The topic of German prisoners of war is very for a long time was considered delicate and was shrouded in darkness for ideological reasons. Most of all, German historians have been and are studying it. In Germany, the so-called “Prisoner of War Stories Series” (“Reihe Kriegsgefangenenberichte”) is published, published by unofficial persons at their own expense. A joint analysis of domestic and foreign archival documents carried out over recent decades allows us to shed light on many events of those years.
GUPVI (Main Directorate for Prisoners of War and Internees of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs) never kept personal records of prisoners of war. At army points and in camps, counting the number of people was very poor, and the movement of prisoners from camp to camp made the task difficult. It is known that at the beginning of 1942 the number of German prisoners of war was only about 9,000 people. For the first time, a huge number of Germans (more than 100,000 soldiers and officers) were captured at the end of Battle of Stalingrad. Remembering the atrocities of the Nazis, they did not stand on ceremony with them. A huge crowd of naked, sick and emaciated people made winter marches of several tens of kilometers a day, spent the night under open air and ate almost nothing. All this led to the fact that no more than 6,000 of them were alive at the end of the war. In total, according to domestic official statistics, 2,389,560 German military personnel were taken prisoner, of which 356,678 died. But according to other (German) sources, at least three million Germans were in Soviet captivity, of whom one million prisoners died.
A column of German prisoners of war on the march somewhere on the Eastern Front
The Soviet Union was divided into 15 economic regions. In twelve of them, hundreds of prisoner of war camps were created based on the Gulag principle. During the war, their situation was especially difficult. There were interruptions in food supplies, and medical services remained poor due to a lack of qualified doctors. Home appliance in the camps was extremely unsatisfactory. The prisoners were housed in unfinished premises. Cold, cramped conditions and dirt were common occurrences. The mortality rate reached 70%. Only in post-war years These numbers have been reduced. According to the norms established by order of the NKVD of the USSR, each prisoner of war was provided with 100 grams of fish, 25 grams of meat and 700 grams of bread. In practice, they were rarely observed. Many crimes by the security service were noted, ranging from theft of food to non-delivery of water.
Herbert Bamberg, a German soldier who was captured near Ulyanovsk, wrote in his memoirs: “In that camp, prisoners were fed only once a day with a liter of soup, a ladle of millet porridge and a quarter of bread. I agree that the local population of Ulyanovsk, most likely, was also starving.”
Often if required type there was no food, it was replaced with bread. For example, 50 grams of meat was equivalent to 150 grams of bread, 120 grams of cereal – 200 grams of bread.
Each nationality, in accordance with traditions, has its own creative hobbies. To survive, the Germans organized theater clubs, choirs, and literary groups. In the camps it was allowed to read newspapers and play non-gambling games. Many prisoners made chess, cigarette cases, boxes, toys and various furniture.
During the war years, despite the twelve-hour working day, the labor of German prisoners of war did not play a big role in the national economy of the USSR due to poor labor organization. In the post-war years, the Germans were involved in the restoration of factories destroyed during the war, railways, dams and ports. They restored old and built new houses in many cities of our Motherland. For example, with their help the main building of Moscow State University was built in Moscow. In Yekaterinburg, entire areas were built by the hands of prisoners of war. In addition, they were used in the construction of roads in hard to reach places, during coal mining, iron ore, uranium. Special attention was given to highly qualified specialists in various fields of knowledge, doctors of science, and engineers. As a result of their activities, many important innovation proposals were introduced.
Despite the fact that Stalin did not recognize the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 1864, there was an order in the USSR to preserve the lives of German soldiers. There is no doubt that they were treated much more humanely than Soviet people who ended up in Germany.
Captivity for the Wehrmacht soldiers brought severe disappointment in Nazi ideals, crushed old life positions, and brought uncertainty about the future. Along with the drop in living standards, this turned out to be a strong test of personal human qualities. It was not the strongest in body and spirit who survived, but those who learned to walk on the corpses of others.
Heinrich Eichenberg wrote: “In general, the problem of the stomach was above all else; soul and body were sold for a bowl of soup or a piece of bread. Hunger spoiled people, corrupted them and turned them into animals. Stealing food from one’s own comrades has become common.”
Any non-official relations between Soviet people and prisoners were regarded as betrayal. Soviet propaganda long and persistently portrayed all Germans as beasts in human form, developing an extremely hostile attitude towards them.
A column of German prisoners of war is led through the streets of Kyiv. Throughout the convoy's route, it is watched by city residents and off-duty military personnel (right)
According to the recollections of one prisoner of war: “During a work assignment in one village, one elderly woman did not believe me that I was German. She told me: “What kind of Germans are you? You don’t have horns!”
Along with the soldiers and officers of the German army, representatives of the army elite of the Third Reich - German generals - were also captured. The first 32 generals, led by the commander of the Sixth Army, Friedrich Paulus, were captured in the winter of 1942-1943 straight from Stalingrad. In total, 376 German generals were in Soviet captivity, of which 277 returned to their homeland, and 99 died (of which 18 generals were hanged as war criminals). There were no attempts to escape among the generals.
