During the Great War, at least 217,746 Ottomans were taken captive by the Entente on one of the various fronts where Ottomans fought. About 150,000 of them were captured by the British. The Ottomans captured more than 34,000 Entente soldiers - mainly British, Indian and Dominion, Russian, French and Romanian - who were interned not in formal barbed wire camps but mostly in Anatolian towns in unused houses, school and church buildings. The mortality rate of the British and Dominion prisoners in Ottoman captivity was very high. Ottomans in Russian captivity may have suffered from similarly high rates of death.
217,746 Ottoman prisoners should be considered the minimum number of captives because much like the Ottomans, the Entente powers did not always keep accurate statistics. The most accurate seem to be those provided by the British but those, too, are suspect as they sometimes separated "Turks" from other ethnic Ottoman peoples and categorized them as "Others" belonging to "friendly nationalities," while at other times they referred to them simply as "Turks" in their reports. The most questionable is the number of those in Russia.
Captor Numbers
Russia 65,000-90,000
United Kingdom(camps in Egypt, India, Burma, Cyprus, Mesopotamia) 150,041 France 2,000 Italy (men captured in Libya) 100
Romania 605
TOTAL 217,746-242,746
SEE: Prisoners of War (Ottoman Empire/Middle East) By Yücel Yanıkdağ SOURCE
Mavi Boncuk |
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Turkish Prisoners in Egypt (WWI Centenary Series)
A Paperback edition by International Committee of the Red Cross
Author International Committee of the Red Cross
ISBN-139781473314726Format Paperback,
Publisher Last Post Press
Publication date
May 21, 2014Pages116
Product dimensions 140 x 216 x 7mm
This work was originally published in 1917. It is a Report on a visit made in December, 1916, and January, 1917, to the Camps for Turkish Prisoners of War in Egypt, by the Delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
This book is part of the World War One Centenary series; creating, collating and reprinting new and old works of poetry, fiction, autobiography and analysis. The series forms a commemorative tribute to mark the passing of one of the world's bloodiest wars, offering new perspectives on this tragic yet fascinating period of human history. Each publication also includes brand new introductory essays and a timeline to help the reader place the work in its historical context.
Turkish Prisoners in Egypt (WWI Centenary Series) Paperback edition by International Committee of the Red Cross.
This 1917 report is based on inspections of British Prisoner of War Camps in Egypt containing Turkish prisoners. It offers a snapshot of life as a Prisoner of War from the neutral perspective of the Red Cross. Despite this the Germans felt that the inspections of north African camps in 1915 did not represent the true conditions in these camps.
Since 1860 the International Committee of the Red Cross has been involved in coordinating and offering protection victims of armed conflict. From the end of 1914 their remit included the inspection of Prisoner of War camps. The International Prisoner of War Agency was established by the end of 1914 to ensure the protection of Prisoners of War.
:Even as late as 19 May 1920, 32,968 Ottoman prisoners remained in British captivity. Of these, 16,032 were in Mesopotamia, 10,105 in Egypt, 6,728 in India, and 103 in Malta. British authorities cited a shortage of ships and the "situation in the East",[11] but the concern over repatriated prisoners joining the nationalist forces of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) was an important political factor for the delays. ...Various diseases killed or maimed the prisoners, particularly in the Egyptian camps. Trachoma, a contagious eye disease acquired during the war at the Palestine and Yemen fronts, spread relatively quickly in the camps, partially or fully blinding as many as 15,000 prisoners. A nutrition deficiency disease, pellagra, killed at least 3,056 Ottoman prisoners in the Egyptian camps. Pellagra was a recognized disease, but its causation was not known at the time. Although the British doctors were adamant at first that the prisoners who came into the camps already had the disease, evidence shows that even if small numbers of them came in already pellagrous, many others developed the disease in the camps due to a "faulty" diet. While the intention clearly was not to make the Ottoman prisoners sick, certain Orientalist and racialist beliefs of the British led them to concoct a "European diet" for the German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners in the Egyptian camps, and a "non-European diet" for the Ottoman prisoners. The "non-European Diet" was high in calories, most of which came from the daily thirty-two ounces of bread, but it lacked the crucial vitamin B3 (niacin). Extended deficiency of niacin resulted in pellagra among more than 9,300 Ottoman prisoners of war, while the vast majority of the Germans who were given their "European diet" remained pellagra-free. And those small numbers of Germans, who eventually succumbed to pellagra, developed it well after the Ottomans did, another indication of both their more nutritious diet and that the disease developed in the camps..."
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The members of the mission sent to Egypt, MM. Dr. F. Blanched, E.
Schoch, and F. Thormeyer, had already inspected camps in Germany,
France, Morocco and Russia. They may be allowed to compare the treatment
of the Egyptian prisoners with what they had seen elsewhere.
We express our deep gratitude to the English authorities for all the
facilities which they gave us for the accomplishment of our mission.
1. Heliopolis Camp. | Visited on January 2, 1917
2. Hospital No. 2, at Abbassiah, near Cairo. | Visited on January 2, 1917
3. Maadi Camp. | Visited on January 3, 1917
4. The Egyptian Red Cross Hospital at Cairo | Visited on January 4, 1917
5. The Cairo Citadel Camp | Visited on January 3, 1917
6. The Ras-el-Tin Camp | Visited January 5, 1917
7. Sidi Bishr Camp | Visited on January 6, 1917
8. Bilbeis Camp | Visited on January 16, 1917
CAIRO, _January, 1917_.
