Author(s): Peter Monteath

War/Military

Australians from every field of conflict in WW2 found themselves as prisoners in Hitler's notorious Stalags, or prisoner of war camps. Whether captured merchant seamen, bomber crews or soldiers taken in North Africa or the disastrous Greek and Cretan campaigns, they were to see out the war in the heart of Hitler's Europe, their fortunes intimately connected to the fortunes of the Reich. Most were forced to labour in factories, down mines or on the land. All suffered from shortages, overcrowding and the mental strain of imprisonment. The experiences of Australian POWs in Germany has long been overshadowed by the horrors of Japanese imprisonment, yet their stories of courage, stoicism, suffering and endurance deserve to be told.