Captivating memories: New ‘Great Escapes’ exhibition at the National Archives, London

What was life like for the many individuals who found themselves being held as wartime prisoners or internees? This is certainly a growing area of research for historians and, I suspect, is also of great interest to anybody who has a fascination with family, social or general military history.

I paid a visit to a new exhibition, Great Escapes, which has just opened at the National Archives (TNA), Kew, in south-west London, and runs from 2nd February to 21st July, 2024. The exhibition is subtitled ‘Remarkable Second World War Captives’, and is devoted to three main categories of captive held in the 1939-45 War by Britain, Germany and Japan.

These were, firstly, the ‘Prisoners of War’ (POWs), military personnel captured by the opposing sides during the conflict; secondly, the ‘Civilian Internees’, who were civilians residing in, or passing through, a country which was at war with their country of nationality, and who were placed in internment camps; and, thirdly, ‘the ‘Enemy Aliens’, who were people whose country of nationality was at war with their country of residence.

The free exhibition, which is being held on the ground-floor, not far from the main entrance to TNA, helps one to explore some of the incredible stories of captives held during the five-year conflict, ranging from the famous escape attempts made by British officers soldiers (such as Airey Neave’s famous escape from Colditz Castle) to the remarkable stories of individuals who sought to escape the tedium and restrictions of their captivity through using their creative imaginations via art, music, singing, acting, poetry, letter-writing or learning languages.

At one stage in the exhibition there is a quilt on display, which was made up of patterned hexagonal patches created and sown by Girl Guides, who were captured with their families by the Japanese and held in Changi Camp. Remarkably, this quilt, which was created as a birthday present for Elizabeth Ennis, the captain of the local Girl Guides, had to be created in secret. This was even more astonishing when you consider that punishment for breaking camp rules could be severe.

However, using one’s imagination or creative talents to pass the time and defy the authorities appears to have been a regular pschological coping feature of life in the camps, whether you were a civilan internee or POW. One POW, Guy ‘Griff’ Griffiths, a Royal Marine pilot who was captured early in the War, even put his drawing talents to good use by feeding false intelligence to the Germans; he did this by creating sketches of fake British aircraft, which he deliberately left around his camp for guards to find. No doubt this wasted many man-hours for Nazi intelligence officers back in Berlin, who probably spent long periods trying to find out more about the strange but highly detailed craft sketched out in the drawings!

The role of MI9

I was especially interested in some never previously displayed records from MI9, the top secret agency set up by the British government in 1939 to help military personnel evade and escape capture. The agency even sent a range of hidden escape aids to POW camps, such as secret maps and compasses, enabling prisoners to make use of the gadgets and plan escape attempts. MI9 also interviewed and debriefed the few POWs who, against all the odds, did manage to escape.

Another intriguing dimension to the TNA exhibition is coverage of life in the Japanese camps and how internees coped with the grim conditions, something that, for various reasons, seems to be less known about by the public. For example, a selection of the sketches of Ronald Searle (who was captured when Singapore fell to Japanes forces) are on display. Searle, who was forced to help build a jungle railway, suffered numerous illnesses and faced terrible camp conditions, but was still able to draw (in secret) a significant number of images which documented the cruelty of the Japanese camp guards and the awful conditions prisoners faced daily.

The exhibition also seeks to throw light on life for German officers in the British-run camps. Interestingly, there is coverage of Steffi Ehlert, who was one of the 70 German officers who managed to escape from Camp 198 in Brigend in Wales. This escape occurre don 10th March, 1945, via a secret tunnel, and became the largest mass escape of German prisoner sin the UK during the Second World War.

As you emerge from the TNA exhibition there is a range of books and other material on sale, including the official companion book to the exhibition, Captives: Prisoners of War and Internees 1939-1945. This highly readable book contains eye-witness accounts of life in captivity and attempted escapes, as well as maps, drawings and a series of unique photographs.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition, which conveys so much about the tenacity of the human spirit under terrible conditions of incarceration. I was left feeling much more knowledgeable about the mental and physical endurance of some very brave individuals who, in many cases, were held for years in circumstances that would severely test even the strongest individual.

Dr. Steven Woodbridge is a Lecturer in History and Politics

(Image: The National Archives)