Life and Death in Captivity The Abuse of Prisoners during War

327 Pages·2015·3.54 MB·English

by  Wallace

Life and Death in Captivity
T A P W
HE BUSE OF RISONERS DURING AR
G P. R. W
EOFFREY ALLACE
Cornell University Press
I L
THACA AND ONDON
For Fia
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Repertoires of Violence against Prisoners
2. The Captor’s Dilemma
3. Prisoners by the Numbers
4. World War II, Democracies, and the (Mis)Treatment of Prisoners
5. Territorial Conquest and the Katyn Massacre in Perspective
Conclusion
Appendix
Notes
References
Index
Figures and Tables
F
IGURES
1.1 Trends in the levels of prisoner abuse over time in interstate wars,
1898–2003
3.1 Relationship between democracy and prisoner abuse
3.2 Relationship between war of attrition and prisoner abuse
3.3 Relationship between territorial annexation and prisoner abuse
3.4 Relationship between expansive war aims and prisoner abuse
3.5 Relationship between cultural differences and prisoner abuse
5.1 Map of Soviet special camps for Polish POWs and locations of
prisoner executions
T
ABLES
1.1 Varieties of prisoner abuse with historical examples
1.2 Summary for each dimension of prisoner abuse in interstate wars,
1898–2003
1.3 Summary of overall prisoner abuse in interstate wars, 1898–2003
3.1 Effects of independent variables on the probability of high levels of
prisoner abuse
3.2 Democracy and prisoner abuse: first movers, retaliation, and
escalation
3.3 Conditional effects of democracy on the probability of high levels of
prisoner abuse
4.1 Statistics of prisoners captured and death rates for the major powers
in World War II
5.1 Death and survival statistics at the three Soviet special camps for
Polish prisoners, April–May 1940
5.2 Rivalry, revenge, and prisoner abuse in interstate wars, 1898–2003
5.3 Communist regimes and prisoner abuse in interstate wars, 1898–2003
A.1 Summary statistics for main variables used in the analysis
A.2 Regression analysis for determinants of prisoner abuse in interstate
wars, 1898–2003
A.3 Regression analysis for democracy interactions and prisoner abuse in
interstate wars, 1898–2003
A.4 List of interstate wars, 1898–2003
Acknowledgments
Over the course of writing this book, I have benefited immensely from
the kindness and generosity of many people. I originally entered
graduate school intent on studying a topic far removed from the subject
matter of this book, yet the ongoing wars and debates surrounding
detainees at the time raised several questions I have sought to address at
least partially in the years that followed. Although the project took a long
and winding road, with several detours, I am thankful to those who kept
me on track and helped in so many respects along the way.
Cornell, where I began researching prisoner abuse, offered an amazing
environment for thinking through the many issues that came up during
this project in open yet rigorous ways. Peter Katzenstein was always
willing to read numerous drafts of every chapter, irrespective of their
quality. He constantly challenged my preconceptions on key points and
pushed me to consider the broader implications of my argument. Chris
Way instilled the need to be my own harshest critic and look at my
findings from as many different angles as possible. I may not have
always achieved this goal, but his advice on theory and research design
gave me something to aspire to. I was also able to draw on Matt
Evangelista’s insights into international humanitarian law, which played
such a large role in informing the central concept of prisoner abuse in
this book. When I began venturing somewhat cautiously into the world
of Soviet history, I benefited from his extensive knowledge of Russia to
make sure any deviations were kept to a minimum. Jonathan Kirshner
time and again was able to pinpoint things I took for granted and reveal
differences in important concepts or events I had previously thought to
be indistinguishable.
Many individuals commented and offered valuable feedback
throughout various stages of the project. For their thoughtful suggestions
I thank Ben Appel, Laia Balcells, Christian Davenport, Alex Downes,
Kristine Eck, Tanisha Fazal, Ryan Grauer, Paul Huth, Stathis Kalyvas,
Holger Kern, Michael Koh, Sarah Kreps, Jay Lyall, Walter Mebane, Mark
Peffley, Benjamin Valentino, and Justin Wedeking. Jessica Weeks read an
entire earlier version of the manuscript and greatly helped in refining the
main ideas. Al Tillery did the same and pushed me to think through the
contributions that could be made in the book. At Rutgers, I have been
fortunate to be surrounded by a wealth of knowledgeable and
supportive colleagues: Jan Kubik, Jack Levy, Roy Licklider, Manny
Midlarsky, Michael McKoy, and Paul Poast all helped make this a better
book than it would have been otherwise. I thank Roger Haydon at
Cornell University Press for taking an interest in this project and for
guiding me through the formidable process of translating my initial
research into a book. Roger more than lived up to his reputation as a
devoted and thoughtful editor and offered detailed comments on many
