Australian WWII Prisoners of War

Australian Prisoners of War (POW) during WWII

• Over 30,000 Australians became prisoners of war.

Survival Rates of Australian POWs

• 97% of the 8,591 Australians captured by the Germans survived the war.
• Almost 8,000 of the 21,467 Australians captured by the Japanese died in captivity, primarily at the beginning of 1942.
• Causes of death included executions, beatings, slave labor, starvation, and disease.

Conditions of Aussie POWs in Asia

• Most Australian POWs were held in camps in South-East Asia, Korea, and Japan.
• The Japanese military showed little regard for prisoner rights.
• Thousands of POWs and conscripted Asians were forced to construct the Burma-Thailand railway.
• Starving men, many with tropical diseases, were forced to work at least 12 hours a day.

Sandakan Death March

• North Borneo was the site of the single worst atrocity against Australian and British POWs
• 3,000 POWs were sent to construct an airport by the Japanese.
• In January 1945, 470 were forced to march 260km to Ranau; 350 survived the ordeal.
• As of July, only 30 POWs survived in Ranau, the rest were shot on August 1.
• In May, a second death march was ordered for the remaining 500 Sandakan POWs
• Only six of the original 3,000 Sandakan POWs survived.
• Seven escaped into the jungle and were cared for by villagers; one died before rescue.
• Those who collapsed due to little food were killed.
• 203 survived the journey.

Life in Asian POW Camps

• Bushido code led Japanese officers to believe prisoners were disgraced, showing no compassion.
• Food was scarce only water, a small portion of corn, soy meal and rice was provided.
• Rations were halved toward the end of the war.
• Australian nurses were not recognized as military personnel, which denied them rights to Red Cross packages.
• At least 12 First Nation Australians servicemen were among the prisoners.
• Escape was possible, but difficult, with certain death if caught.
• Forced labor included clearing land and building railroads and bridges.
• Cigarettes were sometimes paid for work, leading to a black market.
• Punishments included withdrawal of food, forcing work while sick, being locked in a bamboo box in the sun, beatings, or death for disobedience.

Conditions in South-East Asian POW Camps

• Camps were full of diseases caused by malnutrition, mosquitoes, poor sanitation, and overwork.
• Many POWs arrived with combat injuries that went untreated.
• POWs with medical training cared for the sick/injured with limited supplies.
• Australian soldiers maintained mateship under difficult circumstances and shared food, money, and workload.

Private Stan Davis Quote

• Private Stan Davis recounts POWs as covered in scabs, very thin with no muscle, and barely alive.

Sylvia McGregor Quote

• Sylvia McGregor of the Australian Nursing Army - POW, notes the inability to articulate hunger, and states that Indonesian women aided prisoners, with prisoners risking death to leave the barb wire fence.

Scrapbook Page Ideas

• Ideas for creating a scrapbook include: daily challenges and living conditions, emotional and psychological experiences, hopes, fears, and reflections.
• Considerations for Australians attitudes towards Japan after the war is also suggested.

The United Nations (UN)

• The Allied leaders agreed to replace the League of Nations with the UN during wars closing stages.
• The UN aimed to settle disputes and promote freedom/prosperity, to prevent future wars.
• In 1945, the UN Charter determined to save succeeding generations from the "scourge of war".
• In August 1945, the UN backed the Allies' decision to trial leading Nazis and others for war crimes.

The Geneva Convention

• In armed conflicts, soldiers were killed rather than taken as POWs, and civilians were victims.
• Attempts began in the late 19th century to reduce suffering by setting legal limits during war.
• The Geneva Conventions of 1864, 1906, and 1929 aimed to protect civilians and prisoners of war.
• Many atrocities occurred during WWII, with the Japanese military and German Nazis being particularly cruel.
• The Geneva Convention made it possible to try and punish some perpetrators of war crimes.

Nazi and other Fascist Crimes

• Nazi ideas about race largely influenced treatment of conquered people and POWs.
• Western European, British, and American POWs were generally treated reasonably well unless they tried to escape.
• Racism played a role, as seen when Germans shot North African troops serving in the French military after Frances surrender.
• Savage reprisals occurred in western Europe.

Nazi Crimes in Eastern Europe

• German forces were ruthless towards people in Eastern Europe, deemed racially inferior.
• Hitler demanded brutality toward Slavic "sub-humans" and their "Jewish-Bolshevik" leaders following the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union.
• Special SS forces were ordered to kill all Jews, Communists, and Partisans.
• About 9 million Soviet soldiers and twice as many Soviet citizens died; many were deliberately killed.
• Two-thirds of 5.7 million Soviet POWs in Nazi hands were murdered, starved, or worked to death in concentration camps.
• The populations of entire Soviet towns and villages were massacred where Soviet or other Slavic civilians resisted.