In 1943-1944, the GUPVI, together with the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army, worked hard to create anti-fascist organizations among prisoners of war. In June 1943, the National Committee for Free Germany was formed. 38 people were included in its first composition. The absence of senior officers and generals caused many German prisoners of war to doubt the prestige and importance of the organization. Soon, Major General Martin Lattmann (commander of the 389th Infantry Division), Major General Otto Korfes (commander of the 295th Infantry Division) and Lieutenant General Alexander von Daniels (commander of the 376th Infantry Division) announced their desire to join the SNO.
17 generals led by Paulus wrote to them in response: “They want to make an appeal to the German people and to German army, demanding the removal of the German leadership and Hitler's government. What the officers and generals belonging to the “Union” are doing is treason. We deeply regret that they chose this path. We no longer consider them our comrades, and we resolutely reject them."
The instigator of the statement, Paulus, was placed in a special dacha in Dubrovo near Moscow, where he underwent psychological treatment. Hoping that Paulus would choose a heroic death in captivity, Hitler promoted him to field marshal, and on February 3, 1943, symbolically buried him as “who died a heroic death along with the heroic soldiers of the Sixth Army.” Moscow, however, did not abandon attempts to involve Paulus in anti-fascist work. The general’s “processing” was carried out according to a special program developed by Kruglov and approved by Beria. A year later, Paulus openly announced his transition to the anti-Hitler coalition. The main role in this was played by the victories of our army at the fronts and the “conspiracy of the generals” on July 20, 1944, when the Fuhrer, by a lucky chance, escaped death.
On August 8, 1944, when Paulus’s friend, Field Marshal von Witzleben, was hanged in Berlin, he openly declared on Freies Deutschland radio: “Recent events have made for Germany the continuation of the war tantamount to a senseless sacrifice. For Germany the war is lost. Germany must renounce Adolf Hitler and establish a new state power, which will stop the war and create conditions for our people to continue living and establish peaceful, even friendly
relations with our current adversaries."
Subsequently, Paulus wrote: “It became clear to me: Hitler not only could not win the war, but also should not win it, which would be in the interests of humanity and in the interests of the German people.”
Return of German prisoners of war from Soviet captivity. The Germans arrived at the Friedland border transit camp
The field marshal's speech received the widest response. Paulus's family was asked to renounce him, publicly condemn this act and change their surname. When they flatly refused to comply with the demands, their son Alexander Paulus was imprisoned in the Küstrin fortress-prison, and his wife Elena Constance Paulus was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp. On August 14, 1944, Paulus officially joined the SNO and began active anti-Nazi activities. Despite requests to return him to his homeland, he ended up in the GDR only at the end of 1953.
From 1945 to 1949, more than one million sick and disabled prisoners of war were returned to their homeland. At the end of the forties, they stopped releasing captured Germans, and many were also given 25 years in camps, declaring them war criminals. To the allies, the USSR government explained this by the need for further restoration of the destroyed country. After German Chancellor Adenauer visited our country in 1955, a decree “On the early release and repatriation of German prisoners of war convicted of war crimes” was issued. After this, many Germans were able to return to their homes.
What did the captured Wehrmacht soldiers and officers do in order to quickly escape from the USSR? They pretended to be Romanians and Austrians. Trying to earn the leniency of the Soviet authorities, they joined the police. And thousands of Germans even declared themselves Jews and went to the Middle East to strengthen the Israeli army! It is not surprising to understand these people - the conditions in which they found themselves were not sweet. Of the 3.15 million Germans, a third did not survive the hardships of captivity.
All German prisoners of war who were on the territory of the USSR have not yet been counted. And if in Germany, from 1957 to 1959, a government commission was studying their history, which eventually released a 15-volume study, then in the Soviet Union (and later in Russia), the topic of captured Wehrmacht soldiers and officers seems to have interested no one at all. Historians note that almost the only Soviet study of this kind was the work of Die Deutschen Kriegsgefangenen in der UdSSR by Alexander Blank, a former translator of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus. But the problem is that the “Soviet study” was published... in Cologne in 1979 on German. And it is considered “Soviet” only for the reason that it was written by Blank during his stay in the USSR.
Countless Germans
How many Germans were in Soviet captivity? More than 3 million, as counted in Germany, a little over two million, as Soviet historians assured – how much? For example, USSR Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov wrote in a letter to Stalin dated March 12, 1947 that “there are 988,500 German prisoners of war soldiers, officers and generals in the Soviet Union.” And a TASS statement dated March 15 of the same year said that “890,532 German prisoners of war remain on the territory of the USSR.” Where is the truth? The leapfrog in Soviet statistics, however, is easily explained: from 1941 to 1953, the department dealing with the affairs of prisoners of war was reformed four times. From the Directorate for Prisoners of War and Internees of the NKVD, the Main Directorate for Prisoners of War and Internees of the NKVD was created in 1945, which was transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in March 1946. In 1951, the UPVI “fell out” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs system, and in 1953 the structure was disbanded, transferring some of its functions to the Prison Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It’s clear what happened to departmental documentation during such administrative upheavals.
