List of prisoners of war

This is a list of notable prisoners of war (POW) whose imprisonment attracted notable attention or influence, or who became famous afterwards.


 * Ron Arad &mdash; Israeli fighter pilot, shot down over Lebanon in 1986. He has not been seen or heard from since 1988 and is widely presumed to be dead.
 * Everett Alvarez, Jr. Navy Commander who endured one of the longest periods as a prisoner of war (POW) in American history. Alvarez was the first American pilot to be shot down and held as a POW in North Vietnam. He spent over 8 years in captivity, making him the second longest-held POW in American history.
 * Bowe Bergdahl &mdash; U.S. Army Private First Class soldier captured by the Taliban on June 30, 2009.
 * Douglas Bader &mdash; British fighter pilot, Wing commander in Battle of Britain
 * Leonard Birchall &mdash; The "Saviour of Ceylon"
 * Fernand Braudel &mdash; the famous historian, was a POW in World War II.
 * Frank Buckles &mdash; the last American veteran of World War I, was imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II, as a civilian.
 * Winston Churchill &mdash; during the Second Boer War; escaped
 * James Clavell &mdash; prisoner in Singapore, based his novel King Rat on his experiences during World War II
 * George Thomas Coker &mdash; U.S. Navy aviator, POW in North Vietnam, noted resistor of his captors
 * John Cordwell &mdash; forged documents to help fellow English soldiers get out of Germany as part of the Great Escape
 * Charles de Gaulle &mdash; French general and political leader, captured at Verdun, POW 1916-1918
 * Dieter Dengler &mdash; a United States Navy pilot who escaped a Pathet Lao prison camp in Laos
 * Jeremiah Denton &mdash; Awarded the Navy Cross for resistance in captivity during the Vietnam War
 * Roy Dotrice &mdash; British actor
 * Werner Drechsler &mdash; killed by fellow German POWs during World War II for informing on other prisoners
 * Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop &mdash; an Australian surgeon and legend among prisoners of the Thai Burma Railway in World War II
 * Yakov Dzhugashvili &mdash; Joseph Stalin's first son, was captured by Germans early in World War II. lived in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1943.
 * Denholm Elliott &mdash; British actor
 * Henri Giraud &mdash; French general, escaped German captivity in both World War I and World War II
 * Ernest Gordon &mdash; Japanese POW in World War II, author of "To End All Wars" and former Presbyterian Dean of Princeton University chapel
 * Tom Greenway &mdash; American actor, imprisoned for more than a year in Italian and German camps during World War II
 * James Hargest &mdash; Brigadier in World War II. Highly decorated New Zealand politician in World War I and World War II. Escaped from captivity into Switzerland.
 * Heinrich Harrer &mdash; Austrian mountaineer, sportsman and author, detained in British India during World War II until he escaped in 1944, as related in his autobiography Seven Years in Tibet.
 * Erich Hartmann &mdash; "The Blond Knight of Germany". Number one air ace of all air forces in World War II.
 * Bob Hoover &mdash; American World War II pilot, test pilot and airshow performer; captured in 1944 and escaped from Stalag Luft I
 * Wilm Hosenfeld &mdash; Soviet prisoner in World War II, most remembered for saving Polish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman from death in the ruins of Warsaw.
 * Andrew Jackson &mdash; Seventh President of the United States, captured in the American Revolutionary War as a thirteen-year-old courier
 * Charles R. Jackson &mdash; captured in Battle of Corregidor and notable for memoir I Am Alive: A United States Marine's Story of Survival in a World War II Japanese POW Camp
 * Stanley D. Jaworski &mdash; Polish POW freed by American soldiers
 * Harold K. Johnson &mdash; U.S. Army Chief of Staff 1964; captured at Bataan (1942–1945)
 * Bert Kaempfert &mdash; German Orchestra conductor in World War II at a Danish prisoner of war camp
 * George Kenner &mdash; German artist interned as a civilian POW in Great Britain and the Isle of Man during World War I. Documented his experience in 110 paintings and drawings.
 * Tikka Khan &mdash; Japanese POW during World War II, Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistani Army
 * Wajid Khan Canadian politician &mdash; former Pakistan-India War 1971 fighter pilot
 * Yahya Khan &mdash; German POW during World War II, last president of a united Pakistan
 * Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski &mdash; Commander of the Polish Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising
 * Gustav Krist &mdash; Adventurer and traveler, Austrian soldier in World War I, captured by Russians in 1914. Interned in Russian Turkestan
 * Desmond Llewelyn &mdash; went on to a notable acting career, most famously as Q in the James Bond film series
 * Jessica Lynch &mdash; American servicewoman during the Iraq war.
