans were even obliged to apply this humane treatment to Jewish POWs who wore the British Army uniform, thus sparing them the horrible …show more content…
The Australians captured in North Africa would become the prisoners of the Italians. The Italians rounded about more than 1000 Australian soldiers into their camps. Most Australian officers captured by the Italians ended up in Campo 78, near Rome, were their treatment was generally acceptable. However, ordinary soldiers were sent to Campo 57 in north-east Italy. It was commanded by Colonel Calcaterra, who was described as “a sadist and a beast and an accessory to murder”. The conditions here were intolerable. The food was poor, and housing was completely insanitary. The prisoners commonly improvised medical treatment to cope with the “57 twins, pneumonia and kidney disease”. When they were rescued, the number saved by the Red Cross was “beyond …show more content…
The Japanese high command had decided to build a railway linking Thailand and Burma to supply its campaign against the Allies in Burma. This 420km railway was built by a force of about 60 000 Allied POWs, and 200 000 Asian labourers. By the time the railway was completed in October 1943, approximately 3000 Australians, and over 11 000 Allied prisoners were dead.
The cruelty of the Death Railway Camp is highlighted in Source D. Here the Australian soldiers are displayed as severely anorexic, with ribs and other bones protruding, and almost no muscle on their bodies. This was due to fact that they were fed almost nothing, just enough that they would survive long enough before they were deemed unnecessary. This starvation was not helped by the arduous labour they were forced into, which burnt through what meagre nutrition was