Do you have a family member who was held POW during WWII? Throughout the war, hundreds of thousands of Allied troops were captured and taken Prisoner of War. They were held in POW camps in Europe and Asia. Some died while being detained and others set free at the end of the war. This month we’re highlighting our UK, Allied Prisoners of War collection.
This collection covers the years 1939-1945 and contains information about WWII POWs, including where they were held and, in many cases, what happened to them. You can search for a specific POW camp or search by region.
These records have either been created or collected by the War Office. Here are just a few examples of what you might find in this collection:
Military officials interviewed a Japanese soldier named Norihiko Ozaki. He was an eyewitness to events that took place at the Ballale Island POW camp. In his interview, Ozaki related his observations and general conditions within the camp. His transcribed statement describes sickness among the prisoners, escape attempts, and executions. More than 500 POWs died on Ballale Island.
The POW camp Stalag Luft III, near the German town of Saga (now Żagań, Poland), became well known after the release of the movie “The Great Escape.” Royal Air Force pilot and prisoner Roger J. Bushell masterminded an escape plan from the camp. More than 600 prisoners dug tunnels in the sandy subsoil below the camp. They reinforced the tunnels with random pieces of wood they scavenged. On March 24th, 1944, 76 prisoners escaped; 73 of them were captured, and an infuriated Hitler ordered the execution of 50. The collection contains records on Stalag Luft III and other German POW prison camps.
On January 28, 1944, in a terrible incident of friendly fire, the USAAF bombed a railway bridge in Allerona, Italy. A train crossing the bridge was hit, destroying some cars and derailing others. Unbeknownst to the Air Force, the train was filled with more than 1,000 Allied POWs. Without transportation lists, it was difficult to determine the losses, but estimates range from 200-600. See documents and correspondence related to this incident.
To research more about these and other POW camps during WWII, start searching this collection today on Fold3!
USAF was not called USAF till 1947.
The article does not refer to USAF. It correctly refers to the USAAF (United States Army Air Force.)
Gary Knighton (USAF Retired)
Am very traumatically scandalized that there is no complete and official records of World War 11 (WW2) PRISONERS OF WAR (POWS). Especially in the U.S. Commonwealth_PHILIPPINES. Of course there was/is the well_known Bataan Death March of April 9, 1942 where U.S. National_Filipino & American soldiers died. But actually there were three (3) three other “Death Maeches”, namely: (1) Davao, Mindanao; (2) Manila Death Marchers of those captured in Corregidor; & (3) Batangas POWs of those captured & detained at the Big Catholic Church. Some of whom were fortunately released by the Guards who misunderstood the Order. But the were made to March to a River and executed by a firing squad. It must be very importantly noted that the current Church where the Carmelites Monastery is attached was a burial place even of those who were intentionally buried alive. Similar to the incident in “Camp O’Donell” at Capaz, Tarlac, U.S. Commonwealth_Philippines where still living POWs were buried alive. With one very intriguing incident of a certain Pfc. Rabaja, whose brother Col. Mariano Rabaja was forced to join the “DEATH March” from Mariveles, Bataan till Capaz, Tarmac if only to look for his brother that luckily he found at Camp “O’Donnel” almost to be buried alive. Since Col. Mariano could speak Nippongo or Japanese language, he (Mariano) informed the Prison Guard that the “to_be_buried alive & POW was his brother. Thus he was spared. Unfortunately Col. Mariano got afflicted with Malaria. Effectively he (Col. Mariano) was sent home While his brother was left behind. Despite their long POW internment both was NEVER paid the $2.50/day incarceration benefit. Additionally without the mandated PROTOCOL Medical Examination Col. Mariano Rabaja had only TEN PERCENT (10%) Service_Connected Disability. Despite the fact that the 1966 Veterans Pension Act should have granted 100% ($ to $) Total & Permanent Service_Connected Disability at Age SIXTY_SIX (66) AUTOMATICALLY. That did NOT happen. Due to the “EX POST FACTO” ‘RIDER_PROVISION’ _ 107 SECTION, 38 U.S. CODE that by malicious SCHEME was passed as a law on FEB. 18, 1946 & while the PHILIPPINES was still a “UNITED STATES” COMMONWEALTH. Till, at least, July 4, 1946.Hence a very Serious “WAR” & “HATE_CRIME” that must be very stricly Decided by “GRAND JURY”. THANKS & MORE POWER.
