Civilians in areas of armed conflict and occupied territories are protected by the 159 articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Civilians are to be protected from murder, torture or brutality, and from discrimination on the basis of race, nationality, religion or political opinion.

Category I: Prisoners ranking below sergeants: eight Swiss francs. Category II: Sergeants and other non-commissioned officers, or prisoners of equivalent rank: twelve Swiss francs. Category III: Warrant officers and commissioned officers below the rank of major or prisoners of equivalent rank: fifty Swiss francs.

Article 13 of the third Geneva Convention states that POWs must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the country, under whose captivity, the POW is in, which leads to death or seriously endangers the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited.

The rules protecting prisoners of war (POWs) are specific and were first detailed in the 1929 Geneva Convention. POWs must be treated humanely in all circumstances. They are protected against any act of violence, as well as against intimidation, insults, and public curiosity.

Floyd James Thompson

Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention.

Time and American airpower made the Zero, a staple of the Japanese air force during World War II, a highly endangered species. Nearly 11,000 Zeros have dwindled to only two airworthy specimens: The Commemorative Air Force flies one, and the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California, flies the other.

The treatment of American and allied prisoners by the Japanese is one of the abiding horrors of World War II. Prisoners were routinely beaten, starved and abused and forced to work in mines and war-related factories in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Alternative Titles: POW, PW. Prisoner of war (POW), any person captured or interned by a belligerent power during war.

10,000 men

After the April 9, 1942 U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II (1939-45), the approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps.

Irvin Scott survived one of the greatest war-time atrocities, as well as three more years in captivity, before he was liberated in 1945. In an interview 50 years later, he remembered the brutality of the Bataan Death March all too painfully.

The Japanese launched a Death March to move captured Americans to prison camps, and many U.S. service members died in the forced march so brutal that its organizer was executed for war crimes. Luckily, Hunt and a few others were able to escape the march alive.

After the surrender, many USAAF men paid the ultimate price during the brutal and infamous Bataan Death March or in the miserable conditions of Japanese imprisonment. Thousands later died of malnourishment, disease, exhaustion, physical abuse, or were executed in this and other Japanese POW camps.

In January 1945, the Third Reich stood on the verge of military defeat. As Allied forces approached Nazi camps, the SS organized “death marches” (forced evacuations) of concentration camp inmates, in part to keep large numbers of concentration camp prisoners from falling into Allied hands.