Prisoner of War Archaeology

Author(s):  
Harold Mytum ◽  
Gilly Carr
Keyword(s):  
2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-39
Author(s):  
Jos Monballyu

Indien men de geschiedenis van de strafrechtelijke repressie van het Vlaamse activisme na de Eerste Wereldoorlog ten gronde wil bestuderen, moet men niet alleen de parlementaire verklaringen, de gerechtelijke statistieken en de kranten omrent die repressie raadplegen, maar vooral de gerechtelijke archieven uitpluizen die deze repressie heeft nagelaten. In dit artikel wordt dit voor de eerste keer gedaan voor de Vlaamse activisten die door de krijgsraad van het Groot Hoofdkwartier van het Leger werden veroordeeld. Die krijgsraad te velde kreeg tussen 19 november 1918 en 13 mei 1919 het monopolie van de bestraffing van zowel burgeractivisten als militaire activisten en behield dit monopolie tussen 14 mei 1919 en 30 september 1919 voor de militaire activisten. Na deze laatste datum werden de Vlaamse burgeractivisten vervolgd voor de provinciale Assisenhoven en de militaire activisten voor de provinciale krijgsraden.Het krijgsauditoraat van het Groot Hoofdkwartier vervolgde uiteindelijk 689 gewone burgers en 105 militairen voor (Vlaams en Waals) activisme (inbreuk op artikel 104, 115, lid 5 en 118bis van het Belgische strafwetboek). Hiervan moesten er zich uiteindelijk slechts drieëndertig Vlamingen (26 burgers en 7 militairen) verantwoorden voor de krijgsraad van het Groot Hoofdkwartier. Vier van hen werden vrijgesproken en negenentwintig tot een straf veroordeeld. De hoogste straf was een doodstraf, die in hoger beroep werd omgezet in een buitengewone hechtenis van twintig jaar. De laagste straf bestond uit een gevangenisstraf van twee jaar. Onder de veroordeelde burgers waren er twee die deel hadden uitgemaakt van de tweede Raad van Vlaanderen en twee die de Duitsers hadden benoemd in de door hen opgerichte Vlaamse administratie. Alle andere waren plaatselijke propagandisten van het Vlaamse activisme. De zeven militairen waren allen verdacht van activisme in het bezette België tijdens de zes laatste maanden van de oorlog. Drie van hen waren vanuit het Frontgebied naar het bezette gebied overgelopen en drie andere genoten van een vervroegde terugkeer uit een krijgsgevangenenkamp in Duitsland waar ze zich ook al maanden voor de Vlaamse zaak hadden ingezet.________The day of reckoning. Flemish activists court-martialled at the Main Headquarters of the Army (23 January until 30 June 1919)In order to carry out a thorough study of the history of the criminal repression of Flemish activism after the First World War, you need to consult not only the parliamentary declarations, the legal statistics and the newspapers on the subject, but more in particular research the court records reporting on that repression. This article is the first to study the Flemish activists who were sentenced by the court-martial at the Main Headquarters of the Army. From 19 November 1918 until 13 May 1919 that field court-martial was given the monopoly of prosecuting both civilian and military activists and it retained this monopoly for the prosecution of military activists between 14 May 1919 and 30 September 1919. After the latter date the Flemish civilian activists were prosecuted by the provincial Assize Courts and the military activists by the provincial court-martials.  Eventually the military tribunal of the Main Headquarters prosecuted 689 civilians and 105 military on the basis of (Flemish and Walloon) activism (infringement of article 104, 115 paragraph 5 and 118bis of the Belgian Criminal Code). Finally only 33 Flemish (26 civilians and 7 military) had to account for their actions in front of the court-martial of the Main Headquarters. Four of them were acquitted and twenty-nine were sentenced. The most severe penalty was a death sentence, which was converted on appeal to an exceptional imprisonment of twenty years. The most lenient penalty was two years imprisonment. Two of the convicted civilians had been part of the Second Council of Flanders and two of them had been appointed by the Germans to be part of the Flemish administration they had established. All the others had been local propagandists of Flemish activism. The seven military had all been suspected of activism in occupied Belgium during the last six months of the war. Three of them had deserted from the Frontline to the occupied territory and three others had been granted an early return from a prisoner of war camp in Germany where they also had dedicated themselves for months to the Flemish cause. 


Author(s):  
David Skarbek

The Puzzle of Prison Order presents a theory of why prisons and prison life vary so much. While many people think prisons are all the same—rows of cells filled with violent men who officials rule with an iron fist, life behind bars varies in incredible ways. In some facilities, prison officials govern with care and attention to prisoners’ needs. In others, officials have remarkably little influence on the everyday life of prisoners, sometimes not even providing necessities like food and clean water. Why does prison social order around the world look so remarkably different? This book shows that how prisons are governed—sometimes by the state and sometimes by the prisoners—is tremendously important. It investigates life in a wide array of facilities—prisons in Brazil, Bolivia, Norway, England and Wales, a prisoner of war camp, women’s prisons in California, and a gay and transgender housing unit in the Los Angeles County Jail—to understand the hierarchy of life on the inside. Drawing on theories from political economy and a vast empirical literature on prison systems, the book offers a framework for understanding how social order evolves and takes root behind bars.


1913 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 521-545
Author(s):  
Geo. B. Davis

There is probably no branch of the laws of war which stands in greater need of explanatory comment than do the chapters relating to prisoners of war. The generation preceding the great peace conferences at The Hague was marked by a number of important wars of which continental Europe was the theater; during these conflicts the number of persons reduced to captivity surpassed all experience, as did the number of problems which arose in connection with their safe-keeping and repatriation; but during the entire period the regulations governing their administration and detention remained substantially unchanged. It is true that several European states caused their regulations in that regard to be revised, but as those regulations were strictly internal in character and had no external operation, save in the territory of the enemy which they held in military occupation, the condition of prisoners of war remained substantially unchanged. Indeed, until the condition of this unfortunate class was made the subject of conventional regulation at The Hague, but few important ameliorations had been brought about in their status since the activity of the Emperor Napoleon was brought to a close at the battle of Waterloo.


1969 ◽  
Vol 9 (99) ◽  
pp. 295-303
Author(s):  
E. Reginato

In his introductory address at the third International Refresher Course for Junior Medical Officers, Dr. H. Meuli, member of the ICRC, said “No one knows war better than the military medical officer, nor measures its horror, nor hates it more. No one has greater insight into war to enable him to take a stand for peace and against war”. From its very beginnings the Red Cross has been linked to medicine; it was the ICRC which obtained for doctors the means of exercising their profession in war, which are laid down in the Geneva Conventions.It therefore seems appropriate to quote extensively from a communication submitted at the Course by an Italian doctor, bearing moving testimony to the difficulties facing the medical officer, the noble character of his mission and the principles underlying his activity in the prisoner of war camp. These principles were summed up in his conclusion : “Like peace and justice, medicine loses its significance if not accompanied by charity. If it is to stay universal, it must not lose its humanity”. (Ed.).


1979 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard E. Rutledge ◽  
Edna J. Hunter ◽  
Barbara B. Dahl
Keyword(s):  

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