/library/oar/handle/123456789/135726 2025-11-18T04:38:06Z 2025-11-18T04:38:06Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/135864 2025-05-28T13:02:06Z 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Malta’s prisoner of war camps during the first world war Abstract: During the First World War, Malta served as an excellent naval base and hospital for the Allies. However apart from these two vital roles, Malta also functioned as a Prisoner of War (POW) Camp. This role is relatively underexplored in the literature. Nonetheless, it was an essential component of the war effort. Therefore, Malta’s POW Camps merited a study and a consideration of their own. Malta was the main POW Camp in the Mediterranean hub of the British Empire, with Gibraltar used as a transit camp and Ras-el-tin and Sidi Bishr camps in Egypt not of the required standard to host Officer POWs. The British Authorities adapted ready-built fortifications such as Fort Verdala, Fort San Salvatore, St. Clement’s Retrenchment and Polverista Barracks to serve as POW Camps. These were run by Camp Commandants and their staff. By December 1914 Malta’s POW Camps swelled with mainly interned civilians rounded up from Malta and Egypt. As the war progressed ex-combatants were captured from various theatres of war and transferred to Malta as POWs. Thanks to the efforts of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), POW camps were regulated by the Geneva Convention of 1906 and the Hague Convention of 1907. These set clear legal obligations which every belligerent had to adhere to in their treatment of POWs. The overall aim of this research is to investigate in depth what happened in Malta’s POW Camps in the First World War. This will be achieved through a number of research objectives. The study will examine the administrative side of the camps in terms of the Choice of Area, Camp Staff, and Record Keeping and Repatriation of POWs. By using mainly primary sources supported with secondary sources, the main events in Malta’s camps during the First World War will be analysed. The study will then seek to evaluate critically the extent to which Malta’s POW Camps adhered to the legal obligations of the Geneva Convention of 1906 and The Hague Convention of 1907. Description: M. Malt. St.(Melit.)

2024-01-01T00:00:00Z