The Untold Story of Female POWs in WWII: A Dark Chapter of Forgotten Heroes

In the midst of World War II, as millions of soldiers clashed across Europe, Africa, and Asia, a remarkable yet largely forgotten group of women fought not just against enemies on the battlefield, but against a much darker, more personal adversary—their own captors.

These women, soldiers in their own right, faced the horrors of war in ways few could imagine. Their courage, determination, and sacrifice remain largely untold, hidden under layers of secrecy and misinformation.

But now, the stories of women in military service—American, British, and French—who were captured and subjected to unthinkable treatment are finally coming to light.

What these women endured is a story that has been buried for decades, and it’s one that demands to be heard.

The Beginning of a Forgotten Tragedy

In 1943, the world was embroiled in the largest and deadliest conflict it had ever seen. While soldiers—mostly men—fought across war-torn landscapes, thousands of women also answered the call to serve in various military roles.

They weren’t just working behind the scenes; they were pilots, radio operators, resistance fighters, and combatants.

These women believed they were fighting under the same rules of war as their male counterparts, protected by the Geneva Convention, which granted rights to prisoners of war. But they were wrong.

Lieutenant Mary Collins, a member of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), never imagined that one day, she would become a prisoner.

Stationed in Italy and managing radio communications just miles behind the front lines, Mary and four other WAC officers were caught in the chaos of a surprise German attack near Monte Cassino.

When the German soldiers surrounded their headquarters, they had nowhere to run. The German captain who captured them spoke perfect English, but his eyes weren’t filled with the usual rage of a soldier.

Instead, there was something else—something that made Mary’s skin crawl. He was intrigued. Fascinated. And, as she would soon learn, her fate was anything but ordinary.

The German captain looked them up and down before declaring that women like them—women who wore military uniforms—were not to be protected under the Geneva Convention. His chilling words would mark the beginning of a long, horrific ordeal for Mary and the other captured women.

A War Within a War: The Terrifying Protocols of Captured Women

As Mary and the other women were taken from their comrades, they were separated from male prisoners and transported in a different direction.

They were driven through the night, deep into German-controlled territory, away from the front lines and the safety of the Allied forces. When they arrived at a mysterious, unmarked facility, the real horrors began.

What followed wasn’t just interrogation—it was a calculated attempt to break them physically and psychologically. They were stripped of their military uniforms, their identities reduced to nothing more than “women who had abandoned their place.”

This wasn’t just random cruelty; it was organized, systematic abuse designed to humiliate, degrade, and strip these women of everything that made them soldiers.

German high command had developed “Protocol 27,” a chilling set of procedures specifically for handling female military captives, outlined in secret memos found decades later.

The purpose? To dismantle any psychological strength the women might have gained from their military training and to emphasize their femininity as a vulnerability. In short, the Nazis sought to exploit their gender, breaking them by attacking their dignity and sense of self.

But the women didn’t break as expected. They fought back in small, subtle ways—by maintaining their military identity in secret, by finding ways to communicate and support each other.

Despite the cruelty, the women found strength in their shared experiences, defying their captors at every turn.

A Secret System: The Hidden Prison Network for Women Soldiers

The German military created a shadow system for female POWs that included specialized detention centers hidden from the Red Cross and international oversight.

These facilities were isolated from the regular prison camps where male soldiers were held. The conditions were far worse for the women.

Unlike the male prisoners, who went through a relatively standard process, the women faced humiliating, invasive “examinations” designed to strip them of their identities as soldiers.

Their bodies were violated under the guise of medical treatment, and photographs were taken—not for military identification, but as trophies for the officers in charge.

Captured women, like British pilot Sarah Bennett, faced similar treatment. After being downed by German anti-aircraft fire, Sarah found herself in the hands of German patrols, who questioned her with the belief that women like her were somehow less than soldiers.

She was separated from the male prisoners, and despite her RAF uniform and identification, she was treated with a special kind of contempt. Sarah was sent to a facility where the full extent of her humiliation would unfold.

It was clear that the Nazis had developed an entire protocol for handling female soldiers—a protocol that went beyond just treating them as prisoners of war.

These women were seen as a ‘perversion,’ a challenge to the traditional gender roles that the Nazis so fervently believed in. The German officers were methodically trained to break these women, and they kept detailed records of every reaction—every physical or emotional breakdown.

The Systematic Humiliation: A Battle to Preserve Dignity

Once inside these specialized facilities, the women were subjected to degrading processes that sought to reduce them to nothing more than their gender.

They were stripped of their military uniforms, forced to stand naked, and photographed repeatedly. Guards would leer at them, making crude comments about their bodies.

For the German officers, it was a form of “processing,” a way to remind the women of their supposed inferiority. For the women, it was the first of many battles to hold on to their dignity.

Despite the hell they endured, the women began to resist. They secretly supported each other, passing messages, creating secret codes, and reminding each other who they were—soldiers first, despite what their captors tried to do to them.

Even when the Germans increased the pressure, they couldn’t break the women’s spirit. Mary Collins, along with Sarah and many others, refused to let go of their identity, whispering their ranks and units to each other during the long, terrifying nights.

The Hidden Truth: The Nazi Women Prisoners’ Files

What was even more terrifying than the physical abuse was the realization that the German high command had been planning this systematic cruelty for months.

In meetings at SS headquarters, officers from different departments—intelligence, psychology, and medicine—had gathered to devise strategies specifically for female military captives.

These women, the Nazis believed, were more vulnerable than men, and thus more easily broken.

They thought that by emphasizing the women’s femininity and vulnerability, they could shatter their resistance.

And it wasn’t just cruel officers carrying out these methods—it was part of an official policy, approved by the highest ranks of the German military leadership.

Records of these policies were hidden for years, but after the war, declassified documents revealed the full extent of the torture and manipulation the women endured.

The Nazis had even used female guards to carry out some of the cruelest acts, believing that women who had “betrayed” their gender were the most deserving of punishment.

The humiliation was carefully planned and executed, but it was the women’s will to survive that truly shocked their captors.

The Silence: Erasing the Stories of Female POWs

Despite the horrors these women faced, their stories were largely erased from history. When they returned home, their governments did little to recognize their suffering.

While male prisoners were celebrated as heroes and given medical attention, the women were ignored. Many of the women who survived never spoke of their experiences, as they were often told that their suffering was irrelevant or too shameful to share.

Even when some women tried to tell their stories, they were met with disbelief and accusations of exaggeration.

It wasn’t until decades later, in the 1980s and 1990s, that these women’s stories started to come to light. As documents were declassified, historians began to piece together the truth about what had happened in the secret female detention centers.

But by then, many of the women had already passed away, leaving their stories untold.

Honoring the Forgotten Women

The legacy of these women—Mary Collins, Sarah Bennett, and countless others—is one of incredible courage and strength. They endured unspeakable horrors, not just as prisoners, but as women caught in a war that sought to erase their identities as soldiers.

They resisted, they survived, and they kept their dignity in the most unimaginable circumstances. Today, we honor their sacrifices by telling their stories, not just as victims, but as warriors who fought through the most brutal and dehumanizing conditions.

Their courage was not just on battlefields or in the skies—it was in the depths of captivity, where they held onto their identities as soldiers and kept fighting, even when everything around them sought to break them.

Their stories are a testament to the resilience of women in the face of unimaginable cruelty, and they remind us that even in the darkest corners of war, humanity can endure.