Hitler's British slaves : allied POWs in Germany, 1939-1945

The untold story of life in the allied camps under the Nazi's. Sean Londgen has conducted numerous interviews and reveals a new perspective on life under the Nazis that has long been forgotten and replaced by the myth of Colditz and The Great Escape. Between 1939 and 1945 almost 200,000 British and Commonwealth Servicemen were held as Prisoners of War in Germany. Every Allied soldier under the rank of Sergeant was forced to work 12 hour shifts, six days a week, cutting timber, quarrying stone, carving ice from frozen rivers and clearing bombsites. It drove the soldiers to the brink, in which survival was a daily trial. Many starved to death or died from disease, others were killed in accidents or at the hands of their guards. Between 1939 and 1945 almost 200,000 British and Commonwealth servicemen were held as prisoners of war in Germany. This title presents the details of what sort of work they undertook, their living conditions, their relationships with civilian workers, foreign labourers and concentration camp inmates.