A Prisoner-of-war camp is a site for the containment of persons captured by the enemy in time of war.

The earliest known purpose-built Prisoner-of-War camp was built at Norman Cross, England in 1797 to house the increasing number of prisoners from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.

Lists of Prisoner-of-War Camps

Napoleonic Wars (1791-1815)

• Norman Cross - Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England [1]

American Civil War (1860-1865)

Lacking a means for dealing with large numbers of captured troops early in the war, the U.S. and Confederate governments relied on the traditional European system of parole and exchange of prisoners.

Both Union and Confederate prison camps had their share of atrocities resulting in starvation, disease, and death.

Union PoW Camps for Confederate Soldiers

• Alton Prison - Illinois [2]
• Camp Butler - Springfield, Illinois [3]
• Camp Chase Prison, Columbus, Ohio [4]
• Camp Chemung - New York [5]
• Camp Curtain - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• Camp Douglas - Chicago, Illinois [6]
• Camp Randall - Madison, Wisconsin [7]
• Elmira Prison, Elmira, New York [8]
• Fort Delaware - Pea Patch Island, Delaware [9]
• Fort Jefferson - Key West, Florida [10]
• Fort McHenry - Baltimore, Maryland [11]
• Fort Warren - Boston, Massachusetts [12]
• Gratiot Street Prison - St. Louis, Missouri [13]
• Johnson's Island - Lake Erie, Sandusky, Ohio [14]
• Ohio State Penitentiary - Columbus, Ohio [15]
• Old Capitol Prison, Washington, DC [16]
• Point Lookout - Saint Mary's County, Maryland [17]
• Rock Island - Rock Island, Illinois - a government owned island in the Mississippi River [18]

Confederate PoW Camps for Union Soldiers

• Andersonville - Andersonville, Georgia
• Belle Isle - Richmond, Virginia
• Blackshear Prison - Blackshear, Georgia [19]
• Cahaba Prison (Castle Morgan) - Selma, Alabama
• Camp Ford - near Tyler, Texas [20]
• Castle Pinckney - Charleston, South Carolina
• Castle Sorghum - Columbia, South Carolina
• Castle Thunder - Richmond, Virginia
• Danville Prison - Danville, Virginia
• Florence Stockade - Florence, South Carolina
• Fort Pulaski - Savannah, Georgia
• Gratiot Street Prison - St Louis, Missouri
• Libby Prison - Richmond, Virginia
• Salisbury Prison - Salisbury, North Carolina

South African War / Anglo-Boer War (1880-1902)

Boer PoW Camps for British

• Pretoria
• Waterval
• Nooitgedacht
• Barberton

British PoW Camps for Boer

• Cape Town
• Simonstown
• Natal

British PoW Camps for Boer - Overseas

• St. Helena
• Ceylon
• India
• Bermuda
• Portugal

World War I (1914-1918)

The first international convention on prisoners of war was signed at the Hague Peace Conference of 1899. It was widened by the Hague Convention of 1907. These rules proved insufficient in World War I, and the International Red Cross proposed a more complete code.

World War II (1939-1945)

The Third Geneva Convention (1929) established the certain provisions relative to the treatment of Prisoners of War. One requirement was that PoW camps were to be open to inspection by authorized representatives of a neutral power.

• Article 10 required that PoWs should be lodged in adequately heated and lighted buildings where conditions were the same as their own troops.
• Articles 27-32 detailed the conditions of labor. Enlisted ranks were required to perform whatever labor they were asked and able to do, so long as it was not dangerous and did not support the German war effort. Senior Non-commissioned officers (sergeants and above) were required to work only in a supervisory role. Commissioned officers were not required to work, although they could volunteer. The work performed was largely agricultural or industrial, ranging from coal or potash mining, stone quarrying, or work in saw mills, breweries, factories, railroad yards, and forests. PoWs hired out to military and civilian contractors were supposed to receive pay. The workers were also supposed to get a least one day a week of rest.
• Article 76 ensured that PoWs who died in captivity were honourably buried in marked graves.

Allied PoW Camps

• List of POW camps in Britain
• List of POW camps in the United States
• List of POW camps in Canada

Axis PoW Camps

• List of POW camps in Germany (Stalags), also see [21]
• List of POW camps in Italy
• List of POW camps in Japan
• List of Japanese Hellships

Korean War (1950-1953)

U.N. PoW camps

The International Red Cross visited U.N. POW camps, often unannounced, noting prisoner hygiene, quality of medical care, variety of diet and weight gain. They talked to the prisoners and asked for their comments on conditions, as well as providing them with copies of the Geneva Convention. The IRC delegates dispersed boots, soap and other requested goods.

• Koje-do Island - a prison camp where 3,200 North Korean officers were held. In May 1952, Chinese and North Korean prisoners at Koje Island rioted and took Brigadier General Francis T. Dodd captive.

Communist PoW Camps

In the communist PoW camps, U.N. prisoners suffered starvation and the deprivation of sleep, food and medical care; many endured various levels of torture. Communist guards often retained relief packages and food for themselves.

While these PoW Camps were designated numerically ie: Camp 1, Camp 2, etc, by the communists, the PoWs often gave the camps a name.

• Camp 1 - Changsong - near Camp 3 on the Yalu River. [22]
• Camp 2 - Pyoktong - on the Yalu River. [23]
• Camp 3 - Changsong - near Camp 1 on the Yalu River. [24]
• Camp 4 - north of Camp 2
• Camp 5 - near Pyoktong. [25]
• Camp 6 - P'yong-yang
• Camp 7 - near Pyoktong. [26]
• Camp 8 - Kangdong
• Camp 9 - P'yong-yang.
• Camp 10 - Chon ma
• Camp 11 - Pukchin
• Camp 12 - P'yong-yang- (aka. Peace Camp) was located in the northwestern vincinity of the Capitol. Nearby were several other camps including PAK's Palace.
• Bean Camp - Suan
• Camp DeSoto - P'yong-yang locale - The camp was near to Camp 12.
• Pak's Palace Camp - P'yong-yang locale - Located in the northern most area near the Capitol, this

camp was so-named after a notorious interrogator, Col. Pak. The camp was near Camp 12.

• Pukchin Mining Camp - between Kunu-ri and Pyoktong - (aka. Death Valley Camp).
• Sunchon Tunnel - - (aka. Caves Camp) Site of a massacre of prisoners.
• Suan Mining Camp - P'yong-yang
• Valley Camps - Teksil-li

Vietnam War (1957-1975)