parts of the manuscript. I also appreciate the input from two anonymous
reviewers whose suggestions were especially useful. Karen Hwa and
Deborah Oosterhouse helped enormously in preparing the final version
of the manuscript, tightening the prose, and saving me from countless
errors. Sarah Kachovec and Laura Shahan provided excellent research
assistance and valuable help at key moments of the project. My apologies
to anyone I may have overlooked.
Several institutions offered generous financial assistance that greatly
facilitated the research and writing of this book. The Social Sciences and
Humanities Council of Canada (SSHRC) provided a multiyear fellowship
that was immensely helpful in providing the resources necessary to do
much of the early research on the historical treatment of prisoners during
war. The Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at Cornell
University awarded me two research fellowships. These fellowships
provided important time to think through key points of the project and
also a vibrant intellectual community spanning multiple disciplines,
which greatly improved my understanding of the dynamics of war and
peace. Lastly, a visiting fellowship in the Niehaus Center for
Globalization and Governance at Princeton University offered an
amazing environment for tying everything together and making the final
changes to the book.
Parts of the introduction and chapters 1 through 3 appeared previously
in my 2012 article “Welcome Guests, or Inevitable Victims? The Causes
of Prisoner Abuse in War,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 56 (6): 955–81. I
thank the journal and the publisher for granting me permission to adapt
some of the material from the article into the book.
On a more personal note, I thank my parents, Paul and Gisèle Wallace,
for their love and support through the years. I am especially appreciative
to my Aunt Bern, who showed me the value of always asking questions
and finding something interesting in everything. I do not think I would
be where I am now if my aunt had not been there every day when I was
growing up, reminding me of what could be achieved through a little
thought and a lot of effort.
Lastly, I will be forever indebted to my wife, Sophia, who lived through
this project just as much as I did, if not more. She offered unending
support and encouragement from my first musings on this topic to the
final words. She listened patiently as I slowly developed my ideas early
on, and read and commented on each and every part of the book several
times over. I am thankful that I was fortunate enough to live through this
experience with her, a fellow political scientist, and I look forward to
sharing many more to come. This book is dedicated to her. Our children,
Dahlia and Liam, have grown up over the same period this project
moved forward. During the many hard times they provided some much-
needed perspective by reminding me there is a world beyond the book,
and for this I am most thankful.
Introduction
The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Prisons are built to break men, and when a man is broken, society has consummated
its revenge.
—Jan Valtin, Out of the Night
For soldiers who become prisoners during war, the hellish realities of
the battlefield all too often follow them into captivity. As long as there
have been wars there have been prisoners, and many of those captured
come to suffer in innumerable ways. According to this sinister side of
prisoner treatment, enemy combatants are viewed not as mutual human
beings deserving of respect, but rather as objects to be dealt with or
discarded as captors saw fit. In Roman antiquity prisoners were regarded
as a commodity to be sold off as slaves or thrown into the gladiator ring
for the entertainment of the masses.1 Even these captives could be
considered fortunate compared to enemy combatants from various
German and Asian tribes fighting against the Roman general
Germanicus, who followed the strict adage to “Make no prisoners.”2
Unlike Germanicus, in warfare under the Aztec Empire the taking of
prisoners in battle was a prized achievement. In fact, one of the few ways
a warrior could gain honor and rise through the ranks was by capturing
enemy prisoners. Yet the safety and well-being of prisoners was short-
lived in a society where ritual killings were the most common eventual
outcome. As part of the dedication ceremony of a temple to the god
Huitzilopochtli, for example, the king Ahuitzotl commanded that over
eighty thousand captives be offered up in sacrifice.3
Although enslavement and the ritual killing of wartime captives largely
disappeared as common practices over the centuries, captors in modern
times have continued to employ violence against prisoners by other
means, including torture, hard labor, and a myriad of injustices. The
survival chances for Soviet prisoners of Nazi Germany during the Second
World War were worse than a cruel flip of a coin, and close to two-thirds
would not live to see the end of the war.4 As the fortunes of the war