Prisoners of War - coal mining

[Wheldale]

Does anyone know of any websites that discuss or give information about POW's that were forced to work in mines? Also, did it happen here or was it in Germany / Japan?

[John]

Not sure about the Germans, but the Japanese used POW's as forced labour in coal mines.
I believe POW's in Britain were given a choice of occupations, as the Geneva Convention didn't allow forced labour, POW's had to be paid for their work.

I think the Russians forced German POW's to work in coal mines too.

[dazbt]

Russia, Germany and Japan certainly used prisoners of war as force3d labour in coal mines, not always in their own countries. Perhaps the most imfamous example was in the Benxihu coal mine in China ..................
quote;
"Benxihu (Honkeiko) Colliery (simplified Chinese: ±¾Ïªºþú¿ó; traditional Chinese: ±¾ÏªºþúµV), located in Benxi, Liaoning, China, was first mined in 1905. It started as a iron and coal mining project under joint Japanese and Chinese control. As time passed, the project came more and more under Japanese control. In the early 1930s, Japan invaded the north east of China and Liaoning province became part of the Japanese controlled puppet state of Manchukuo. The Japanese forced the Chinese to work the colliery under very poor conditions. Food was scarce and workers did not have sufficient clothing.[1] Working conditions were harsh and diseases such as typhoid and cholera flourished.[2] Typically miners worked 12 hour shifts or longer. The Japanese controllers were known to beat workers with pick handles and the perimeter of the mine was fenced and guarded. Many describe the work as slave labour.

Coal dust explosion

On April 26, 1942, a gas and coal-dust explosion in the mine killed 1,549, 34% of the miners working that day, making it the worst disaster in the history of coal mining.

The explosion sent flames bursting out of the mine shaft entrance. Miners' relatives rushed to the site but were denied entry by a cordon of Japanese guards who erected electric fences to keep them out. In an attempt to curtail the fire underground, the Japanese shut off the ventilation and sealed the pit head. Witnesses say that the Japanese did not evacuate the pit fully before sealing it; trapping many Chinese workers underground to suffocate in the smoke.[2] Thus the actions of the Japanese are blamed for needlessly increasing the death toll. It took workers ten days to remove all the corpses and rubble from the shaft. The dead were buried in a mass grave nearby. Many victims could not be properly identified due to the extent of the burns. The Japanese at first reported the death toll to be just 34.[1] Initial newspaper reports were short, as little as 40 words, and downplayed the size of the disaster as a minor event. Later the Japanese erected a monument to the dead. This stone gave the number of dead to be 1327.[3] The true number is believed to be 1,549.[4] Of this number, 31 were Japanese, the rest Chinese.[2] The mine continued to be operated by the Japanese until the end of World War II in 1945. Following the Japanese withdrawal, the workers took control of the site. With the liberation after the war, the Soviet Union investigated the accident. They found that only some of the workers died from the gas and coal-dust explosion. The Soviet report states that most deaths were of Carbon Monoxide poisoning due to the closing of ventilation after the initial explosion."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benxihu_Colliery

[dazbt]

The Germans forced POWs to work in coal mines, certainly in some of the Polish (Silesian) mines. One mine in the vicinity of Oswiecim (Auschwitz) they forced prisoners of various nationalities to work in the nearby Brzeszcze mine.
In the Shanxi Province of northern China the Japanese forced the Chinese to work underground and again in one infamous incident actually entombed Chinese civilians within a coal mine after some act of non compliance. I believe that at least up until the 1980s this mine remained sealed but had a viewing window through which the naturally mumified bodies of some of those murdered could be seen.

Modified ...... I missed a Z out of Brzeszcze ........ I'm a bit surprised that nobody spotted that and leapt in to correct it

[dazbt]

I worked with a Polish guy who had been taken prisoner by the Germans as a lad of 16 and forced to work in a clay quarry, towards the end of the war he 'escaped' and was 'seconded' to a Polish regiment under the control of the French military, he was part of a unit that held German POWs, he told me that many hundreds of German POWs were sent to work in the French coal mines, but some actually committed suicide rather face the viciousness of the way they were abused by the French in these mines.

[dazbt]

"Through the war years


During World War II, Prisoners of War found to have been coal miners in Germany, Poland or elsewhere, were drafted into the pits. A number of such prisoners were sent to Hatfield Main.

Italian P.O.W.s were also set to work on the coal barges at Stainforth canal."

www.minersadvice.co.uk/hatfieldmain.htm

[dazbt]

I've had a scrounge around the internet courtesy of Google this morning Steve and found various mentions of POWs (from all sides and nations) being forced to work in coal mines, seems as though it was a pretty popular idea amongst the captors, not so much so with the lads who were seconded though, just found this snippet;

"about five thousand German POW's were worked to death in French coal mines. Many German POWs, to escape the terrible conditions volunteered their extensive military expertise to the French and enlisted in the French army or foreign legion. Thus you find many German names in the French forces fighting in Vietnam in 1950 to 1954."

wiki.answers.com/Q/What_were_the_conditions_for_prisoners_of_war_in_World_War_2