FUNCTION AND CONTENT

The series consists of camp records of German and Italian Prisoners-of-War interned in Australia 

during the 1939-1945 war. 

Each file is the record of a particular Prisoner-of-War. Each dossier includes details such as name, date and 

place of birth, nationality, where captured, unit and rank, date of arrival and name of ship in Australia . Other personal particulars include name of spouse, trade 

or profession etc. A photograph of the prisoner often holding a placard with what appears to be 

an oficial army service number is included with most dossiers. Negatives of some photographs are included. 

Some negatives have no identification and are in the incorrect file.

Some files contain details of the prisoner's employment, any disciplinary action received and complaints made by 

the prisoner. There may also be extracts from letters written by the prisoner.

USING THE SERIES

The series uses a single number system with a 'C' prefix.

For other information relating to Prisoners-of-War refer to the related series CRS A367, Correspondence files, 

single number series with year prefix 1916-1927 and 'C' prefix 1927-1945. A367 contains other prisoner-of-war records

as well as dossiers for internees.

An alphabetical listing by surname of this series is available in the National Office Reading Room, Canberra. 

All items in this series in the custody of the Australian Archives have been entered onto the ANGAM II database.

SERIES HISTORY

It appears that these file were handed to the Commonwealth Investigation Service in April 1951 by the Department 

of the Army. The single numbers with 'C' prefix were imposed at this time. The records were to be kept in case any 

of the prisoners who were security risks should apply for re-admission as immigrants. At present, there is 

insufficient evidence to show which agency originally created the records.

Custodial History

The records now in this series were originally transferred to archives in September 1954 and were controlled 

by accession series number CP259/1, up until their conversion to series A7919 in 1989.

FOLLOW UP WORK REQUIRED

A photographic negative is held in many of these items. Indicator 28 has been applied to a few of these items but 

the majority of items with negatives do not have an indicator. A small number of negatives have been sent to cold 

storage.  

Follow up work is required to remove and conserve the bulk of the negatives.

Series converted from

CP259/1