History Main / POWCamp

* ''Film/TheGreatEscape'' has a video game version for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2.

* ''Series/MastersOfTheAir'': Episode 6 has [[spoiler:Major Egan]] captured by the Germans and ultimately end up in Stalag Luft III. It's during the ending of this episode that he finds out that [[spoiler:Cleven]] is alive and in the same prison camp as he is.

** In the episode, "Imprisoned", the gaang meet a young earthbender named Haru, who tells them of how his father and several other earthebenders were taken prisoner by the Fire Nation and are being kept on an offshore mining platform made entirely of metal specifically to prevent an escape through earthbending. The gaang came up with a clever solution to help the prisoners escape, by giving them lumps of coal which is technically earth. Using that, the prisoners were able to fight back and defeat the guards, commandeer their ships. and escape from the prison platform.
** In the episode, "The Puppet Master", the gaang meet an elderly woman living in the Fire Nation named Hama, who reveals to them that she is a waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe. She tells the gang how she, and the other waterbenders from the Southern Water Tribe, were rounded up and taken prisoner by the Fire Nation. They were then brought to an unnamed prison somewhere in the Fire Nation itself, where they were kept in cages suspended from the floor. The prison staff pumped in dry air to make sure that they couldn't bend, and whenever they were given water, each prisoner would be tied up in shackles to prevent them from moving. The only reason Hama was able to escape was because she invented a new and very dark waterbending technique called bloodbending. A technique in which a waterbender, utilizing the power boost granted to them under a full moon, bends the liquids inside of a living being and turns them into a puppet the bender can control.

** In the episode, "Imprisoned", the gaang meet a young earthbender named Haru, who tells them of how his father and several other earthebendrs were taken prisoner by the Fire Nation and are being kept on an offshore mining platform specifically to prevent an escape through bending powers.
** In the episode, "The Puppet Master", the gaang meet an elderly woman living in the Fire Nation named Hama, who reveals to them that she is a waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe. She tells the gang how she, and the other waterbenders from the Southern Water Tribe, were rounded up and taken prisoner by the Fire Nation. There, they were kept in cages, with their hands shackled, so they couldn't bend. The warden even pumped in dry air as an added measure. And while they were given food and water, it was only enough to keep them alive, but just barely.

** In the "Puppet Master" episode, Hama tells the gang how she, and the other water benders from the Southern Water Tribe, were rounded up and taken prisoner by the Fire Nation. There, they were kept in cages, with their hands shackled, so they couldn't bend. The warden even pumped in dry air as an added measure. And while they were given food and water, it was only enough to keep them alive, but just barely.
** An earlier episode had a similar camp for earth benders. They were kept on an island build with steel on the sea specifically to prevent an escape through bending powers, which prompted the Gang to get creative.

* Important to remember: [[UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar the Geneva Conventions]] are a series of international treaties and protocols that set standards for how [=POW=]s are supposed to be treated. They haven't always been honored, either in fiction and in RealLife. Camp guards have figured that it's NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught -- but if someone does get caught, it's SeriousBusiness of the "kiss your military career goodbye" variety. Similarly, members of most militaries are taught that the first duty of any prisoner of war is to attempt to escape their captors and return to their unit. The more successful escape artists have figured that it's NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught -- but if someone does get caught, it's SeriousBusiness of the "kiss your freedom or even your life goodbye" variety.

* Important to remember: [[UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar the Geneva Conventions]] are treaties that set standards for how [=POW=]s are supposed to be treated. They haven't always been honored -- both in fiction and in RealLife. Camp guards have figured that it's NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught -- but if someone does get caught, it's SeriousBusiness of the "kiss your military career goodbye" variety. Similarly, members of most militaries are taught that the first duty of any prisoner of war is to attempt to escape their captors and return to their unit. The more successful escape artists have figured that it's NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught -- but if someone does get caught, it's SeriousBusiness of the "kiss your freedom or even your life goodbye" variety.

During wars, captured enemy soldiers must be kept somewhere so they cannot return to their own side, so a Prisoner of War Camp is built. As soldiers on the battlefield, these two groups are enemies. For whatever reason, a group of soldiers has been captured by the very guys they were trying to kill just the day before. The camp guards will not like the prisoners because those same prisoners may have been responsible for the death and destruction visited upon their homeland. Typically, the guards will not treat their prisoners well.[[note]]This can vary from country to country: during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, POW camps in Allied countries that were not directly attacked in their own territory, especially USA and Canada, were usually compliant with the Geneva Conventions and were surprisingly hospitable to the Axis soldiers to the point where they often considered them more comfortable than their own side's barracks. This had the benefits of prisoners less likely to cause trouble or escape and more willing to talk to interrogators and to cooperate supplementing labour needs like on local farms. Furthermore, those prisoners were allowed to write home through the International Red Cross organization and they often mentioned how well they are doing as prisoners, which encouraged more Axis soldiers to surrender to Allied forces.[[/note]] In fiction, stories about POW camps often focus on [[GreatEscape escape plans]].

