In Enemy Hands. Allied Prisoners’ Interrogation Experiences and Memories in the Second World War

Abstract

Interrogation represents a crucial moment for prisoners of war, and this article examines the deep influence that cultural issues had on those who experienced interrogation during the Second World War. Memory, gender and race, are considered in relation to the collection of human intelligence not simply from the point of view of military and security studies, but — drawing on historical and memory studies — the impact on the people involved is examined as well. The wider aim is to analyse the relationship between war and culture in the Second World War and its aftermath.

The article is part of a wider research on interrogation and questioning in the Second World War which received funding by the Kluge Center (Library of Congress), Washington, DC, and it is based on sources from the Veterans History Project collections at Library of Congress, Washington DC, and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC.

KEYWORDS:

• interrogation
• questioning
• prisoners of war
• internees
• political prisoners
• captivity
• memory
• experience
• gender
• race
• torture

ORCiD

Simona Tobia http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6368-8469

Notes on contributor

Dr. Simona Tobia is a historian interested in war and culture in the twentieth century and she is currently writing a monograph on interrogation and questioning in the Second World War. She has taught at the University of Reading and University College London, UK, has conducted research as a Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress, and among her publications there are Advertising America. The United States Information Service in Italy (1945–1956), WarTalk. Foreign Languages and the British War Effort in Europe, 1940–47 (with Hilary Footit) and Interrogation in War and Conflict. A comparative and interdisciplinary analysis (edited with Christopher Andrew).

Notes

1 By contrast, signals intelligence (SigInt) is intelligence which is gathered by intercepting signals.

2 The project was created by the Unites States Congress in 2000.

3 Library of Congress (hereafter LOC), Veterans History Project (hereafter VHP), Martin J. O'Toole.

4 LOC, VHP, Walter Lackey.

5 LOC, VHP, David Gee.

6 LOC, VHP, James Kirk.

7 LOC, VHP, James Kirk.

8 LOC, VHP, William Michaely.

9 LOC, VHP, Craig Schoeller.

10 LOC, VHP, James Kirk.

11 LOC, VHP, Helene Stewart.

12 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (hereafter USHMM), Oral History Collection, Sarah Colin.

13 USHMM, Oral History Collection, Marie Fauss.

14 LOC, VHP, Robert Davis.

15 LOC, VHP, Jasper Taylor.

16 LOC, VHP, Kenneth Benally.