Life Behind the Wire: Prisoners of War
A riveting exhibit highlighting never-before-seen collections from prisoners of war exposing the struggles, challenges, and triumphs of life in captivity.
Most people aren’t aware of the drastic differences that exist between varying prisoner of war (POW) experiences. The camp and captor greatly determined the lifestyle and treatment these prisoners received.
What happens when a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine is captured during war? How do they cope with the physical and mental toll of prison life after capture? The experience was different for each individual forced to endure capture by the enemy. Food was scarce for some, others received adequate meals, exercise, and camaraderie. Some endured long hours of work. Many were limited to just a few words for outside communication.
From escape attempts and their consequences to the ingenuity and inventiveness of prisoners, Life Behind the Wire draws from the special collections and archives of the Museum & Library, along with never-before-seen prisoner of war materials on loan to the museum. The exhibit focused on POWs from WWII and the Vietnam War, and how those experiences highlight the perseverance of the citizen soldier when faced with insurmountable odds.
Visitors explored artifacts, archival materials, photographs, and oral histories that examined international laws pertaining to POWs, day-to-day life in a prisoner of war camp, and individual reflections of life as a POW. Life Behind the Wire looked at these individual’s experiences to illustrate how the POW experience has changed throughout American military history as well as how POW perspectives fit into the larger narratives of war.
Goon Box, John Cordwell. Watercolor, December 2, 1944. On loan from Colin Cordwell.
Guard towers lined the exterior fence-line of the prisoner of war camps, with guards primarily observing the prisoners inside the camp.
If I only had wings, John Cordwell. Watercolor, October 21, 1943. On loan from Colin Cordwell.
If I only had wings carried a double meaning for prisoners of war in Germany. As most were airmen shot down over the country they dreamed not only for a return to their aircraft but of escape from the camps.
Portable Cooking Stove. Photograph, 1945. Donald E. Casey Collection
Food was a defining aspect of life for prisoner of war. According to one POW of Stalag Luft III, no less than a quarter of their day was spent preparing and eating food. Here prisoners demonstrate how they used portable stoves to cook their meals.
American POWs greet soldiers from the 45th Infantry Division during the liberation of the Fischbach POW camp. Photograph, April 17, 1945.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park.After months and even years as prisoners of war, liberation was a momentous occasion. In Europe most American POWs endured forced marches and crowded camps before they were freed by Allied forces.
Bataan Surrender. Photograph, April 1942. Courtesy of the Navy History and Heritage Command.
Japanese troops guard American prisoners of war at the beginning of the Bataan "Death March."
Carrying Baskets. Print, 1945. Courtesy of the Bataan Project.
In this contemporary print American prisoners of war carry rice harvested in fields attached to the Cabanatuan POW camp.
POW Farm Laborers at Zentsuji. Photograph, 1944-45. Courtesy of the Bataan Project.
American prisoners were forced against their will—and against international law—to labor for the Japanese war industry. Here American POWs dig in fields outside the Zentsuji POW camp.
Camp O’Donnell, Photograph, 1942. Courtesy of the Bataan Project, National Archives and Records Administration.
Many Japanese prisoner of war camps were repurposed from old prisons, army bases, warehouses, and other available buildings. Camp O’Donnell, one of the most notorious POW camps in the Philippines, was a Filipino army base prior to the war.
