POW: Allied Prisoners in Europe, 1939-45

Between 1939 and 1945, 300,000 Allied servicemen from the United States, Britain, and the Commonwealth were captured in Europe and North Africa. Drawing from letters, diaries, and other previously untapped sources, POW is a remarkable record of their experiences. Prisoners' day-to-day lives are vividly rendered: the workings of the prison camp system; the ways in which prisoners maintained contact with the outside world; artistic and intellectual endeavors; as well as unacknowledged aspects of camp life, such as sexual relations. Everyday life is offset by high drama, as POW tells of the secret organizations that smuggled escape aids to the prisoners, who, in turn, furnished their home nations with intelligence from occupied Europe. A uniquely intimate oral history of the Allied prisoners of World War II.