Confronting Captivity: Britain and the United States and Their Pows in Nazi Germany Arieh J. Kochavi How was it possible that almost all of the nearly 300,000 British and American troops who fell into German hands during World War II survived captivity in German POW camps and returned home almost as soon as the war ended? In Confronting Captivity, Arieh J. Kochavi offers a behind-the-scenes look at the conditions under which prisoners lived in Nazi camps and traces the actions the British and American governments took - and didn't take - to ensure the safety of their captures soldiers. Drawing on letters, diaries, and memoirs, Kochavi reconstructs the conditions in POW camps while embedding his narrative and analysis in political and diplomatic developments of the war. Concern in London and Washington about the safety of soldiers imprisoned in enemy territories was mitigated by the recognition that the Nazi leadership - in contrast to its horrific treatment of Slavic POWs - for example - tended to adhere to the Geneva Convention when it came to British and U.S. prisoners. Following the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, however, Hitler transferred the responsibility for the POW camps to the SS and the Gestapo. That move, coupled with the Allies' devastating bombing campaigns on German cities, raised the specter of revenge killings, and Allied apprehension over POW safety turned into anxiety for their very lives. Yet Britain and the United States took the calculated risk of counting on a swift conclusion to the war as the Soviets approached Germany from the east. Ultimately, argues Kochavi, it was more likely that the lives of British and American POWs were spared because of their race rather than any actions their governments took on their behalf. Arieh J. Kochavi is professor of modern history and the chair of the history department at the University of Haifa, He is author of Post-Holocaust Politics: Britain, the United States, and Jewish Refugees, 1945-1948 and Prelude to Nuremberg: Allied War Crimes Policy and the Question of Punishment