Since governments don't like having large numbers of 'potential enemies' running around loose in their back yard, something must be done about them. The answer to this problem is building an internment camp. It's basically a POW camp for civilians. Since they are almost always run by the military, we can consider them to be closely related, and therefore included. The concentration camp[[note]] Strictly speaking, a concentration camp is just an internment or POW camp with a very high population density, and is not necessarily any worse than either. Camps with the express purpose of murdering the inmates are more correctly termed "death camps". However the two terms have become largely interchangeable after UsefulNotes/NaziGermany tried to hide the truth about their death camps by calling them "concentration camps". The concentration camps Nazi Germany operated before WWII were not made for and did not employ mass killings, though they still used harsh labour for the sole purpose of torturing the prisoners. British concentration camps operated during the Second Boer War, and American concentration camps during the Philippine-American War, were not death camps either, but concentrating lots of people and then neglecting their sanitation led to a horrific death toll. [[/note]] is the evil twin to the internment camp. Its main objective is to contain political prisoners for either extermination or to keep them handily available for slave labor. While detainees at an internment camp are generally not mistreated, detainees at a concentration camp can expect nothing but constant pain and hunger or instant death at any moment. Any way you look at it, you don't want to be a resident of any of these. Unless you're a guard.

During wars, captured enemy soldiers must be kept somewhere so they cannot return to their own side, so a Prisoner of War Camp is built. As soldiers on the battlefield, these two groups are enemies. For whatever reason, a group of soldiers has been captured by the very guys they were trying to kill just the day before. The camp guards will not like the prisoners because those same prisoners may have been responsible for the death and destruction visited upon their homeland. Typically, the guards will not treat their prisoners well.[[note]]This can vary from country to country: during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, POW camps in Allied countries that were not directly attacked in their own territory, especially USA and Canada, were usually compliant with the Geneva Conventions and were surprisingly hospitable to the Axis soldiers to the point where they often considered them more comfortable than their own side's barracks. This had the benefits of prisoners less likely to cause trouble or escape and more willing to talk to interrogators and to cooperate supplementing labour needs like on local farms. Furthermore, those prisoners were allowed to write home through the International Red Cross organization and they often mentioned how well they are doing as prisoners, which encouraged more Axis soldiers to surrender to Allied forces.[[/note]] In fiction, stories about [=PoW=] camps often focus on escape plans.

Since governments don't like having large numbers of 'potential enemies' running around loose in their back yard, something must be done about them. The answer to this problem is building an internment camp. It's basically a [=PoW=] camp for civilians. Since they are almost always run by the military, we can consider them to be closely related, and therefore included. The concentration camp[[labelnote:*]]Strictly speaking, a concentration camp is just an internment or [=PoW=] camp with a very high population density, and is not necessarily any worse than either. Camps with the express purpose of murdering the inmates are more correctly termed "death camps". However the two terms have become largely interchangeable after Nazi Germany tried to hide the truth about their death camps by calling them "concentration camps". The concentration camps Nazi Germany operated before WWII were not made for and did not employ mass killings, though they still used harsh labour for the sole purpose of torturing the prisoners. British concentration camps operated during the Second Boer War, and American concentration camps during the Philippine-American War, were not death camps either, but concentrating lots of people and then neglecting their sanitation led to a horrific death toll.[[/labelnote]] is the evil twin to the internment camp. Its main objective is to contain political prisoners for either extermination or to keep them handily available for slave labor. While detainees at an internment camp are generally not mistreated, detainees at a concentration camp can expect nothing but constant pain and hunger or instant death at any moment. Any way you look at it, you don't want to be a resident of any of these. Unless you're a guard.

* Important to remember: [[UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar the Geneva Conventions]] are treaties that set standards for how [=PoW=]s are supposed to be treated. They haven't always been honored -- both in fiction and in RealLife. Camp guards have figured that it's NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught -- but if someone does get caught, it's SeriousBusiness of the "kiss your military career goodbye" variety. Similarly, members of most militaries are taught that the first duty of any prisoner of war is to attempt to escape their captors and return to their unit. The more successful escape artists have figured that it's NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught -- but if someone does get caught, it's SeriousBusiness of the "kiss your freedom or even your life goodbye" variety.

