World WAr I

The situation of  World War I prisoners of war in Germany is an aspect of the conflict little covered by historical research. However, the number of soldiers imprisoned reached a little over seven million for all the belligerents, of whom around 2,400,000 were held by Germany

Starting in 1915, the German authorities put in place a system of camps, nearly three hundred in all, and did not hesitate to resort to denutrition, punishments and psychological mobbing; incarceration was also combined with methodical exploitation of the prisoners. This prefigured the systematic use of prison camps on a grand scale during the 20th century.

POW
MIA

Authur A. Miller

Born on May 1,1896, William A. Miller enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was an armed guard aboard the SS Campana ,a tanker ship when it was sunk by the  German U Boat U61 in the Bay of Biscay off the coast of France on Aug 6, 1917. Miller jumped into the water and was picked up by the crew if the UBoat  along with four other Navy crewmen and sent to the Brandenburg Prison Camp in Prussia.

They became the first US Navy men captured during WWI. Miller escaped twice from the prison but was captured and returned. He was held as a POW for 14 months before his release. He returned to the States and settled in Wisconsin. Miller died March 23, 1989.