According to GUPVI data as of September 1945, 600 thousand Germans were “liberated at the front, without being transferred to camps” - but how were they “liberated”? Of course, all of them were actually “consumed”
Domestic historians recognize the most recent statistics from the Prison Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It follows from it that Soviet troops from June 22, 1941 to May 17, 1945, 2,389,560 “soldiers of German nationality” were captured (counted precisely according to nationality, why is unknown). Among these prisoners of war were 376 generals and admirals, 69,469 officers and 2,319,715 non-commissioned officers and soldiers. There were another 14,100 so-called war criminals - presumably SS men. They were kept separately from the rest, in special camps of the NKVD, which were not part of the UPVI-GUPVI system. To this day, their fate is not reliably known: archival documents classified. There is evidence that in 1947, about a thousand war criminals were recruited to work in the Information Committee under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, a structure that united foreign policy and military intelligence. What they were doing there is a military secret.
On this topic
Prisoners were shot, but without publicity
The discrepancy between Soviet and German figures is approximately 750 thousand people. Agree, an impressive number. True, according to GUPVI data as of September 1945, 600 thousand Germans were “liberated at the front, without being transferred to camps” - but how were they “liberated”? It’s hard to believe that the Soviet command returned hundreds of thousands of captured soldiers to the Wehrmacht for a living. Of course, all of them were actually “disposable.” But, since prisoners were not supposed to be shot, a column was added in Soviet statistical reports “liberated at the front.” If you carefully study the reports of the first two years of the war, the situation with prisoners executed on the sly becomes obvious. For example, on May 1, 1943, 292,630 soldiers of the Wehrmacht and their allies were captured. But, as of the same date, 196,944 of them were already considered “dead”! This is mortality - out of every three prisoners, only one survived! It feels like endless epidemics were raging in the Soviet camps. However, it is not difficult to guess that in reality the prisoners were, of course, shot. To be fair, it is worth noting that the Germans also did not stand on ceremony with our prisoners. Of the 6,206,000 Soviet prisoners of war, 3,291,000 were executed.
Prisoners Soviet soldiers As you know, the Germans fed the so-called Russian bread - a baked mixture that consisted half of sugar beet peelings, a quarter of cellulose flour and another quarter of chopped leaves or straw. But in Soviet camps, captured fascists were fattened like pigs for slaughter. The soldiers were fed half a loaf a day rye bread, half a kilo of boiled potatoes, 100 grams of salted herring and 100 grams of boiled cereal. Officers and “exhausted soldiers” were given dried fruits daily, chicken eggs And butter. Their daily rations also included canned meat, milk and wheat bread. At the end of the 40s, non-commissioned officers were equated with soldiers - they were left with officer rations, but were forced to go to work (officers were not supposed to work). Believe it or not, German soldiers were even allowed to receive parcels and money transfers from Germany, and their amounts were not limited in any way. Life is not a fairy tale!
German officers “strengthened” the Israeli army
In November 1949, the USSR Minister of Internal Affairs Sergei Kruglov issued a remarkable circular No. 744: it stated that prisoners of war easily leave their places of detention, are treated in civilian hospitals, get jobs, including at “security facilities”, and even join marriages with Soviet citizens. By that time, the armed guards of the camps were replaced by the so-called self-guards from among the prisoners - its employees, however, were not entitled to weapons. By 1950, representatives of the “self-guard” began to be recruited to work in the police: at least 15 thousand German prisoners of war were employed in this way. There were rumors that after serving a year in the police, you could ask to go home to Germany.
After the end of the war, about 2 million Germans returned to their homeland. Approximately 150 thousand people remained in the USSR (official statistics in 1950 reported that only 13,546 Germans remained in the Union: it later turned out that only those who were in prisons and pre-trial detention centers at that time were counted). It is also known that 58 thousand German prisoners of war expressed a desire to leave for Israel. In 1948, not without the help of Soviet military instructors, the Army of the Jewish State (IDF) began to form, and its creators - Felix Dzerzhinsky’s childhood friend Lev Shkolnik and Israel Galili (Berchenko) - offered the captured Germans freedom in exchange for military experience. Moreover, just like the ethnic Russian IDF officers, the Germans had to change their first and last names to Jewish ones. Did the Wehrmacht soldiers, going to war with the “kikes and commissars,” imagine how their campaign would end?
According to statistics from the Prison Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, from June 22, 1941 to September 2, 1945, in addition to 2,389,560 Germans, 639,635 Japanese were in Soviet military captivity (and according to the NKVD of 1946 - 1,070,000. And who do you want to believe?). In addition to them, more than half a million Hungarians, 187,370 Romanians and 156,682 Austrians got to taste Soviet camp rations. Among the prisoners of war of the armies allied to the Nazis were 10,173 Jews, 12,928 Chinese, 3,608 Mongols, 1,652 Luxembourgers and even 383 gypsies.
