World War II prisoners of war held by Germany

Hans Mathiesen Lunding (25 February 1899 – 5 April 1984) was a Danish officer, eventing rider, resistance fighter and director of military intelligence in Denmark.

Jacques Renouvin (6 October 1905 – 24 January 1944) was a royalist militant in France during the Second World War and hero of the French resistance.
Born in Paris, Renouvin studied law and initially became a lawyer. He initially supported Action française, but left after the 6 February 1934 crisis. In November 1938 after the Munich agreement, he garnered attention by publicly slapping Pierre-Étienne Flandin, who had sent a congratulatory telegram to Adolf Hitler. Renouvin was mobilised in 1939, and he was a volunteer for the corps francs. He fought a brilliant campaign, being wounded and taken prisoner. He escaped from the hospital to which he had been brought.
After demobilisation, he moved to the free zone in late 1940, and joined the underground movement Liberté created by a small group of Christian democrat teachers. Specifically responsible for propaganda, he organised youth commandos in pursuit of this. After the merger between Liberté and Les Petites Ailes which gave rise to Combat, Henri Frenay put Renouvin in charge of organising Groupes francs throughout the free zone. This position made him one of the most wanted resistance members by all the police.
Renouvin was arrested on the 29 January 1943 by the Gestapo at Brive-la-Gaillarde railway station, along with Mireille Tronchon whom he had married while in hiding. He was transferred to Fresnes Prison and tortured for several months before being deported to Germany on the 29 August 1943. Interned in Mauthausen concentration camp, he died of exhaustion on 24 January 1944.
He had a son, Bertrand Renouvin, from his marriage to Mireille Tronchon; Bertrand was born on 15 June 1943 while his mother was still being held in La Santé prison.
A 20 centimes postage stamp was issued in 1961 in Renouvin's memory.

Donald B. Prell (July 7, 1924 – July 28, 2020) was an American World War II veteran, venture capitalist and futurist who created Datamation, the first magazine devoted solely to the computer hardware and software industry.

William Franklin Ash MBE (30 November 1917 – 26 April 2014) was an American-born British writer, broadcaster and Marxist, who served as a fighter pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II. He was shot down, made a prisoner of war, and was noted as an escaper.

Clifford "Cliff" Eugene Barker (January 15, 1921 – March 17, 1998) was an American basketball player who won the gold medal with the USA national basketball team at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London and two national championships at the University of Kentucky.

While at the University of Kentucky, Barker was an All-SEC (Second Team) and All-SEC Tournament guard during the 1947–48 and 1948–49 seasons.
A member of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, Barker was a B-17 Flying Fortress gunner and spent 16 months as a prisoner-of-war.

John Richard Rarick (January 29, 1924 – September 14, 2009) was an American lawyer, jurist, and World War II veteran who served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, serving Louisiana's 6th congressional district from 1967 to 1975.

Władysław Bortnowski (12 November 1891 – 21 November 1966) was a Polish historian, military commander and one of the highest ranking generals of the Polish Army. He is most famous for commanding the Pomorze Army in the Battle of Bzura during the invasion of Poland in 1939. He is also notable for serving as president of the Józef Piłsudski Institute of America between 1961 and 1962.

Marius Eriksen (8 December 1922 – 6 July 2009) was a Norwegian skier, fighter pilot, model and actor.
Eriksen was born on 8 September 1922 in Kristiania (now Oslo) in Norway. His father, also called Marius Eriksen, was a gymnast who competed for Norway at the 1912 Summer Olympics. His mother was Birgit Eriksen. During his early years, Eriksen (junior) gained some success at slalom skiing and ski jumping. Eriksen's younger brother, Stein Eriksen, went on to win an Olympic gold medal in skiing.
Following the outbreak of World War II, Eriksen fled Norway, leaving on 5 November 1940 via Ålesund. After arriving in Scotland, he made his way to Canada, where he underwent flying training at Little Norway, the Norwegian Army Air Service flight training school.
On his return to the United Kingdom, Eriksen served with No. 331 (Norwegian) Squadron RAF and then No. 332 (Norwegian) Squadron RAF as a fighter pilot flying Spitfires. He achieved nine kills, making him one of Norway's aces, before he was shot down off the coast of the Netherlands attempting a head-on attack against a Focke-Wulf Fw 190. Eriksen survived and after being captured on 2 May 1943, he was held as a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft III in Poland until 1945. He began his service with the RAF as a Sergeant, but was later commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. In recognition of his wartime service, Eriksen was awarded the War Cross with Sword, St. Olav's Medal With Oak Branch, Haakon VIIs 70th Anniversary Medal, the Norwegian War Medal, the Norwegian Defence Medal, the British Distinguished Flying Medal, and the American Silver Star.
After the war, Eriksen became the Norwegian champion in alpine skiing in both 1947 and 1948. He also competed in two events at the 1948 Winter Olympics.In 1953, his mother, who was a keen knitter, designed a variation of the Setesdal traditions in Norway. sweater. Another variation of Setesdals patterns, designed by Unn Søiland, later became Norway's most popular knitting pattern, known as The Marius pattern, the pattern that Marius Eriksen is wearing in the film Troll i ord. The picture of Marius Eriksen from the film was later used as the front cover of the knitting pattern that later became the most popular knitting pattern in Norway.After the war, Eriksen pursued a film career in the 1950s. He appeared in two films in 1954, debuting in Troll i ord (Watch What You Say) before going on to Kasserer Jensen (a comedy in which he was a journalist with the Norwegian daily Dagbladet). In 1957 he starred as Lieutenant Colonel Eriksen in Slalåm under himmelen (Slalom beneath the Sky), a war film.
Eriksen's autobiography Marius: skiløper - jageress - krigsfange (Marius: skier - fighter ace - prisoner of war) was published in Norway in 2002.
He had five children with Bente Ording Eriksen, including Beate Eriksen (born 1960), who became an actress and film director.

Jonas Lie (31 December 1899 – 11 May 1945) was a Norwegian councilor of state in the Nasjonal Samling government of Vidkun Quisling in 1940, then acting councilor of state 1940–1941, and Minister of Police between 1941 and 1945 in the new Quisling government. Lie was the grandson of the novelist Jonas Lie and the son of the writer Erik Lie.

Pierre Armand Gaston Billotte (8 March 1906 – 29 June 1992) was a French Army officer and politician. He was the son of General Gaston Billotte, who commanded parts of the French Army at the start of World War II. Pierre Billotte was himself notable for his combat actions during the Battle of France.