World War II: Jews as Prisoners of War

Abstract

In regard to the treatment of Jewish prisoners of war, closer research is called for, because it is part of a far wider topic - the impact international law has had on Jewry's fate. With the exception of Jews of German nationality, or Austrian, all the Jews processed during the war had a claim (a) to be subject to the Rules of War on Land, it being the success of the military operations of the Wehrmacht which had brought them under German Power, and (b) to be treated in the same way as the rest of the population of belligerent occupied countries. The fate of the Jew as prisoner of war provided the earliest cause for alarm nearly two years before the influx of Soviet prisoners, which should already then have caused the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to examine which normative system the Committee intended to materialise. Keywords:German; International Committee of the Red Cross; international law; Jews; prisoners of war; Rules of War on Land; Wehrmacht; World War