When the British troops took the Belgian city of Antwerp, hitherto held by the Germans, they found that they did not have a suitable place to keep the prisoners locked up. After searching unsuccessfully for a cinema or theatre that could serve as a prison, the British realized that the zoo was empty. Thus, the zoo was soon filled with new occupants.

The six thousand prisoners who were to be accommodated there were distributed by category; The officers, the Belgian fascists and the citizens who had collaborated with the Germans ended up in the lions’ enclosure. Prisoners of another type were assigned the bear pit, the tiger cage, or the monkey house. As a witness would describe, ‘the prisoners remained sitting on piles of straw, looking through the bars.’

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‘Enslavement of Prisoners of War is a violation of the Geneva Convention. –  Article. 75‘. Yet, there was no Allied intention to abide by international law; even the Nuremberg Trials and Military Tribunals held throughout Occupied Europe.

‘The souls of one-quarter of mankind have been seared by the violation of that American promise.  The ghosts of the Four Freedoms and the Atlantic Charter now wander amid the clanking chains of a thousand slave camps.’ – U.S. News, July 18 1952.

‘Great Britain in August 1946, 15 months after the war’s end, according to the International Red Cross, had 460,000 German prisoners-of-war slaving for her.’ – John Thompson, Geneva, August 24^th 1946. Chicago Tribune Press Service.

In clear contrast, the excellent treatment received by British prisoners of war is so undeniable that the media simply avoids publishing newsreels and photographs of glowing accounts by prisoners after their release from captivity.

‘I have come up against few instances where the Germans have not treated prisoners according to the rules, and have respected the Red Cross.’ – Alan Wood, War Front Correspondent, Daily Express, February 4th 1945.

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‘The Germans even in their greatest moments of despair obeyed the Convention in most respects- Lieutenant Newton L. Marguiles. Assistant Judge Advocate of Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, April 27 1945.

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‘Of those labourers in the Reich, Dr James Pollack, who for fourteen months served with the Allied Military Government, said: ‘I think some of the persons found themselves better off than at any time in their lives before.’ – James M. Haswell, Washington, August 27 1946. Chicago Daily News.

LORD MULLEY later Defence Minister (UK). When the Second World War broke out in 1939, he joined the Army, attaining the rank of lance sergeant before being captured at Dunkirk in 1940. He spent the next five years in prisoner-of-war camps in Poland, East Prussia and Bavaria, using the time to pass examinations in a number of subjects, including economics and banking.’ – The Times, March 16 1995.  Obituary on Lord Mulley, former government Cabinet Minister.

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EXTRACTS from Witness to History, Michael Walsh, soon Paperback to be republished.