POW camps
Wartime detention centers
POW camps are facilities where prisoners of war are held during armed conflict.
The abbreviation POW stands for "prisoner of war." These camps range from relatively humane detention centers following Geneva Convention standards to brutal forced-labor installations: Thousands died in Japanese POW camps during World War II.
The term often evokes images of barbed wire, guard towers, and escape attempts.
- prisonerConfined criminal detainee
- prison campsGuarded sites holding captives
- home frontCivilian sector during war
- detentionTemporary official holding
- escape attemptsEfforts to flee captivity
forced labor · work detail · barbed wire · captive · death march · missing in action · Geneva Conventions · stockade · humanitarian law · Red Cross · gulag · Andersonville · detainees · war crimes · rations · roll call · mail call · World War II
- Civil War PrisonsAndersonville, prison camps, stockades
- 1940sWWII, D-Day, Pearl Harbor, Normandy, VE Day
- wartimerationing, war economy, war bonds, war effort, evacuations
- captivitycaptive, prisoner, detained, imprisoned, incarcerated
- Korean WarKorean War, 38th parallel, DMZ, demilitarized zone, armistice line
- military prisonsmilitary prison, military brig, brig, stockade, Leavenworth
POW campspenitentiaries
Institutions housing convicted criminals
federal prisons · state prisons · county jails · refugee camps · internment camps
POW campsfreedom
Absence of constraint
home · liberation · repatriation · homecoming · demobilization
POW campsmilitary bases
Armed forces installations
home bases · headquarters · barracks · training camps · garrison towns