423 Pages
ISBN 978-1-917120-57-9
B&W Images
 
They were soldiers, sailors, and airmen who found themselves in enemy hands. But captivity was only the beginning...

The Undefeated strips away romanticised myths of dashing escapes and wartime gallantry to reveal the gritty, often brutal truth of life in German and Italian captivity during the Second World War. Told through the eyes of ordinary servicemen who found themselves behind the wire. Drawing on hundreds of testimonies – from hidden diaries and post-war interviews to war crimes files, rare oral histories, and many previously unpublished photographs – this compelling new study gives voice to those who endured the unendurable.

Through themes of survival, resistance, camaraderie, and betrayal, this ground-breaking account uncovers the daily grind of forced labour, the quiet defiance of men compelled to work for the Nazis, and the moral ambiguities of collaboration and retribution. From the chaos of Dunkirk to the freezing death marches of 1945, these are stories of endurance, rebellion, cruelty, and compassion.