Tolerance As a Crime? The British Treatment of German Prisoners of War on the Western Front, 1914-1918

Abstract

This article examines the British treatment of German prisoners of war on the Western Front during the First World War. Although historians have largely overlooked crimes against prisoners of war, it argues that British soldiers, like other combatants, sometimes pillaged, physically abused, or even murdered German prisoners following surrender. The British higher command issued orders against prisoner mistreatment, but the perpetration of war crimes against German prisoners was often tolerated, and sometimes encouraged, at the front. Only a fraction of British troops participated in prisoner killings, but their crimes demand that historians re-evaluate the nature of the captor—prisoner relationship.