Unlikely Liaisons: Indians & Transnational Networks Inside Internment Camps in Germany (1939-1945)

Abstract

The Second World War witnessed massive deployment of soldiers across the globe, often resulting in their detainment in “enemy” lands. The internment camp thus emerged as an important institution of forced displacement during this period, housing diverse races and nationalities. This paper aims to examine the transnational solidarities formed between the prisoners in camps during the Second World War (1939-1945). It will look into internment camps in Europe which housed Indian Prisoners of War along with other POWs from the Allied nations. These POWs included soldiers, sepoys, and even high-ranking officers.

The internment camps in Nazi Germany witnessed the formation of trans-national solidarities between Indian POWs and POWs from other allied nations, often through the exchange of medical rations amidst ration shortages during harsh conditions. Through their interactions, these camps saw the collisions and entanglements of different political worlds. However, these camps also became spaces where the hierarchies of the outside world were reinforced, often through legally mandated spatial segregation.

Thus, this paper is an attempt to read the internment camp as a space extending beyond its carceral origins, enabling the formation of transnational networks, occasionally transcending constraints of race and class. It also seeks to demonstrate how the POWs experiences at these camps complicated their understanding of each other and the global war.