Images of War Captivity from 1870 to the Present

War captivity is a prolific field of research for studies on strong asymmetrical dependency. The contributions in the present volume examine how POWs and civilian internees in different military conflicts, including the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the two world wars, and the war in Bosnia, have been represented in visual sources. The images of war captivity addressed in the contributions are as heterogeneous as the contexts in which they were produced; they include allegorical representations and official press photographs, amateurish snapshots and propagandistic film recordings, self-drawn camp albums and comics commemorating war. What they have in common, however, is that they not only offer information about POWs and civilian internees but also interpret and emotionalise their experience. Visual sources may, for instance, document how POWs were treated in a particular camp, but they may also stress a certain amount of agency of the POWs; in addition, they may come to play a vital role in how the detaining power is remembered. Images provide evidence of atrocities and comparatively humane treatment alike – and thus may be relevant to the question whether reconciliation might seem possible in the long run. 

E. Gardei, TU Berlin, Germany; M. Gymnich, Univ. Bonn; C. Schwall, Univ. Bonn; H.-G. Soeffner, Univ. Bonn, Germany.