Crime behind the Wire: South African Prisoners in Second World War Italy and Germany

More prisoners of war were captured during the Second World War than in any other war. Of the 70 million men and women that served in the land, sea, and air forces of the belligerent states, some 10 million were held as prisoners of war (POWs) at some point. Using South African POWs as a lens, this article examines the capital crimes, lesser crimes, and misdemeanours these men committed against the backdrop of the hard, peculiar difficulties of life in an internment camp. Crime is often hard to detect and is not always reported and the POWs often punished offenders themselves. The numbers reported were small but certainly underrepresented the extent of the criminal activity. In the case of South Africa, some 342,792 men and women served in uniform during the Second World War and some 17,303 were held by the enemy as POWs at some point in the war. Of these, 98 appeared on the original 'S' List, which was abbreviated to just 35, for crimes committed against the state or against fellow POWs. Fewer still were prosecuted for the want of evidence or the presence of political considerations.