The Delegates of the Red Cross International Committee.
Dr. F. BLANCHOD.
F. THORMEYER.
EMMANUEL SCHOCH.
Full Text from Gutenberg
217,746 Ottoman prisoners should be considered the minimum number of captives because much like the Ottomans, the Entente powers did not always keep accurate statistics. The most accurate seem to be those provided by the British but those, too, are suspect as they sometimes separated "Turks" from other ethnic Ottoman peoples and categorized them as "Others" belonging to "friendly nationalities," while at other times they referred to them simply as "Turks" in their reports. The most questionable is the number of those in Russia.
Captor Numbers
Russia 65,000-90,000
United Kingdom(camps in Egypt, India, Burma, Cyprus, Mesopotamia) 150,041 France 2,000 Italy (men captured in Libya) 100
Romania 605
TOTAL 217,746-242,746
SEE: Prisoners of War (Ottoman Empire/Middle East) By Yücel Yanıkdağ SOURCE
Mavi Boncuk |
Turkish Prisoners in Egypt (WWI Centenary Series)A Paperback edition by International Committee of the Red Cross
Author International Committee of the Red Cross
ISBN-139781473314726Format Paperback,
Publisher Last Post Press
Publication date
May 21, 2014Pages116
Product dimensions 140 x 216 x 7mm
This work was originally published in 1917. It is a Report on a visit made in December, 1916, and January, 1917, to the Camps for Turkish Prisoners of War in Egypt, by the Delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
This book is part of the World War One Centenary series; creating, collating and reprinting new and old works of poetry, fiction, autobiography and analysis. The series forms a commemorative tribute to mark the passing of one of the world's bloodiest wars, offering new perspectives on this tragic yet fascinating period of human history. Each publication also includes brand new introductory essays and a timeline to help the reader place the work in its historical context.
Turkish Prisoners in Egypt (WWI Centenary Series) Paperback edition by International Committee of the Red Cross.
This 1917 report is based on inspections of British Prisoner of War Camps in Egypt containing Turkish prisoners. It offers a snapshot of life as a Prisoner of War from the neutral perspective of the Red Cross. Despite this the Germans felt that the inspections of north African camps in 1915 did not represent the true conditions in these camps.
Since 1860 the International Committee of the Red Cross has been involved in coordinating and offering protection victims of armed conflict. From the end of 1914 their remit included the inspection of Prisoner of War camps. The International Prisoner of War Agency was established by the end of 1914 to ensure the protection of Prisoners of War.
:Even as late as 19 May 1920, 32,968 Ottoman prisoners remained in British captivity. Of these, 16,032 were in Mesopotamia, 10,105 in Egypt, 6,728 in India, and 103 in Malta. British authorities cited a shortage of ships and the "situation in the East",[11] but the concern over repatriated prisoners joining the nationalist forces of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) was an important political factor for the delays. ...Various diseases killed or maimed the prisoners, particularly in the Egyptian camps. Trachoma, a contagious eye disease acquired during the war at the Palestine and Yemen fronts, spread relatively quickly in the camps, partially or fully blinding as many as 15,000 prisoners. A nutrition deficiency disease, pellagra, killed at least 3,056 Ottoman prisoners in the Egyptian camps. Pellagra was a recognized disease, but its causation was not known at the time. Although the British doctors were adamant at first that the prisoners who came into the camps already had the disease, evidence shows that even if small numbers of them came in already pellagrous, many others developed the disease in the camps due to a "faulty" diet. While the intention clearly was not to make the Ottoman prisoners sick, certain Orientalist and racialist beliefs of the British led them to concoct a "European diet" for the German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners in the Egyptian camps, and a "non-European diet" for the Ottoman prisoners. The "non-European Diet" was high in calories, most of which came from the daily thirty-two ounces of bread, but it lacked the crucial vitamin B3 (niacin). Extended deficiency of niacin resulted in pellagra among more than 9,300 Ottoman prisoners of war, while the vast majority of the Germans who were given their "European diet" remained pellagra-free. And those small numbers of Germans, who eventually succumbed to pellagra, developed it well after the Ottomans did, another indication of both their more nutritious diet and that the disease developed in the camps..."
The members of the mission sent to Egypt, MM. Dr. F. Blanched, E.
Schoch, and F. Thormeyer, had already inspected camps in Germany,
France, Morocco and Russia. They may be allowed to compare the treatment
of the Egyptian prisoners with what they had seen elsewhere.
We express our deep gratitude to the English authorities for all the
facilities which they gave us for the accomplishment of our mission.
1. Heliopolis Camp. | Visited on January 2, 1917
2. Hospital No. 2, at Abbassiah, near Cairo. | Visited on January 2, 1917
3. Maadi Camp. | Visited on January 3, 1917
4. The Egyptian Red Cross Hospital at Cairo | Visited on January 4, 1917
5. The Cairo Citadel Camp | Visited on January 3, 1917
6. The Ras-el-Tin Camp | Visited January 5, 1917
7. Sidi Bishr Camp | Visited on January 6, 1917
8. Bilbeis Camp | Visited on January 16, 1917
CAIRO, _January, 1917_.
The Delegates of the Red Cross International Committee.
Dr. F. BLANCHOD.
F. THORMEYER.
EMMANUEL SCHOCH.
Full Text from Gutenberg