diff --git a/src/changes/changes.xml b/src/changes/changes.xml
index c96cbf5..c34acde 100644
--- a/src/changes/changes.xml
+++ b/src/changes/changes.xml
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@
 
   <body>
     <release version="1.4" date="TBA" description="TBA">
+      <action issue="FILEUPLOAD-242" dev="tn" type="fix">FileUploadBase - should not silently catch and ignore all Throwables</action>
       <action issue="FILEUPLOAD-257" dev="tn" type="fix">Fix Javadoc 1.8.0 errors</action>
       <action issue="FILEUPLOAD-234" dev="tn" type="fix">Fix section "Resource cleanup" of the user guide</action>
       <action issue="FILEUPLOAD-237" dev="tn" type="fix">Fix streaming example: use FileItem.getInputStream() instead of openStream()</action>
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/fileupload/FileUploadBase.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/fileupload/FileUploadBase.java
index 34aa7bf..88ce82c 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/fileupload/FileUploadBase.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/fileupload/FileUploadBase.java
@@ -366,8 +366,8 @@
                 for (FileItem fileItem : items) {
                     try {
                         fileItem.delete();
-                    } catch (Throwable e) {
-                        // ignore it
+                    } catch (Throwable t) {
+                    	handleThrowable(t);
                     }
                 }
             }
@@ -375,6 +375,25 @@
     }
 
     /**
+     * Checks whether the supplied Throwable is one that needs to be
+     * rethrown and swallows all others.
+     * @param t the Throwable to check
+     */
+    private void handleThrowable(Throwable t) {
+        if (t instanceof ThreadDeath) {
+            throw (ThreadDeath) t;
+        }
+        if (t instanceof StackOverflowError) {
+            // Swallow silently - it should be recoverable
+            return;
+        }
+        if (t instanceof VirtualMachineError) {
+            throw (VirtualMachineError) t;
+        }
+        // All other instances of Throwable will be silently swallowed
+    }
+
+    /**
      * Processes an <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1867.txt">RFC 1867</a>
      * compliant <code>multipart/form-data</code> stream.
      *