I agree . My Uncle Maurice P. Penan died in the Philippines. He suffered injuries in I think the Philippines the same day as Pearl Harbor . After that it is blurry . His name is omitted or misspelled on records as he was being shipped out . He was part of the Army Air Corps. My family never thought his
remains came home . My father told me that WWII the Philippines was another Holocaust that has never been addressed. The Army Air Corps had different names during 1939-1942. I cannot believe the records are gone. I am waiting for results of DNA of my Uncle since Dec 2017.
Thank you for all this information! My father, Aloysius T Suttmann (Sutt,) was a survivor of the Bataan Death March, the POW camps at O’Donnel and Cabanatuan, the hell ship transfer to Japan and then Rokorushi and Zenzuji, Japan. He was not liberated until we dropped the bomb. He went to war with the New Mexico Army National Guard which he joined while at school at NM State Teachers (now WNMU.) All (or most) NM POWs did get 100% disability. Because my father moved back to Indiana/Ohio he never received more than 10% disability. That was, until 1998, when I took his case to the US Court of Veterans Appeals, supported by documentation from his cardiologist for beriberi heart disease and got him 100%. Proudest moment of my law career. But WHAT A BATTLE! I am also privileged to have CDs of his oral history of this experience, given to a graduate student for her Masters’ Thesis.
Traumatically scandalized? Seriously? In a thread about POWs, YOU are traumatized? What about them?
I can not change my email address because it will affect all my medical records and medication records. If this is creating a problem in allowing me to use the internet . then I see no need for me to continue with our transactions. i will see if my attorney can help me do what ever it is that you feel I need to do in order to continue using my internet. Maybe he can also explain what this ” New Allied POW Records…. Indicates?? The old email address that just showed up on my screen is not effective. I have not used it in approximately 3 or maybe 4 years.
You have missed the Sandakan Death March.
My uncle, Gunner Keith Miles Raymond, died at Sandakan. Reading Prisco’s post, I am sure he was only talking about death marches in the Philippines.
My father was a POW in Luxembourg I would like to learn more about his time there
Will there be an effort to provide information about Axis POWs who were kept in prisons state-side?
Will there be anything on War 1812 prisoners held at Halifax, Nova Scotia? They seem to have been forgotten.
Also Dartmoor Prison, and other places the seamen were taken.
Any research on German Luftwaffe POW’s held in France and Germany from 1944 thru 1946? My grandfather was captured after D-Day. Also my uncle is listed as MIA on the Russian front. Any info on how to research these events would be great.
My dad was a POW in Stalag 9B. From what he told me, the guys were thrilled to be liberated and were STARVING. Any pictures of this location perhaps?
My dad was a prisoner at 9c a pow hospital camp. He did work in mines. He was captured at Dieppe. I have not found many pictures but there are some military pow websites that do show some.
Any info. on German prisoners of war here in America?
I do not know what records Ancestry has. The only POW Camp in the U.S. that I know of was Camp Hahn, Riverside, California. Try researching it.
Debby
You might try this site. They have information on how to obtain records http://www.gentracer.org/pow.html
Barbara, thanks so much for another finding aid in research.
I believe there was a pow camp in New Jersey, USA, with German U-boat prisoners.
There was a German POW camp in Owosso, MI during WW2.
There was a POW prison in Wilmington NC. Camp (Camp) Lee Army post in Petersburg VA also had German POW’s. My father worked there during the war, he had polio & wasn’t accepted in service. He had prisoners work for him there.
I have some pictures of some in striped outfits with POW printed on them. Also have a bracelet one made for my mother with her initials on it, also made Dad one but my brother has it.
