P.O.W after their country surrendered

Hi Indy and team!

I was wondering what happened to prisoners of war when their country surrendered to Germany. Did they get to go home or were they kept in work/concentration camps?

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Many of the soldiers of the Polish army that surrendered to the Germans stayed in POW camps for the duration of the war or until they were freed by allied forces. Many Polish troops would escape the Germans and attempt to blend back into civilian life and while some may have done so successfully I do not know of any specific direct sources. Polish soldiers who surrendered to the Soviets were also put in camps (often gulags) but would be later released when the Germans invaded Soviet Russia. These troops would either fight under Soviet command on the eastern front or be organized under Wladyslaw Anders and sent south through the Middle East to meet up with allied forces in North Africa and continue to fight from there.

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