In total, there were 216 camp administrations and 2,454 camp departments in the USSR, which housed prisoners of war. Also, 166 working battalions of the Red Army and 159 hospitals and recreation centers were created for them.
In the Soviet Union, captured Germans were used for construction work. Thus, in Moscow, entire neighborhoods were built with their hands, and in many cities, neighborhoods built by prisoners are still commonly referred to as German.
German prisoners in the USSR restored the cities they had destroyed, lived in camps and even received money for their work. 10 years after the end of the war, former Wehrmacht soldiers and officers “exchanged knives for bread” at Soviet construction sites.
For a long time it was not customary to talk about the life of captured Germans in the USSR. Everyone knew that yes, they existed, that they even participated in Soviet construction projects, including the construction of Moscow high-rise buildings (MSU), but bringing the topic of captured Germans into the wider information field was considered bad manners.
In order to talk about this topic, you first need to decide on the numbers. How many German prisoners of war were there on the territory of the Soviet Union? According to Soviet sources - 2,389,560, according to German - 3,486,000.
Such a significant difference (an error of almost a million people) is explained by the fact that the counting of prisoners was done very poorly, and also by the fact that many German prisoners preferred to “disguise” themselves as other nationalities. The repatriation process dragged on until 1955; historians believe that approximately 200,000 prisoners of war were incorrectly documented.
Heavy soldering
The lives of captured Germans during and after the war were strikingly different. It is clear that during the war, in the camps where prisoners of war were kept, the most cruel atmosphere reigned, and there was a struggle for survival. People died of hunger, and cannibalism was not uncommon. In order to somehow improve their lot, the prisoners tried in every possible way to prove their non-involvement in the “titular nation” of the fascist aggressors.
Among the prisoners there were also those who enjoyed some kind of privileges, for example Italians, Croats, Romanians. They could even work in the kitchen. The distribution of food was uneven.
There were frequent cases of attacks on food peddlers, which is why over time the Germans began to provide their peddlers with security. However, it must be said that no matter how difficult the conditions of the Germans being in captivity were, they cannot be compared with the living conditions in the German camps. According to statistics, 58% of captured Russians died in fascist captivity; only 14.9% of Germans died in our captivity.
Rights
It is clear that captivity cannot and should not be pleasant, but regarding the maintenance of German prisoners of war there is still talk of such a nature that the conditions of their detention were even too lenient.
The daily ration of prisoners of war was 400 g of bread (after 1943 this norm increased to 600-700 g), 100 g of fish, 100 g of cereals, 500 g of vegetables and potatoes, 20 g of sugar, 30 g of salt. For generals and sick prisoners, rations were increased.
Of course, these are just numbers. In fact, in war time rations were rarely issued in full. Missing products could be replaced with simple bread, rations were often cut, but prisoners were not deliberately starved to death; there was no such practice in Soviet camps in relation to German prisoners of war.
Of course, the prisoners of war worked. Molotov once said a historical phrase that not a single German prisoner would return to their homeland until Stalingrad was restored.
The Germans did not work for a loaf of bread. The NKVD circular of August 25, 1942 ordered that prisoners be given monetary allowances (7 rubles for privates, 10 for officers, 15 for colonels, 30 for generals). There was also a prize for shock work- 50 rubles per month. Amazingly, the prisoners could even receive letters and money transfers from their homeland, they were given soap and clothing.
Large construction site
Captured Germans, following Molotov's behest, worked on many construction projects USSR, used in public utilities. Their attitude to work was in many ways indicative. Living in the USSR, the Germans actively developed working vocabulary, studied Russian, but they could not understand the meaning of the word “hackwork”. German labor discipline became a household name and even gave rise to a kind of meme: “of course, the Germans built it.”
Almost all low-rise buildings of the 40s and 50s are still considered to be built by the Germans, although this is not so. It is also a myth that buildings built by the Germans were built according to the designs of German architects, which, of course, is not true. The master plan for the restoration and development of cities was developed by Soviet architects (Shchusev, Simbirtsev, Iofan and others).
In the USSR, the topic of captivity of German soldiers and officers was actually prohibited for research. While Soviet historians were full of condemnation of the Nazis for their treatment of Soviet prisoners of war, they did not even mention that during the war there were crimes against humanity on both sides of the front.
To be fair, it should be noted that it is only little known in our country (by “us” the author means not only Ukraine, but the entire “post-Soviet space”). In Germany itself, the study of this issue was approached with purely German thoroughness and pedantry. Back in 1957, a scientific commission was created in Germany to study the history of German prisoners of war, which, starting in 1959, published 15 (!) plump volumes in the series “On the history of German prisoners of war in the Second World War,” seven of which were devoted to stories of German prisoners of war in Soviet camps.
