A POW's Memoir of the First World War: The Other Ordeal

Legacy of the Great War

by Georges Connes, Marie-Claire Connes Wrage (Translator), Lois Davis Vines (Editor)

This lyrical memoir offers a fresh look inside the trauma of war and captivity during the First World War, with resonance for today's world.Georges Connes was a young literature graduate when he was drafted and served in the infamous and bloody battle of Verdun. A survivor, he was captured by the Germans in June 1916 and became a prisoner of war until his repatriation in January 1919. In the Second World War, he was active in the French Resistance, was arrested and detained, and ultimately went into hiding. After the war, he served as the interim mayor of Dijon before returning to his academic life as a professor of British and American literature.Connes referred to his time as a POW as ''The Other Ordeal', recognizing that the most important suffering continued for those who had to endure the 'firing, blood and mud' of war. Connes focuses on the human aspects of war, which are all too easy to forget in the age of mass media. He passionately argues against the predominant black and white view of 'us versus them' to unearth the complexities of war. Rather than demonizing his German captors, for example, he describes individual examples of gratuitous acts of kindness.Connes offers a pacifist, internationalist perspective on war. A survivor of two of the greatest conflicts in modern history, Connes remained optimistic about humanity. This voice of hope provides insight not only into the First World War but into the contemporary world.

Genres: War, History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 4, 2004

Reviews

[Jessica Brockmole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Account of George Connes, who was taken prisoner near Verdun in 1916. He was imprisoned in Mainz, Germany for a time and then to Strasburg in eastern Prussia (what would become part of Poland). He remained a POW until the end of 1918, after the Armistice was signed.

Although, as an officer in officer camps, he perhaps led a bit more of a privileged existence than other POWs who worked the salt mines, etc., this is nonetheless a good account of the day-to-day life of a POW.