My late Uncle was too old for active service during WW2 but he was one of the over 30 year old that was drafted. He served stateside I believe in either Alabama or Arkansas as an orderly for German prisoners that were sent state side for medical reason, I guess. I remember him telling me some stories about them – one of which they tried to convince him that his last name was German – “Walker” – he never gave in to that way of thinking. 🙂
Can anyone help My father was a POW taken captivity 11 May 1942 His name was Heinz Menz (Willy) Identification -5340-1./Pz.Ers.Abt.1 Enlisted in the Panzer/Tank Regiment 7 in May 1942 the regiment fought in the west then Italy and then with the 10th Panzer Division in Africa in 1943 where he was captured on 11 May 1943 he was released from captivity on 31 Dec 1948 his time as a POW was in the USA Where I do not know and would like info if pos please he said they made Tin Cans and canned them with fruit and veg Please can some one enlighten me on this I live in the UK
To Linda Jackson: There were German POWs in northwest Ohio, but I do not know precisely where. Two men were brought to my mother’s town to translate a postcard she received from a stalag in western Germany advising that her husband was a US POW there. I will look through the scrapbook to see if there is more information.
Looking for more info on my uncle Alex Gorr who ended up on the Japanese ship that we torpedoed not knowing POWs were on board. He died. He was one of those from Maywoo, Illinois who had no training as they were not expected to fight but to repair things. I have some pictures of him and a few buddies as they enjoyed some free time together
Sharon Gorr Kaldenberger
What ship was he picked up from?
He was on the MArisa maru. Spelling?
He was a prisoner and we blew them as there was no indication of POWs
On board. He did not survive.
I think having to PAY for information about our families service records is horrible. They served their country and where never really compensated by their country for the horrible things that happened to them. Also its a disgrace that a fire burned all the records of our military. I am appalled how companies are making money on selling information that is supposed to be public information.
You are right!! I am enraged my father’s military records were destroyed in a fire. How hard would it have been to use carbon copy and store them at another site just in case something would happen to the originals.
We live in a democracy where companies make money. Don’t pay them if you don’t want to. You can write and request your family military records for free. Thinking “horrible, disgracing, and appalling” thoughts is your choice. You could choose to be positive.
I agree, but it is even more insidious than that. Rather than have a single repository where you can access ALL information, by design, only certain information is available on one site to which you have to pay an annual subscription price.. If you want OTHER information, you have to subscribe to ANOTHER site to access THAT information. I wouldn’t mind subscribing to a single site if all info is accessible. I will NOT subscribe to multiple sites to gain access to information. Having to subscribe to so many different sites can run into multiple hundreds of dollars annually. I’m not that gullible.
My father was in Luft I , Germany. I have his life history in a book called “Life and Memories” Carl DeVon Larsen. It can be Googled or found online at the Harold B Library (Brigham Young University). There is also a web site for this POW camp with great info including LDS info.
Dad also wrote about the POW camp outside of Salina, Utah… there is also books about this.
My father was in the RAF during the first world war but if I wish to know anything about his service during that time I have to pay for the information as the records are held in America or is that Fold 3, I think when you pay for using Ancestry you would not have to pay extra for the records of british servicemen.
My brother was a POW held on the Celebes Islands from March of 1942 through August of 1945. He had just turned 18 when the Destroyer he was on was hit and sunk by the Japanese. He was often referred as the “Baby of the Pope” since at that time he was the youngest Sailor in the Asian Fleet. Is there any info on this prison camp??
Debra Fowler – I do know that there was a POW camp at Marianna, FL.
Gary Knighton: Thanks for the link to the Brown County Historical page regarding the WWII POW Camp. I wonder if readers are aware there are POW’s buried in some of the National Cemeteries, especially Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas?
My great-uncle Byard Witten was in the New Mexico National Guard, and was part of the Coastal Battery in the Philippines in December 1941. He survived the horrors of Bataan, and three years of prison camps. He was on a ship in Subic Bay that was going to take him to Japan in January 1945 when it was bombed by Allied bombers. While his family was initially told he died when the ship sunk, I found on the Internet another account which said he tried to escape during the bombing, and was executed. He was 44 years old and was co-owner, with my grandfather, of a hardware store, not a career soldier.
I believe there was a POW camp(s)? in the upper peninsula of MI, near Iron River. There is information available on it, but I am not sure of the location. The prison was not very secured. Some men returned to the area after the war, not having personal needs for the information, I didn’t pay that much attention on the place. Check with the Iron County Historical Museum in Caspian MI.
My mother told about a prisoner of war camp in Mecosta County, Michigan near the town of Barryton.
