Of more than 5,000 Allied merchant seamen captured by the Germans during the war, most were held at Marlag-Milag.[1] As civilian non-combatants, according to Section XI, Article 6, of the 1907 Hague Conventions, merchant seamen "...are not made prisoners of war, on condition that they make a formal promise in writing, not to undertake, while hostilities last, any service connected with the operations of the war."[2] The Germans, however, always treated Merchant Navy seamen as POWs (as did the British from 1942).