But the topic of captivity of German soldiers and officers was actually prohibited from research. While Soviet historians were full of condemnation of the Nazis for their treatment of Soviet prisoners of war, they did not even mention that during the war there were crimes against humanity on both sides of the front.
Moreover, the only Soviet study on this topic (albeit published in Germany) was the work of Alexander Blank - a former translator of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus during the latter's time in Soviet captivity - Die Deutschen Kriegsgefangenen in der UdSSR (published in Cologne in 1979. ). Her theses were later included in the book “The Second Life of Field Marshal Paulus,” published in Moscow in 1990.
Some statistics: how many were there?
To try to understand the history of German prisoners of war, one should first of all answer the question about their number in . According to German sources, approximately 3.15 million Germans were captured in the Soviet Union, of which approximately 1.1-1.3 million did not survive captivity. Soviet sources cite a significantly lower figure. According to official statistics of the Office of Prisoners of War and Internees (on September 19, 1939, it was organized as the Office of Prisoners of War and Internees (UPVI); from January 11
1945 - Main Directorate for Prisoners of War and Internees (GUPVI) of the USSR; from March 18, 1946 - Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR; from June 20, 1951 - again UPVI; On March 14, 1953, the UPVI was disbanded, and its functions were transferred to the Prison Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs) Soviet troops from June 22, 1941 to May 17, 1945 captured a total of 2,389,560 military personnel of German nationality, of which 376 generals and admirals, 69,469 officers and 2,319,715 non-commissioned officers and soldiers. To this number should be added another 14.1 thousand people immediately placed (as war criminals) in special camps of the NKVD, not included in the UPVI/GUPVI system, from 57 to 93.9 thousand (there are different figures) German prisoners of war who died even before they got into the UPVI/GUPVI system, and 600 thousand were released right at the front, without being transferred to camps - an important caveat, since they are usually not included in the general statistics of the number of prisoners of war in the USSR.
The problem, however, is that these figures do not indicate the number of Wehrmacht and SS soldiers captured by the Soviet side. UPVI/GUPVI kept records of prisoners of war not by their nationality or membership in the armed forces of any country, but by their nationality, in some cases, and ethnicity in others (see table). As a first approximation, the number of Wehrmacht and SS troops caught in Soviet captivity, - 2,638,679 people, and together with 14.1 thousand war criminals, 93.9 thousand who did not live to be placed in the camp, and 600 thousand liberated people who passed the camp, gives the figure 3,346,679 people. - which is even slightly higher than the assessment of German historians.
It should also be noted that German prisoners of war actively tried to “disguise” among other nationalities - as of May 1950, such “camouflaged captured Germans,” according to official Soviet data, were identified among prisoners of war of other nationalities, 58,103 people.
At the same time, it should be noted that summing up “national lines” does not give an accurate picture. The reason is simple: the statistics (even those intended purely for internal needs) of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs are lame. Some certificates from this department contradict others: for example, in a certificate from the Ministry of Internal Affairs dated 1956, the number of prisoners of German nationality registered was 1,117 people. less than was recorded “on fresh tracks” in 1945. It is unclear where these people disappeared.
But this is a minor discrepancy. The archives also contain other documents showing both the manipulation of data on the number of prisoners of war that took place at the government level, and much larger discrepancies in reporting.
Example: USSR Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, in a letter to Stalin dated March 12, 1947, wrote that “in total there are 988,500 German prisoners of war soldiers, officers and generals in the Soviet Union, 785,975 people have been released from captivity to date. (that is, at that time there were 1,774,475 living prisoners of war of German nationality, including those already released - out of 2,389,560 people; how does this correlate with the fact that of the number of German prisoners of war in the UPVI/GUPVI system, only 356 seemed to have died 768 people, - again, it’s unclear - S.G.). We consider it possible to announce the number of German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union, with a reduction of approximately 10%, taking into account their increased mortality."
But... a TASS statement dated March 15, 1947 said that “there are currently 890,532 German prisoners of war remaining on the territory of the Soviet Union; since the surrender of Germany, 1,003,974 German prisoners of war have been released from captivity and returned from the USSR to Germany” (that is, the release of 218 thousand more prisoners of war was announced than they were released according to Molotov’s note; where did this figure come from and what was intended to hide - also unclear. - S.G.). And in November 1948, the leadership of the GUPVI proposed to the First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Colonel-General Ivan Serov, “to write off 100,025 released German prisoners of war” from the general operational-statistical record, allegedly... registered twice.
In general, historians believe that the repatriation of at least 200 thousand Germans “was not correctly documented by the Soviet side.” That is, this may mean that these prisoners did not exist, or (this is more likely) that they died in captivity, and (this is even more likely) that there is a combination of these options. And this one short review, apparently, only indicates that the statistical aspects of the history of German prisoners of war in the USSR are not only still not closed, but will probably never be completely closed.