The [=PoW=] Camp as a setting is a major fixture of many war films as well as many TV Series. In many {{FPS}} games, the [=PC=] must rescue a fellow soldier from a [=PoW=] Camp.

During wars, captured enemy soldiers must be kept somewhere so they cannot return to their own side, so a Prisoner of War Camp is built. As soldiers on the battlefield, these two groups are enemies. For whatever reason, a group of soldiers has been captured by the very guys they were trying to kill just the day before. The camp guards will not like the prisoners because those same prisoners may have been responsible for the death and destruction visited upon their homeland. Typically, the guards will not treat their prisoners well.[[note]]This can vary from country to country: during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, POW camps in Allied countries that were not directly attacked in their own territory, especially USA and Canada, were usually compliant with the Geneva Conventions and were surprisingly hospitable to the Axis soldiers to the point where they often considered them more comfortable than their own side's barracks. This had the benefits of prisoners less likely to cause trouble or escape and more willing to talk to interrogators and to cooperate supplementing labour needs like on local farms. Furthermore, those prisoners were allowed to write home through the International Red Cross organization and they often mentioned how well they are doing as prisoners, which encouraged more Axis soldiers to surrender to Allied forces.[[/note]]

Since governments don't like having large numbers of 'potential enemies' running around loose in their back yard, something must be done about them. The answer to this problem is an internment camp. It's basically a [=PoW=] camp for civilians. Since they are almost always run by the military, we can consider them to be closely related, and therefore included. The concentration camp[[labelnote:*]]Strictly speaking, a concentration camp is just an internment or [=PoW=] camp with a very high population density, and is not necessarily any worse than either. Camps with the express purpose of murdering the inmates are more correctly termed "death camps". However the two terms have become largely interchangeable after Nazi Germany tried to hide the truth about their death camps by calling them "concentration camps". The concentration camps Nazi Germany operated before WWII were not made for and did not employ mass killings, though they still used harsh labour for the sole purpose of torturing the prisoners. British concentration camps operated during the Second Boer War, and American concentration camps during the Philippine-American War, were not death camps either, but concentrating lots of people and then neglecting their sanitation led to a horrific death toll.[[/labelnote]] is the evil twin to the internment camp. Its main objective is to contain political prisoners for either extermination or to keep them handily available for slave labor. While detainees at an internment camp are generally not mistreated, detainees at a concentration camp can expect nothing but constant pain and hunger or instant death at any moment. Any way you look at it, you don't want to be a resident of any of these. Unless you're a guard.

During wars, armies will capture enemy soldiers. These enemies must be kept somewhere so they cannot return to their own side, so a Prisoner of War Camp is built. As soldiers on the battlefield, these two groups are enemies. For whatever reason, a group of soldiers has been captured by the very guys they were trying to kill just the day before. The camp guards will not like the prisoners because those same prisoners may have been responsible for the death and destruction visited upon their homeland. Typically, the guards will not be nice about the way they treat their prisoners.[[note]]This can vary from country to country: during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, POW camps in Allied countries that were not directly attacked in their own territory, especially USA and Canada, were usually compliant with the Geneva Conventions and were surprisingly hospitable to the Axis soldiers to the point where they often considered them more comfortable than their own side's barracks. This had the benefits of prisoners less likely to cause trouble or escape and more willing to talk to interrogators and to cooperate supplementing labour needs like on local farms. Furthermore, those prisoners were allowed to write home through the International Red Cross organization and they often mentioned how well they are doing as prisoners, which encouraged more Axis soldiers to surrender to Allied forces.[[/note]]

As a SubTrope of {{Prison}}, most PrisonTropes will apply. This camp can readily turn into a HellHolePrison. If it is sufficiently escape-resistant, it can become TheAlcatraz. You will always see plenty of heavily armed guards, unfriendly guard dogs, guard towers with [[MoreDakka machine guns]] and spotlights. Expect miles of barbed wire, often in tangled loops. Sometimes, the wire can be connected to high voltage for added deterrent to escape attempts. Frequently, you will see someone working on a GreatEscape (indeed, in RealLife, trying to escape when the opportunity presents itself is often expected or required of military personnel). Many MilitaryAndWarfareTropes will be seen as well.

