Conclusion

Abstract

This study has emphasised that the treatment of German POWs in wartime and post-war Britain was an issue which intersected with ideas of British character, civility and behaviour in war, images of the Germans and hopes for the future of the British nation. It has demonstrated that POW treatment was not an issue confined to the minds of the authorities in charge of their captivity nor simply a diplomatic concern between belligerents. Newspaper and newsreel content provides an insight in how the captivity of German POWs was represented to the British public. Letters to the editor, Mass-Observation material and other sources also provided insight, if fragmentary, into the reactions of the public to coverage of issues regarding the treatment of POWs in Britain. It has not been the intention to uncover actual events—there are many studies that have provided excellent overviews on British policy and investigated certain aspects of it—but rather how their treatment was represented and discussed. Undoubtedly the material which was published during the war was censored. Nonetheless, whether the representations of POW treatment were accurate or not did not deduct from their power to evoke notions of British national identity and debates over British character. The purpose was not to interrogate the ‘truth’ behind the treatment of POWs in Britain but to explore how this issue was communicated and debated.