Over the twentieth century 35,000 Australians suffered as prisoners of war in conflicts ranging from World War I to Korea. What was the reality of their captivity? Beyond Surrender presents for the first time the diversity of the Australian 'behind-the-wire' experience, dissecting fact from fiction and myth from reality.
Beyond Surrender examines the impact that different types of camps, commandants and locations had on surrender, survival, prison life and the prospects of escape. It considers the attitudes of Australian governments to those who had surrendered, the work of relief agencies and the agony of families waiting at home for their husbands, brothers and fathers to be freed.
Covering several conflicts and diverse sites of captivity, Beyond Surrender showcases new research from Kate Ariotti, Joan Beaumont, Lachlan Grant, Jeffrey Grey, Karl James, Jennifer Lawless, Peter Monteath, Melanie Oppenheimer, Aaron Pegram, Lucy Robertson, Seumas Spark and Christina Twomey.


Joan Beaumont is the author of Broken Nation: Australians and the Great War, joint winner of the 2014 Prime Minister’s Award for Australian History and the 2014 NSW Premier’s Award for Australian History. She has published also on the Thai–Burma railway,and in 2011-13 researched the Hellfire Pass commemorative web site for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Lachlan Grant is a historian in the Military History Section of the Australian War Memorial. He has published widely on the Australian experiences of the World War II and the Australian prisoner of war experience. He recently authored Australian soldiers in Asia-Pacific in World War II.

Aaron Pegram is a historian in the Military History Section at the Australian War Memorial. He is the Memorial’s tour leader and historical guide for the Memorial’s Western Front battlefield tours, and is completing a PhD thesis on Australian prisoners in Germany during World War I.