During major wars, armies will often capture numerous enemy soldiers. These enemies must be kept somewhere, preferably some place where they can not return to their fellows. This usually results in a Prisoner of War Camp. As soldiers on the battlefield, these two groups are enemies. For whatever reason, a group of soldiers has been captured by the very guys they were trying to kill just the day before. The camp guards will not like the prisoners because those same prisoners may have been responsible for the death and destruction visited upon their homeland. Typically, the guards will not be nice about the way they treat their prisoners.[[note]]This can vary from country to country: during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, POW camps in Allied countries that were not directly attacked in their own territory, especially USA and Canada, were usually compliant with the Geneva Conventions and were surprisingly hospitable to the Axis soldiers to the point where they often considered them more comfortable than their own side's barracks. This had the benefits of prisoners less likely to cause trouble or escape and more willing to talk to interrogators and to cooperate supplementing labour needs like on local farms. Furthermore, those prisoners were allowed to write home through the International Red Cross organization and they often mentioned how well they are doing as prisoners, which encouraged more Axis soldiers to surrender to Allied forces.[[/note]]

* Music/{{Rush}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ivnvKIu4mg "Red Sector A"]] seems to be a concentration camp run by non-humans. WordOfGod indicates that the nameless camp depicted is based on real concentration camps with the SerialNumbersFiledOff, staffed by ordinary humans who surrendered their humanity to be part of a totalitarian state.

* ''VideoGame/DetroitBecomeHuman'' has a chapter that involves [[spoiler:Kara]] being sent to the Android version of one of these. Whether they make it out alive is dependent on whether the rebellion suceeds, which is contingent on the actions of the two other protagonists.

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* ''ComicBook/JonSableFreelance'': In "M.I.A", Jon goes back to Vietnam in search of missing P.O.W.s and breaks into a camp still holding American servicemen.
* ''ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel2015'' has Sunspot Prison, crossing over with TheAlcatraz, a space station in low orbit around a sun where the Rebels keep their imperial prisoners, awaiting trial. Unfortunately, one of the rebel agent who's aware of its location gets a bit extremist, and goes there to [[MoralEventHorizon execute everyone for their crimes]].

* ''Film/TheWoodenHorse'', made in 1950, probably the UrExample of the British [=PoW=] Movie.

** In the ''Literature/XWingSeries'', [[BigBad Ysanne Isard's]] prison Lusankya is part this, part prison for political dissidents, and part ManchurianAgent factory.

* Several characters in Harry Turtledove's various series spend time in one [=PoW=] camp or another. Often, the viewpoint character from a losing side (Japanese in End of The Beginning, Confederate States Army in Literature/{{Timeline 191}}, and Gyongosian in the Derlavian War) reflects with dismay on what the luxurious prison camp shows about the relative wealth of the two sides.
* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' has these in the background. The events of the first book are used as a pre-text for ''not'' sending the lead character to one of these when she is captured by the enemy while much latter on having to build one on ''very'' short notice after defeating and capturing a numerically superior force mostly intact is something of a minor headache for Michelle Henke.
* ''[[Literature/AsianSaga King Rat]]'' by James Clavell tells the story of a WWII Japanese camp for multi-national [=POWs=]. The story focuses around the elaborate schemes and followings of one of the American [=POWs=].
* In ''Literature/ShardsOfHonor'', Cordelia gets captured by the Barrayarans near the end of the 120 Days War and interned in a POW camp while the negotiations happen for her and the other prisoners to be repatriated. She hears some nasty stories about what it was like earlier in the war, but her own time there is fairly uneventful because the end of the war comes with a new commander who is serious about treating prisoners properly, who winnows out the guards who were mistreating prisoners and has the former camp commander executed for letting things get out of hand.
* ''Literature/Mask2020'': It's revealed in the beginning of the book that Akiko's family was moved to a U.S. Internment Camp along with the rest of America's Japanese-American population due to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9066 Executive Order 9066]] being in effect at the time. She takes Josie and Mae there.

* The 1996 TV Movie ''Andersonville'', directed by John Frankenheimer, tells the story of the notorious Confederate prison camp.

* "The Great Potty Escape" was ''Series/MichaelBentinesPottyTime'''s comedic take on ''Series/{{Colditz}}''.
* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': In "King of the Fleas", paraplegic Vietnam veteran Roscoe Martin tells Harm about his experiences as a [=PoW=] and the DespairEventHorizon it was. It all comes down to that he’s seeking legal representation for a fateful stabbing he had committed the same day on a Vietnamese immigrant, who actually turned out to have been the camp commander.
* ''Series/AufWiedersehenPet'' parodies films like ''Film/TheGreatEscape'' in the first series, and a later series contains various ShoutOuts to ''Film/TheBridgeOnTheRiverKwai''.
* One episode of ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles'' deals with Indy being imprisoned in a Colditz-like castle with Charles de Gaulle, and their attempts to escape.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "Quality of Mercy", Major John Skokes is captured by the aliens with whom humanity is fighting a losing war and is sent to a POW camp on a moon or asteroid. He shares a cell with Cadet Bree Tristan.