The Holocaust

• The Holocaust was the most systematic of all Nazi war crimes and was an act of genocide to wipe out European Jews.
• In 1941, the mass murder of Jews increased along with Nazi persecution after the war began.
• Nazis killed anyone who might resist during the invasions of Poland and the Soviet Union but singled out all Jews for destruction.
• Poland’s Jews were forced into enclosed ghettoes where survival was a struggle.
• The Germans carried out mass shootings of communists and Jews during the invasion of the Soviet Union.
• In Latvia in 1941, 327,000 Jewish men, women and children were murdered in two mass shootings.
• The SS also conducted experiential gassings of Jews and Soviet POWs in specially converted vans.

The Final Solution

• In 1941, Hitler decided on the ‘final solution_to the Jewish problem that would be mass extermination in SS run concentration camps.
• Auschwitz concertation camp was ordered to prepare for mass gassings.
• On January 20, 1942, an SS document called Final Solution to the European Jewish Question stated that healthy Jews would be exterminated through slave labour.
• Throughout the remainder of the war, Jews from all over Nazi controlled Europe were transported to death camps.
• The sick, young children, and elderly people were immediately forced into gas chambers disguised as showers.
• The gas chambers killed the prisoners, then their bodies were incinerated in gas ovens
• Others who were fit for work were selected for slave labour.
• They were later killed when they became too weak to work.
• Thousands of prisoners could be gassed in a day in the largest camps.
• 6 million Jews were murdered.

Anne Frank

• Anne Frank was thirteen years old when she and her family went into hiding in Amsterdam behind a bookcase in her fathers office building.
• She spent the next few years describing the "secret annex", during which the Nazis would rule the Netherlands with an iron fist.
• Anne Frank and her sisters were victims of untimely deaths in Bergen-Belsen after Hitler's men discovered there annex.
• Her story since has become an intimate and poignant view of life during the Holocaust, and a voice to the countless lives lost to humanity’s darkest period.

End of World War II

• The war's last year had the most fighting.
• Germany and Japan fought in defence, refusing to give up.
• As of mid-1943, the Axis power was steadily retreating.
• Italy surrendered; the German army was turned back at Stalingrad.
• The Allies wanted to open a second front in western Europe.
• They launched Allied invasion of Normandy from the southern coast of England on June 6, 1944.
• This provided heavy casualties but also a good foothold in Europe, driving the Germans back.
• Paris was liberated on August 25.
• Another massive operation named Operation Market Garden launched over in the Netherlands, with little success as there was fierce German resistance.
• In December 1044, Nazi Germany launched their last final major offensive through the Ardennes Forest in Belgium, which caused the American to be caught by surprise.
• As of 1945, the Allies crossed the border into Germany and began to advance to Berlin while the Soviet advanced from the East, falling to Soviet troops on April 30, 1945.
• On the same day, Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker.
• One week later on May 7, Germany signed an unconditional surrender, ending the bloody conflcit in Europe.

Effects on Australia

• Britain and Australia relations were strained after the war after Australians had fought in Britain’s colonial wars out of loyalty.
• Australians believed that if they defended the Empire, the British would protect them against invasion from Asia.
• However, when the Japanese swept south in 1942, Britain was struggling for survival.
• Australia turned to the United States for help, which was the turning point in Australia’s foreign relations.
• This included a short-term hatred for Japan and a longer legacy of trust with the US.
• When the war ended there was tension as the Cold War between the USSR and the Western powers emerged while tension increased after China’s communist government came into power in 1949.
• The allies feared the Red Peril (communism) and thought it would spread across the world.
• Australia believed that the US had saved them and gave the same loyalty to their new powerful friend as they had previously done so to England.
• This loyalty misled them into the tragedy of the Vietnam war (American war) in the 1960-1970s, fighting in American’s war for protection was misguided.

Studying Techniques

• Active Recall which involves reading notes, and testing understanding of key concepts through flashcards.
• Blurting requires the user to write down everything they remember from the text after a read through.
• Summarising and Note taking to rewrite notes in own understanding
• Use Mnemonics and Acronyms to create memory tricks to help recall sequences of points
• Use Timelines and Mind maps to help create mind maps to link information, and timelines to see how events are connected.
• Teaching concept to someone helps to reinforce your understanding, as well as studying in a small group.
• The Pomodoro Technique, with study in focus bursts of 25mins+5min breaks is recommended.
• The Leitener System is where users organize their flashcards/notes into sections: daily (difficult), every three days and weekly.