Full Description
Joint Winner of Fraenkel Prize for Contemporary History 2001, London. Winner of Talmon Prize, Israel, awarded by the Israeli Academy of Sciences. Although it was one of the most common experiences of combatants in World War I, captivity has received only a marginal place in the collective memory of the Great War and has seemed unimportant compared with the experiences of soldiers on the Western Front. Yet this book, focusing on POWs on the Eastern Front, reveals a different picture of the War and the human misery it produced. During four years of fighting, approximately 8.5 million soldiers were taken captive, of whom nearly 2.8 million were Austro-Hungarians. This book is the first to consider in-depth the experiences of these prisoners during their period of incarceration.How were POWs treated in Russia? What was the relationship between prisoners and their home state? How were concepts of patriotism and loyalty employed and understood? Drawing extensively on original letters and diaries, Rachamimov answers these and other searching questions. In the process, major omissions in previous historiography are addressed.
Anyone wishing to have a rounded history of the Great War will find this book fills a major gap.
Contents
List of Figures, Tables and Charts Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations page Introduction...1 Clio's Veil...1 Historiographic Contexts...5 1 Becoming Prisoners of War...45 The Creation of the Austro-Hungarian POW Problem ...45 Austro-Hungarian POWs in Russia: A Quantitative Overview...50 Becoming POWs: The View from Below...61 2 The Hague Convention and the Treatment of POWs: Mission and Omissions...96 Prisoner of War Camps in World War I and the 'Barbaric' Twentieth Century...96 The Legal Framework...99 The 'Prototype' Thesis ...112 3 The Treatment of POWs in Russia...125 Prisoner of War Camps and other Places of Internment ...127 Living Conditions in POW Camps...137 Prisoners of War as Labor...152 Propaganda and Recruitment Among the Prisoners...163 The Treatment of POWs and the Perception of World War I ...172 4 In Search of the 'Good and Loyal Prisoner': The Austro-Hungarian Censorship and the POWs...191 Patriotism in a Multi-National State...191 The Austro-Hungarian POW Censorship...194 Austro-Hungarian POWs, the Censorship and the Issue of Loyalty...210 5 The Emperor's Clothes: The Austro-Hungarian POW Relief Effort...232 POW Relief in World War I: The Uniqueness of the Eastern Front ...232 The Austro-Hungarian POW Material Relief...237 The Austro-Hungarian Nurses...247 6 Imperial Identities and Personal Concerns: The Perspective of the Prisoners...276 Repatriation and the Repatriation System (Heimkehrwesen)...276 Prisoner of War Letters and their Usefulness as a Historical Source...283 The Relief Effort: The Prisoners' Perspective ...285 Epilogue: Captivity in the Collective Remembrance of the Great War @ The Emergence of a Commemorative Pecking Order...320 Bibliography...335 Index