POW UK

Mention Second World War prisoners of war and thoughts inevitably turn to Steve McQueen at Stalag Luft III in The Great Escape, or perhaps to seachlight-dodging freedom-seekers held captive by the Germans at Colditz. What is often overlooked is that Britain too was home to hundreds of prison camps, containing thousands of soldiers, sailors and airmen from the Axis forces.

I confess to a lifelong obsession with prisoners of war (the shelves holding my collection of books on the subject could shore up many a long tunnel), and yet I knew very little about the British camps. My voyage of enlightenment took me to North Yorkshire. There, on the outskirts of Malton, stands Eden Camp, a military museum that also happens to be the nation’s bestpreserved prisoner-of-war facility.

I was taken on a tour by Nick Hill, who has been Eden Camp’s museum manager for over 25 years and has had the pleasure of meeting a dozen or so of