Were Allied (Specifically the Western Allies) POWs paid for the time spent in captivity and did they receive any compensation or reprisal from their government for being captured?
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Yes, soldiers were paid but thus was of little use when they couldn’t spend it. The Geneva Convention is both explicit and antiquated on this subject: Officers are entitled to half-pay from the captor after capture.
Half pay is just that, half of full pay and was paid to officers not on active service. The expectation was that their home nation would not pay them. Officers were gentlemen and half-pay subpart of that.
Other Ranks were paid by their home nation and the capturing nation was entitled to employ them in “non-military” jobs. German POW’s in the US were often employed on farms as basic food that could be eaten by civilians was as far from military as anyone could find.
The capturing nation was liable to.pay for the home nation for POW labour. The Allles thus settled their vaksncd with Germany.
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Interesting topic, that I have never ever thought about. Odd setup with the payments, but rather reasonable.
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