Would this be the opposite torture that the one suffered through in the "cooler"

"Hot Box" in hot climes - isolation, no food/water - South Pacific Theater of War. Heat prostration, dehydration.

"Cooler" in cold climes - isolation, no food/water in cold climes - European Theater of War. Hypothermia.

Starvation resulting if isolation long term. Prisoners were already debilitated by internment.

Consider : most of the enlisted soldiers were men barely out of their teens and officers not much older.
Brave men.