List of prisoners of war explained
This is a list of famous prisoners of war (POWs) whose imprisonment attracted media attention, or who became well known afterwards.
A
- Ron Arad – Israeli fighter pilot, shot down over Lebanon in 1986; not seen since 1988 and is presumed dead
- Everett Alvarez, Jr. – Navy aviator, Vietnam War POW, held for 8 years, second longest period as a POW in American history (after Floyd James Thompson)
B
- Douglas Bader – British fighter pilot, Wing commander in Battle of Britain
- Per Bergsland – Norwegian pilot of No. 332 Squadron RAF. Escapee #44 of the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III, successfully made it to Sweden with Jens Müller
- Leonard Birchall – the "Saviour of Ceylon"
- Gregory "Pappy" Boyington – US Marine Corps Fighter Ace during WWII, Medal of Honor recipient
- Fernand Braudel – historian, was a POW in WWII
- Frank Buckles – the last surviving American veteran of WWI, was a civilian during WWII when imprisoned by the Japanese
- Roger Bushell – South African-born RAF Squadron Leader. Masterminded the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III in 1944, but was one of the 50 escapees to be recaptured and subsequently murdered by the Gestapo
- Peter Butterworth – actor, Fleet Air Arm officer, shot down 1940, imprisoned in Stalag Luft III
- Hubert Brooks – Canadian RCAF officer, partisan in Home Army in occupied Poland, awarded Military Cross and the Polish Cross of Merit with Swords
C
D
E
G
H
- James Hargest – New Zealand Brigadier captured in WWII, escaped from captivity into Switzerland
- Heinrich Harrer – Austrian mountaineer, sportsman and author, detained in British India during WWII until he escaped in 1944, described in his Seven Years in Tibet
- Erich Hartmann – "The Blond Knight of Germany", number one air ace of all air forces in WWII
- Jack Hawkins (U.S. Marine Corps officer)
- Rudolf Hess – Deputy Führer of Germany, POW in England 1941-45, before his trial for war crimes
- Bob Hoover – American WWII pilot, test pilot and airshow performer; captured in 1944 and escaped from Stalag Luft I
- Brian Horrocks – British WW2 general, WWI POW in Germany and Russia
- Wilm Hosenfeld – Soviet POW in WWII, most remembered for saving the life of Polish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman
- William Hull – American Brigadier General who surrendered Fort Detroit to the British at the outbreak of the War of 1812
J
K
- Bert Kaempfert – German orchestra conductor in WWII at a Danish POW camp
- Emil Kapaun – Roman Catholic priest in US Army, Medal of Honor recipient, Servant of God candidate for sainthood
- George Kenner – German artist interned as a civilian POW in Great Britain and the Isle of Man during WWI, which he documented in 110 paintings and drawings
- Tikka Khan – Japanese POW during WWII, Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistani Army
- Wajid Khan – Canadian politician, Pakistan-India War 1971 fighter pilot
- Yahya Khan – German POW during WWII, last president of a united Pakistan
- Maximilian Kolbe – Roman Catholic priest from Poland, interned in Auschwitz, and canonized as a saint
- Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski – Commander of the Polish Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising
- Gustav Krist – adventurer and traveler, Austrian soldier in WWI, captured by Russians and Interned in Russian Turkestan
- Sam Kydd – British actor
L
M
- Herbert Massey – RAF Air Commodore. Senior British Officer at Stalag Luft III who authorized the "Great Escape"
- Keith Matthew Maupin – captured on April 9, 2004, date of murder unknown, remains found March 30, 2008
- Charles Cardwell McCabe – a POW and chaplain at Libby Prison during the American Civil War
- John McCain – Republican nominee for president in 2008, POW for over five years in Vietnam
- Olivier Messiaen – French composer
- George Millar – journalist, British soldier, SOE agent, writer
- Dusty Miller – executed for his faith during internment under the Japanese in Thailand in 1945[1]
- François Mitterrand – French president, captured during WWII in 1940, escaped 6 times before arriving home in December 1941
- Jens Müller – Norwegian pilot of No. 331 Squadron RAF. Escapee #43 of the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III, successfully made it to Sweden with Per Bergsland
- W. H. Murray – German POW during WWII, Scottish mountaineer
N
- Airey Neave – British politician, made the first British home run from Colditz on 5 January 1942
- A. A. K. Niazi – commander of Pakistan Army in East Pakistan who surrendered along with nearly 93,000 other soldiers
O
- Richard O'Connor – British General who commanded the Western Desert Force 1940-41
P
- Friedrich Paulus – German field marshal, surrendered Stalingrad to the Soviets in 1943
- Pete Peterson – American diplomat and member of Congress, Air Force pilot who spent more than six years as a POW in Vietnam
- Donald Pleasence – English film and stage actor, WWII RAF airman shot down and placed in a German POW camp; later acted in the film The Great Escape
R
- John Rarick – U.S. Representative from Louisiana
- Sławomir Rawicz – Polish Army lieutenant who was imprisoned by the Soviets after the German-Soviet invasion of Poland. Ghost-wrote the book "The Long Walk", where he claimed he and six others escaped from a Siberian Gulag camp and trekked on foot through the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and the Himalayas before finally reaching British India
- Pat Reid – author of historical non-fiction
- James Robinson Risner – USAF Brigadier General, first living recipient of the Air Force Cross
- Yevgeny Rodionov – Russian soldier captured by rebel forces in Chechnya and beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam
- Giles Romilly – nephew of Winston Churchill, war correspondent, Prominente (celebrity prisoner) in Germany 1940-45
- James N. Rowe – Colonel, US Army Special Forces, held by the Viet Cong from 1963 to 1968, one of only 34 American soldiers to escape captivity in Vietnam
S
T
- Floyd James Thompson – America's longest-held POW, he spent 9 years in POW camps in Vietnam (1964 – 1973)
- Josip Broz Tito – president of Yugoslavia, Austrian soldier in WWI, captured by Russians in 1915
- András Toma – last known WWII POW, a Hungarian soldier who lived in a psychiatric asylum in Russia for 55 years before being identified and returned home in 2000
- Jakow Trachtenberg – Russian Jewish mathematician who developed the mental calculation techniques called the Trachtenberg system
- Mikhail Tukhachevsky – Soviet military leader and theorist, captured by Germans in WWI
U
V
W
Z
- Louis Zamperini – American athlete, member of Olympic team, captured by Japanese forces in 1943[3]
Notes and References
- Book: Gordon, Ernest . Miracle on the River Kwai. 2005. Royal National Institute of the Blind. 173. 939628465.
- Sparks, Jared: The Writings of George Washington, Vol VII, Harper and Brothers, New York (1847) p. 211.
- Book: Laura Hillenbrand . Hillenbrand, Laura . Unbroken: A WWII story of survival, resilience, and redemption . registration . New York, NY . Random House . 2010 . 978-0-81297-449-2.