Prisoners and the Y

As Britain and the Nazis chained each other's prisoners last week, the man who probably knows more about prisoners of war than anybody else told more than he had ever yet told about how they are faring in World War II. The man is Tracy Strong, world director of the Y.M.C.A.'s War Prisoners Aid Committee. He is now in the U.S. on a visit from his Geneva headquarters. His news was somber but could have been much worse.

"All Europe," says Y-man Strong, "is developing the prisoner-of-war mentality. In a sense, everybody is behind bars." But about half of the four to six million prisoners captured on European and African battlefields probably fare better than most civilians in Europe. For this there are two reasons:

1) The Geneva Convention of 1929, under which the Y and the International Red Cross work, provides for neutral inspection of prison camps. Hence a certain amount of food, clothing and other supplies gets through for prisoners on both sides even when it does not always reach civilians. Men like Mr. Strong, who have worked among prisoners in both world wars, agree that their lot is better in 1942 than in 1917.

2) The Germans have made full use of the Geneva code provision that prisoners of war (except those of officer rank) can be used for non-military work. This in turn has meant that many prisoners get treated better than civilians because they can produce better.

Notable exception is the Russo-German situation. Russia is the only major belligerent which did not sign the Geneva Convention. Result: prisoners taken on either side of this front fare much worse than others, even when they are in the same camps. The Russians and Nazis have taken over 3,000,000 prisoners--and possibly half of these have already died because of inadequate treatment. Thus, because they are not covered by the Geneva Convention, half the prisoners of World War II are quite literally "unknown soldiers," without privileges or hope of aid.

The war prisoners among whom the Y is working include 1,400,000 French soldiers, 80,000 Belgians, 75,000 Poles (the rest have been transferred to the German civil authorities), 150,000 Serbs, 115,000 British, 262,000 Italians and 23,000 Germans. It is spending more than $1,000,000 a year on each group.

Nearly all U.S. prisoners of war are in Japanese hands. Japan, though she signed the Geneva Convention, never ratified it. But the Japanese have publicly declared they would apply the spirit of the Convention to their American, British and Dutch prisoners. The Jap War Office has agreed in principle to permitting Y-men access to captured soldiers.

Most highly organized are the British officers' camps in Germany. One typical camp has a library of 16,000 books; courses in 70 different subjects, including 23 foreign languages, all taught by prisoners; regular self-staged theatrical and musical shows; flower and vegetable gardens; painting; woodwork; a sports program; bridge drives, spelling bees and debates. "One debate," reports Y-man Strong, "was: 'Resolved, That in the opinion of this house it would be better to be married to Ginger Rogers than to Mrs. Beaton' [the British Fanny Farmer]."

There is also great interest in religious services by captured chaplains which has resulted in over 7,000 acts of Communion from Anglicans, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics in a six-month period. Ten candidates for ordination are studying under an Anglican chaplain.

Among the supplies this camp asked for: 50,000 gramophone needles, conjuring tricks, roulette wheels, daffodil bulbs, water colors, saccharine, 10,000 sheets of examination paper (British universities are giving credit for these prison courses), cricket equipment, cigaret holders, 100,000 razor blades, Communion wine and bread, 50 dice.

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