Argumentative Essay: Torture During World War II

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In World War II, The Allied powers defeated the Axis Powers. One of the biggest nations of the Axis powers, Germany, was corrupt and evil, but what happened behind the scenes may paint a different picture. Were they, in some ways, better men than us? Although Germany executed and tortured Jews, they treated their prisoners of war much better and abided by the laws of the Geneva Convention much more than any other nation involved in the war. Some may think torture is alright to use on enemies of their country. They may believe this is due to a hatred for the enemies because of past actions or threats to their country. They may believe that torture is a valuable interrogation technique. They believe that we do not need to treat our prisoners with respect and honor. They feel that a prisoner of war’s life is less important and less valuable than ours. Germany committed many atrocities during world war II. They treated Jews as though they were less than human. Jews were executed and…show more content…
Of these, approximately 5 million died in captivity. Prisoners during the war faced many hardships. The prisoners faced starvation, exposure to the elements, and brutality from their captors. 27 percent of Allied prisoners captured by the Japanese died while in captivity. Prisoners were left in tents during the winters, slept on the ground, and were often kicked by the guards for fun. They were also extremely underfed (Hutchinson). The Japanese completely disregarded the Geneva Conventions terms. They enforced their own rules and regulations. Escape attempts from Japanese camps were very rare. If a prisoner attempted to escape the were executed in front of other prisoners. In some camps, they would also execute ten other prisoners. Very few guards in the Japanese camps spoke English. The prisoners were forced to learn Japanese in order to understand orders (World War

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