Behind barbed wire [Hardcover]

A. J Barker (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: Batsford; 1st ed edition (1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0713411759
• ISBN-13: 978-0713411751
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,471,938 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A scholarly book. A must-read., November 17, 2007

By 

Tolga BALCI (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Behind barbed wire (Hardcover)

Once I was back from Germany, I was looking for a book that tells about the people's lives in the concentration camps. I was searching for a "fact book" rather than a novel one.

Searching through the Internet, I have run into this book. Reading the reviews, I purchased it second hand. I was a little bit disappointed when I received the book, because what I wanted to have was about the inmates of the concentration camps, what I received was a general book about the Prisoner of War (POW) Camps' inmates. It has been just a couple of pages when my disappointment turned upside down: I was reading a great book.

"Behind barbed wire" is a scholarly book with information presented at each line, paragraph and page. It is not possible to skip a single sentence without understanding it. At this point, my recommendation would be if you're a book-skimmer, do not touch this one.

The book builds up on the notion of a "Prisoner of War", going parallel with the Conventions (The 1949 Geneva convention is emphasized), applications and experiences. The author also had correspondance with the former POWs and presents the abstracts from their letters and from the interviews.

The table of contents is as follows:

Chapter 1: From the beginning of time
Chapter 2: Who is a Prisoner of War?
Chapter 3: Capture
Chapter 4: The first ordeal
Chapter 5: Interrogation
Chapter 6: Life behind the wire
Chapter 7: Work
Chapter 8: Religion
Chapter 9: Guards and discipline
Chapter 10: Consolations and diversions
Chapter 11: Escape
Chapter 12: Indoctrination
Chapter 13: Freedom
Chapter 14: Repatriation and after-effects
Chapter 15: A code for survival

As the organization of the book shows, the information presented to the user is very organized and deals with every aspect of the POW issue. Plus, the author is very objective.

The book is out-of-print and to my knowledge there is no recent issue, which is a pity.

Finally, as I have said before, readers who want to learn more about this issue have to read this book.