"The Hague-Geneva Question"
A little about the international legal status of prisoners of war. One of the controversial issues in the history of Soviet prisoners in Germany and German prisoners in the USSR is the question of whether the Hague Convention “On the Laws and Customs of War on Land” of October 18, 1907 and the Geneva Convention “On the Maintenance of Prisoners of War” dated June 27, 1929
It comes to the point that, intentionally or out of ignorance, they confuse the already mentioned Geneva Convention “On the Maintenance of Prisoners of War” of 06/27/1929 with the Geneva Convention - also of 06/27/1929 - “On the improvement of the lot of the wounded, sick and injured persons shipwreck, from the armed forces at sea." Moreover, if the USSR did not sign the first of the mentioned Geneva Conventions, it joined the second back in 1931. Therefore, the author will try to clarify this issue.
The prerequisites for the mandatory implementation of the Hague Convention “On the Laws and Customs of War on Land” are:
1) signing and ratification of this convention by the contracting parties;
2) participation in a land war only of parties that are contracting parties (“clausula si omnes” - “on universal participation”).
The prerequisites for the mandatory implementation of the Geneva Convention “On the Maintenance of Prisoners of War” of 1929 were only the signing and ratification of the contracting parties to this convention. Her Art. 82 stated: “The provisions of this convention shall be observed by the high contracting parties in all circumstances. If, in the event of war, one of the belligerents turns out not to be a party to the convention, nevertheless, its provisions remain binding between all belligerents who have signed the convention.”
Thus, the articles of this Convention not only do not contain a clausula si omnes, but also specifically stipulates the situation when the belligerent powers C1 and C2 are parties to the Convention, and then power C3, which is not a party to the Convention, enters the war. In such a situation, there is no longer a formal possibility of non-compliance with this Convention on the part of the C1 and C2 powers between them. Should powers C1 and C2 comply with the Convention in relation to power C3 - directly from Art. 82 should not.
.png)
The results of this “legal vacuum” were immediate. The conditions established first by Germany for Soviet prisoners, and then by the USSR in relation to prisoners of war from among the Wehrmacht and SS troops, as well as the armed forces of states allied to Germany, could not be called human even to a first approximation.
Thus, the Germans initially considered it sufficient for prisoners to live in dugouts and eat mainly “Russian bread,” made according to a recipe invented by the Germans: half from sugar beet peelings, half from cellulose flour, flour from leaves or straw. It is not surprising that in the winter of 1941-42. these conditions led to mass mortality of Soviet prisoners of war, exacerbated by a typhus epidemic.
According to the Prisoner of War Administration of the German High Command (OKW), by May 1, 1944. total number exterminated Soviet prisoners of war reached 3.291 million people, of which: 1.981 million people died in camps, 1.03 million people were shot and killed while trying to escape, 280 thousand people died en route. (most of the victims occurred in June 1941 - January 1942 - then more than 2.4 million prisoners died). For comparison: just for 1941-1945. The Germans captured (there are different data, but here is the figure considered by the author to be the most reliable) 6.206 million Soviet prisoners of war.
The conditions of detention of German prisoners of war in the USSR were initially just as difficult. Although, of course, there were fewer casualties among them. But only for one reason - there were fewer of them. For example, as of May 1, 1943, only 292,630 military personnel of the German and allied armies were taken into Soviet captivity. Of these, 196,944 people had died by the same time.
In conclusion of this chapter, I note that back on July 1, 1941, the USSR government approved the “Regulations on Prisoners of War.” Prisoners of war were guaranteed treatment appropriate to their status, provision of medical care on an equal basis with Soviet military personnel, the opportunity to correspond with relatives and receive parcels.
Even money transfers were formally allowed. However, Moscow, widely using the “Regulation on Prisoners of War” for propaganda aimed at the Wehrmacht, was in no hurry to implement it. In particular, the USSR refused to exchange lists of prisoners of war through the International Red Cross, which was a fundamental condition for them to receive help from their homeland. And in December 1943, the Soviet Union completely broke off all contacts with this organization.
Long Russian captivity: stages of liberation
German prisoners of war returning home, April 1, 1949. Ethat photo was provided to Wikimedia Commons German Federal Archives (Deutsches Bundesarchiv)
On August 13, 1945, the State Defense Committee (GKO) of the USSR issued a decree “On the release and return to their homeland of 708 thousand prisoners of war of ordinary and non-commissioned officers.” The number of prisoners of war to be sent home included only disabled and other non-able-to-work prisoners.
The Romanians were the first to be sent home. On September 11, 1945, in pursuance of the resolution of the State Defense Committee, it was ordered to release 40 thousand Romanian prisoners of war of ordinary and non-commissioned officers from the camps of the GUPVI NKVD of the USSR “according to the attached allocation for regions and camps”, “to begin sending released Romanian prisoners of war from September 15, 1945 . and finish no later than October 10, 1945." But two days later, a second document appears, according to which soldiers and non-commissioned officers of a number of nationalities are to be sent home:
a) all prisoners of war, regardless of physical condition, of the following nationalities: Poles, French, Czechoslovaks, Yugoslavs, Italians, Swedes, Norwegians, Swiss, Luxembourgers, Americans, British, Belgians, Dutch, Danes, Bulgarians and Greeks;
b) sick prisoners of war, regardless of nationality, except for highly infectious patients, except for Spaniards and Turks, as well as participants in atrocities and persons who served in the SS, SD, SA and Gestapo troops;
c) prisoners of war Germans, Austrians, Hungarians and Romanians - only the disabled and weakened.
