ABSTRACT
In chronicling the successful escapes carried out during the Second World War, it is easy to ignore the risks involved and the fate of many others who made the attempt but failed. The punishments for civilian evaders and military escapees were not necessarily the same, with the former running the risk of being sent to a concentration camp. However, the fate of recidivist military personnel was much the same as the Germans grew increasingly frustrated by the resources they had to expend in tracking down and returning the prisoners absconding from camps and Arbeitskommando. Serial offenders were sent to specific camps in the East, primarily Rawa Ruska and Kobierzyn, where conditions were deliberately severe, and it was only outside pressure and the intervention of the Red Cross that ended the experiment and saw the men returned to ordinary camps.