 * Keith Matthew Maupin &mdash; captured on April 9, 2004. Date of murder unknown. Remains found March 30, 2008.
 * Charles Cardwell McCabe &mdash; a prisoner and chaplain at Libby Prison during the American Civil War
 * John McCain &mdash; American political leader and Republican nominee for president in 2008, prisoner for over five years in Vietnam
 * Olivier Messiaen &mdash; French composer
 * George Millar &mdash; Journalist, British soldier, SOE agent, writer
 * Dusty Miller &mdash; Executed for his faith during internment under the Japanese in Thailand in 1945.
 * François Mitterrand &mdash; French president, captured during World War II in 1940, escaped 6 times before arriving home in Dec. 1941
 * W. H. Murray &mdash; German POW during World War II, Scottish mountaineer
 * Airey Neave &mdash; British politician made the first British home run from Colditz on 5 January 1942
 * A. A. K. Niazi &mdash; commander of Pakistan Army in East Pakistan who surrendered along with nearly 93,000 prisoners
 * Manuel Noriega &mdash; Ex-Panamanian dictator captured by U.S. troops in 1990 then jailed for drugs trafficking offences. Only detainee in held by U.S. authorities presently officially designated as a POW by the federal government.
 * Friedrich Paulus &mdash; German field marshal, surrendered Stalingrad to the Soviets in 1943
 * Donald Pleasence &mdash; English film and stage actor. Was shot down while serving in the RAF during World War II, taken prisoner, and placed in a German prisoner-of-war camp. He later acted in the film "The Great Escape".
 * Pat Reid &mdash; non-fiction/historical author
 * James Robinson Risner &mdash; USAF Brigadier General. First living recipient of the Air Force Cross.
 * Yevgeny Rodionov &mdash; Russian soldier captured by rebel forces in Chechnya and beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam
 * James N. Rowe &mdash; Colonel, U.S. Army Special Forces, held by the Viet Cong from October 1963 until December 1968. One of only thirty-four U.S. soldiers to escape captivity in Vietnam. Author of Five Years to Freedom. Assassinated by the New People's Army in the Philippines on April 21, 1989.
 * Jean-Paul Sartre &mdash; French philosopher and writer, POW 1940-1941
 * Kazuo Sakamaki &mdash; First POW captured by U.S. forces in World War II
 * Ronald Searle &mdash; English cartoonist
 * Léopold Senghor &mdash; Senegalize writer and political leader, captured 1940 in France
 * Gilad Shalit &mdash; Israeli soldier captured in 2006 by Hamas. He was released in a prisoner exchange on October 18, 2011.
 * Vladek Spiegelman &mdash; Polish private captured by Germany on September 1, 1939, father of Art Spiegelman
 * William Stacy &mdash; lieutenant colonel of the Continental Army, captured during the Cherry Valley massacre; General George Washington attempted to orchestrate a prisoner exchange for Lt. Col. Stacy but was unsuccessful.
 * James Stockdale &mdash; candidate for Vice President in 1992; decorated member of the U.S. Navy; POW in Vietnam
 * E W Swanton &mdash; captured by Japanese in Singapore; after war, was renowned BBC sports commentator.
 * Floyd James Thompson &mdash; America's longest-held POW; he spent 9 years in POW camps in Vietnam (1964 &mdash; 1973)
 * Josip Broz Tito &mdash; president of Yugoslavia, Austrian soldier in World War I, captured by Russians in 1915
 * András Toma – Hungarian soldier, lived in a psychiatric hospital in Russia for 55 years after being captured as a POW. He was identified and returned home in 2000.
 * Jakow Trachtenberg &mdash; A Russian Jewish mathematician who developed the mental calculation techniques called the Trachtenberg system.
 * Mikhail Tukhachevsky &mdash; Soviet military leader and theorist, captured by Germans in World War I
 * Charles Upham &mdash; Most decorated British soldier of World War II. Awarded the Victoria Cross twice.
 * Laurens van der Post &mdash; South African writer and war hero, captured by Japanese 1942
 * Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach &mdash; German general captured at Stalingrad
 * Kurt Vonnegut &mdash; American writer; captured in the Battle of the Bulge and witnessed the Bombing of Dresden in World War II
 * Jonathan Wainwright &mdash; Commanding General U.S. forces in Philippines; captured at Bataan (1942–1945)
 * George Washington &mdash; first U.S. President, captured in 1754 by the French during the French and Indian War.
 * D. C. Wimberly &mdash; POW in World War II from Springhill, Louisiana; educator and a past commander of American Ex-Prisoners of War
 * Louis Zamperini &mdash; American athlete, member of Olympic team, captured by Japanese 1943