At the same time, “participants in atrocities and persons who served in the SS, SD, SA and Gestapo troops, regardless of their physical condition, are not subject to release.”
The directive was not fully implemented. In any case, this conclusion can be drawn from the fact that prisoners of war of many nationalities mentioned in it were ordered to be released by order of the NKVD of January 8, 1946. According to it, Czechoslovaks, Yugoslavs, Italians, Dutch, Belgians, Danes, Swiss, Luxembourgers, Bulgarians, Turks, Norwegians, Swedes, Greeks, French, Americans and British.
At the same time, “persons who served in the SS, SA, SD, Gestapo, officers and members of other punitive bodies are not subject to deportation,” but with one exception - “French prisoners of war are subject to deportation without exception, including officers.”
Finally, on October 18, 1946, an order appeared for the repatriation to their homeland of officers and military personnel of the nationalities listed in the order of January 8, who served in the SS, SD and SA, as well as all Finns, Brazilians, Canadians, Portuguese, Abyssinians, Albanians, Argentines and Syrians. In addition, on November 28, 1946, it was ordered to release 5 thousand captured Austrians.
But let's return from foreign prisoners from among the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS military personnel to the Germans themselves. As of October 1946, 1,354,759 German prisoners of war remained in the GUPVI camps, special hospitals of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and working battalions of the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the USSR, including: generals - 352, officers - 74,506 people, non-commissioned officers and privates - 1,279 901 people
This number has been declining rather slowly. For example, in pursuance of the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of May 16, 1947 “On the sending to Germany of disabled prisoners of war of the former German army and interned Germans”, it was ordered (May 20): “to be released in 1947 from the camps of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, special hospitals, working battalions of the Ministry Armed Forces and internment battalions and send to Germany 100 thousand disabled prisoners of war of the former German army (Germans) and 13 thousand disabled interned Germans.” At the same time, some officers were also subject to release - up to and including the rank of captain. The following were not subject to exemption:
a) prisoners of war - participants in atrocities who served in units of the SS, SA, SD and Gestapo, and others who have relevant incriminating materials, regardless of their physical condition;
b) interned and arrested groups “B” (this group included Germans arrested by the Soviet authorities on German territory during and after the war, in relation to whom there was reason to believe that they were involved in crimes against the USSR or Soviet citizens in the occupied territories);
c) non-transportable patients.
A little earlier, captured Germans were required to remove their shoulder straps, cockades, awards and emblems, and captured junior officers were equated with soldiers (although they retained officer rations), forcing them to work on an equal basis with the latter.
Nine days later, a directive from the Ministry of Internal Affairs was issued, ordering in May-September 1947 to send home a thousand anti-fascist Germans who had proven themselves to be excellent production workers. This dispatch was of a propaganda nature: it was ordered to widely inform the prisoners of all camps about it, especially emphasizing the labor achievements of those being released. In June 1947, a new directive from the Ministry of Internal Affairs followed to send 500 captured Germans with anti-fascist sentiments to Germany according to personal lists. And by order from
On August 11, 1947, an order was given to release all Austrian prisoners from August to December, with the exception of generals, senior officers and SS men, members of the SA, SD and Gestapo employees, as well as persons under criminal investigation. Patients who were not transportable could not be sent. By order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of October 15, another 100 thousand captured Germans are repatriated - mostly transportable sick and disabled military personnel from privates to captains inclusive.
By the end of 1947, it was possible to determine with sufficient clarity the policy of the USSR in the matter of releasing prisoners - to return prisoners to their homeland gradually and precisely in categories that could least influence the development political life in Germany and other countries that fought against the USSR in a direction undesirable for the Soviet Union.
Patients will be more concerned with their health than with politics; and soldiers, non-commissioned officers and junior officers can influence events at home much less than generals and senior officers. As the pro-Soviet government became established and strengthened in the eastern part of Germany, the flow of returned prisoners increased.
The order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of February 27, 1948 determined the procedure and deadline for sending the next 300 thousand captured Germans to their homeland. First of all, all weakened soldiers, non-commissioned officers and junior officers, sick and disabled senior officers were subject to release. Captured soldiers, non-commissioned officers and junior officers over 50 years of age and senior officers over 60 years of age were also released.
Next, healthy people (fit for severe and moderate conditions) are kept in captivity. physical labor) soldiers, non-commissioned officers and junior officers under 50 years of age, healthy senior officers under 60 years of age, generals and admirals. In addition, military members of the SS, members of the SA, Gestapo employees, as well as German prisoners of war sentenced to punishment for military or ordinary crimes for which criminal cases were being conducted, and non-transportable patients remained in captivity.