* In ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'', one of the missions revolves around storming an enemy [=PoW=] camp to free your soldiers in the middle of a snowstorm.
* More than one game in the ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' franchise have featured [=PoW=] camps.
** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyWWII'', Zussman is captured and Red fights like hell to go after him, even disobeying direct orders and passing up a ticket home (due to his wounds). Zussman manages to hide his dogs tags in the snow, hiding that he is Jewish and is sent to a camp to work.
* The aptly named cult classic 6th generation game ''VideoGame/POWPrisonersOfWar'' was set in a [=PoW=] camp, and cast the player as an American airman with the objective of escaping.
* A level in ''VideoGame/RogueSquadron II: Rogue Leader'' involves a raid on an Imperial [=PoW=] camp near Kessel.

* The classic arcade game Rush'n Attack has you trying to "Rescue the prisoners of war"[[note]]Although, the Japanese version (Green Beret) says "Rescue the captives".[[/note]]
* The aptly named ''POW: Prisoner of War'' from Creator/{{SNK}} starts in one.

* ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun'', being a spoof of WWII prison escape movies, depicts Tweedy's chicken farm as this.

* ''Film/LifeIsBeautiful''. A man and his son are sent to a concentration camp, the father acting like it's all a game to hide the truth from his son.
* ''Film/HaroldAndKumarEscapeFromGuantanamoBay'' They aren't inmates, though.
* ''Film/{{Hunger}}'' is about Bobby Sands' hunger strike in protest of human rights violations against Irish internees by the British government during UsefulNotes/TheTroubles.
* ''Film/TheGreyZone'' takes place at Auschwitz, just prior to and during the revolt by the camp's sonderkommando.

* ''Literature/TheBoyInTheStripedPyjamas'' is a heavily fictionalized (and probably inaccurate) child's eye view of Auschwitz with a terrible twist ending.

* In ''Series/NeverHaveIEver'', half-Japanese Paxton's ''Oji-san'' (Grandpa) was interned in the Japanese-American concentration camp in Manzanar, California, per [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9066 Executive Order 9066]]. Paxton reads in his Oji-san's diary of this experience, and shares this in the Facing History class.

* ''Allegience'', a stage musical starring Creator/GeorgeTakei, is about Japanese-Americans who were forced to live in Internment Camps during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.

* It is probably no surprise that the Creator/{{SNK}} game ''P.O.W: Prisoners of War'' features an escape from a POW camp as its first mission. Interestingly, this is actually a ploy; your character is actually an agent who was ordered to let himself be captured in order to infiltrate the enemy's base in order to assassinate their officers and destroy their armor and aircraft assets.
* The human ranches in ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia Tales of Symphonia]]'' are basically concentration camps by another name.

* The aptly named cult classic 6th generation game ''VideoGame/PrisonerOfWar'' was set in a [=PoW=] camp, and cast the player as an American airman with the objective of escaping.

* ''Literature/Camp30'': Much of the book is set in the titular camp, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowmanville_POW_camp which was a real P.O.W. Camp during World War II]]. It was located near the town of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowmanville Bowmanville]], Ontario, and complied with all Geneva Convention regulations. The prisoners were given so much freedom of movement that they could even leave if they wanted, and [[IGaveMyWord they would always come back]]. Of course, the prisoners were still duty-bound by their country to attempt to escape, and thus it's pretty much a GildedCage for them.

During major wars, armies will often capture numerous enemy soldiers. These enemies must be kept somewhere, preferably some place where they can not return to their fellows. This usually results in a Prisoner of War Camp. As soldiers on the battlefield, these two groups are enemies. For whatever reason, a group of soldiers has been captured by the very guys they were trying to kill just the day before. The camp guards will not like the prisoners because those same prisoners may have been responsible for the death and destruction visited upon their homeland. Typically, the guards will not be nice about the way they treat their prisoners.[[note]]This can vary from country to country: during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, POW camps in Allied countries that were not directly attacked in their own territory, especially USA and Canada, were usually compliant with the Geneva Conventions and were surprisingly hospitable to the Axis soldiers to the point where they often considered them more comfortable than their own side's barracks. This had the benefits of prisoners less likely to cause trouble or escape and more willing to talk to interrogators and to cooperate supplementing labor needs like on local farms. Furthermore, those prisoners were allowed to write home through the International Red Cross organisation and they often mentioned how well they are doing as prisoners, which encouraged more Axis soldiers to surrender to Allied forces.[[/note]]