My father was in the Navy during WW2. His PGM 30 was captured and he was taken prisoner around the island of Bouginville,in the South Pacific. Records are hard to find . I hope one day I can find the info. My dad told me they were moved from camp to camp..
My Grandfather was a cilivan, taken prisoner, when the Japan took Gaum. he spend the reminding time in Japan at the Kopa camp. David William Kinnison
Thank you for this information, my father was a POW in japan.
http://www.tkibsgaard.com
My husband Emilio Echevarria remembers German POWs being kept at Drew Field in Tampa Florida in about 1943-44.
My uncle was a POW in the Los Banos Internment Camp, and I cannot locate any information on him on your website. On February 23, 1945, he and approximately 2,146 other POWs were released after a raid. I would like to find more info about his being a POW.
Thank you.
I am a member of both Ancestry.com and Ancestry.co.uk and Fold 3, and was excited that we would be able to hopefully access records for my father who was held in Stalag X1-B, Fallingbostel, Germany from Sept 1944 to Sept 1945.
His Army No 3187188, His POW number issue to him at this camp 118589.
His name is David Christie, served in the British Army , Kings Own Scottish Border ers unit for 19 years, He had served for years in India, Burma, Jerusalem, etc. even before WW2. Still in the Army he was called on to join the joint effort called Market Garden, to secure a bridge in the Netherlands held by the Germans.
September 1944, he and his team and many others too, were accidentally dropped by parachutes, behind enemy lines during the large airlift of personnel from the skies on gliders.
Sadly many were captured and taken to this camp and only released after the end of the war 1945.
There is an Ancestry.co.uk record where I did get this information, back in 2015.
I had hoped Fold3 could provide some additional records as they had mentioned.
I tried to access the films listed on Fold 3.
Sad to say I did not see him listed at all.
The records also kept referring to another Camp #357, I thought this odd.
Are your records only part complete?
I thought you would coordinate the information with Ancestry.
Please help me find his record.
Thank you.
My grandfather, Lt. Col. John Burn Brettell, served in the Philippines during WWII and was taken prisoner when the Japanese overtook the island. He survived the Bataan Death March and two bombings on the ships that were headed to Japan to an interment camp. On the third ship, he succumbed as he was severely malnourished and his body is buried at sea. A very sad chapter in our country’s history – his younger buddy, Col. Joe Kramer, survived the ordeal but sadly, both are no longer living. If anyone has information regarding either of these two gentlemen, I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks!
Looking for Australian POWs on the Burma railroad. My uncle was there. Can’t find any records in this list.
I’m interested in any POW from Stalaag 4
My dads name was Abe Lee Hesser from Stillwater, Okla.
He returned safely and lived till 2003
He was in the Battle of Ploesti Oil Fields and shot down then captured
He was in a death march.
Last January I visited the site in Poland where the prison camp was .
We also visited #3 described above that was where officers were held and paraded through town for propaganda
The celks we saw at 3 were nothi.g like what my dad described
The officers had much more !
I believe there was also a POW Camp in Brownwood, Texas. Years ago I saw some German graves in the cemetery there, some marked with a swastika.
Vicki Hagen: Brown County, Texas has some history on this camp at: https://browncountyhistory.org/pow-stories.html
There was also a POW camp for WWII German prisoners just outside Greeley, Colorado. There is a commemorative plaque along US 34 west of town, and the Greeley History Museum has more information.
My oldest brother was a prisoner of war in Germany for three and a half years, he never talked about it to me I would love to know what happened to him and what camps he was held in his name was Kenneth Walter James Barnes he was in a Middlesex regerment.
This is a good site: http://www.powtaiwan.org
I have been on the site for several years. It has a lot of information including information on the camps where they were held. Search for your family member and you will find his information and the history of each of the camps. My Uncle died in 1943 as a POW. I’ve corresponded with the man who runs this site and he has helped me with my questions.
Does anyone have information about Edward Hamilton Snead. He died either on the Bataan Death March or after as a prisoner.
There was a POW prison in Wilmington NC. Camp (Camp) Lee Army post in Petersburg VA also had German POW’s. My father worked there during the war, he had polio & wasn’t accepted in service. He had prisoners work for him there.
I have some pictures of some in striped outfits with POW printed on them. Also have a bracelet one made for my mother with her initials on it, also made Dad one but my brother has it.