Barbed wire disease

John Yarnall

Barbed Wire Disease: a well-recognised form of neurasthenia casued by confinement for long periods in barbed-wire enclosures.

By the time of the Armistice in 1918, around 6.5 million prisoners of war were held by the aggressors. Little has been written about these prisoners, possibly because the story is not one of unmitigated suffering and cruelty. Nevertheless, hardships did occur and the alleged neglect and ill-treatment of prisoners captured on the Western Front became the subject of major propaganda campaigns in Britain and Germany as the war progressed. "Barbed Wire Disease" looks at the conditions facing those British and German prisoners, and the claims and counter-claims relating to their treatment. It also sets the story in the wider context of the commitment by both governments to treat prisoners humanely in accordance with the recently agreed Hague and Geneva Conventions.

Soft cover, photographs, 224 pages.