Scandal of PoWs sent to deaths on minefields
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Your support makes all the difference.Thousands of ill-trained and poorly equipped German prisoners died clearing minefields in France after the end of the Second World War, an investigation by the Independent and Channel 4 News has revealed.
German prisoners were force-marched across minefields with only a metal stick to locate the mines. After the suspected minefields were swept clean, other prisoners were forced to plough the fields to ensure all mines had been removed.
Other prisoners were used to clear buildings of booby-traps.
The use of German prisoners to clear the minefields contravened the 1929 Geneva Convention. The convention clearly states that PoWs should not be used for "dangerous or unhealthy work". More than 50,000 German prisoners were involved in the mine clearances in an operation that lasted for three years. After the liberation of France in 1944 more than 13 million unexploded mines remained on French soil. Peasants were being blown up on a daily basis.
Public pressure on the French government forced it to take drastic action to stem the carnage. German prisoners who had experience in mine handling were drafted in to new mine- clearance teams across France.
Mine-clearance schools were established but the only viable technique they could teach was to prod every square inch of the suspected minefield with a metal stick. If prisoners were skilful they could locate mines without hitting the detonator. If they were unskilled or unlucky they would be killed or injured.
The French estimate that 2,500 Germans and 500 French died during the mine clearances. Archives held by a former Red Cross inspector suggest that more than 20,000 may have been killed.
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