Starving Italian POWs at Siegmundsherberg

This photograph shows a group of Italian prisoners of war slowly starving to death in Siegmundsherberg. It was taken secretly with a small camera and smuggled out of Austria by an Italian POW who was repatriated to Switzerland during the war. This photograph was also used to show the effects of tuberculosis among Italian prisoners in Austrian prison camps. Poor diets in Austrian prison camps was the result of the Allied blockade and the reluctance of the Italian government to spend food parcels to prisoners in Italy, especially after the Caporetto disaster.https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/wwi_pow_camps/2467/thumbnail.jp