In total, by the end of 1949, there were still 430,670 German military personnel in Soviet captivity (but German prisoners of war were detained, brought from the USSR to Eastern European countries for restoration work). This was a clear violation of the USSR’s obligations: in 1947, the fourth session of the Conference of the Foreign Ministers of Great Britain, France, the USSR and the USA decided to complete the repatriation of prisoners of war located on the territory of the Allied powers and other countries by the end of 1948.
Meanwhile, the German generals began to be released. By order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of June 22, 1948, five Wehrmacht generals, Austrians by nationality, were released from captivity. The next order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (dated September 3 of the same year) - six “correct” German generals (members of the National Committee of Free Germany and the Union of German Officers). On February 23, 1949, the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs issued order No. 00176, which determined the timing and procedure for sending home all German prisoners during 1949. Military and criminal criminals, persons under investigation, generals and admirals, and non-transportable patients were excluded from this list.
In the summer of 1949, armed guards were removed from prisoner-of-war camps and self-guarding of prisoners was organized (without weapons, only whistles and flags). A very interesting document appears on November 28, 1949. This is the order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 744, in which the Minister of Internal Affairs, Colonel General Sergei Kruglov, demands that order be put in place in the registration of prisoners of war, since it has been revealed that there is no proper registration and search for those who escaped, many prisoners of war are being treated alone in civil hospitals, independently find employment and work in various enterprises and institutions, including sensitive ones, state farms and collective farms, marry Soviet citizens, different ways evade registration as prisoners of war.
On May 5, 1950, TASS transmitted a message about the completion of the repatriation of German prisoners of war: according to official data, 13,546 people remained in the USSR. — 9,717 convicts, 3,815 persons under investigation and 14 sick prisoners of war.
The resolution of the issue with them dragged on for more than five years. Only on September 10, 1955, negotiations began in Moscow between the delegation of the German government, headed by Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, and representatives of the USSR government. The West German side asked for the release of 9,626 German citizens. The Soviet side called convicted prisoners of war “war criminals.”
Then the German delegation reported that without resolving this issue it was impossible to establish diplomatic relations between the USSR and Germany. When discussing the issue of prisoners of war, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Nikolai Bulganin made claims regarding the repatriation of Soviet citizens located in West Germany. Adenauer recalled that these people settled in West Germany with the permission of the occupation authorities - former allies of the USSR, and German representatives did not yet have power. However, the federal government is ready to review their cases if the relevant documents are provided to it. On September 12, 1955, negotiations on the issue of prisoners of war ended with a positive decision.
However, the concession of the USSR at these negotiations was not spontaneous. Anticipating the possibility of Adenauer raising the issue of prisoners of war, the Soviet government in the summer of 1955 created a commission to review the cases of convicted foreign citizens. On July 4, 1955, the commission decided to agree with the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany on the advisability of repatriating to the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany (in accordance with the place of residence before captivity) of all convicted German citizens in the USSR, and it was proposed to release most of them from further serving their sentences, and those who committed serious crimes on the territory of the USSR should be transferred as war criminals to the authorities of the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany.
First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev, in a secret letter to the First Secretary of the SED Central Committee Walter Ulbricht and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the GDR Otto Grotewohl, said that “the issue of prisoners of war will undoubtedly be raised during negotiations with Adenauer on the establishment of diplomatic relations ...”, and in the event of successful completion of negotiations with the Chancellor of Germany, the USSR authorities intend to release 5,794 people from further serving their sentences. (that is, somewhat less than was ultimately released).
On September 28, 1955, a Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Court “On the early release of German citizens convicted by the judicial authorities of the USSR for crimes they committed against the peoples of the Soviet Union during the war” was signed (in connection with the establishment of diplomatic relations between the USSR and the Federal Republic of Germany). In 1955-1956 3,104 people were released early from places of detention in the USSR and repatriated to the GDR, 6,432 people to the Federal Republic of Germany; 28 Germans were detained at the request of the KGB (their further fate is not traced in the sources), four people were abandoned due to their filing of applications for Soviet citizenship. The release of prisoners of war was one of the first successes of the German government in the international arena.
The next year, 1957, the last of the Japanese prisoners returned to their homeland. This is where the page called “captivity” for World War II soldiers finally ended.
After defeat in World War II, millions of ethnic Germans were deported from Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Prussia, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. Historians say that this was the largest deportation of the population in the 20th century.
The Germans wore special stripes
The Germans were required to wear a white patch on their arm with a special sign “N”, meaning “German”. They were not allowed to ride bicycles, cars or public transport. It was allowed to enter shops only in certain hours. It was also forbidden to walk on the sidewalks, much less speak German. It was necessary to register with the local police and go there regularly to mark your whereabouts. Then the Germans were deprived of their lands and property.
Brunn Death March in Czechoslovakia
The President of Czechoslovakia, on the basis of paragraph 11 of the Potdstam Agreement, signed a law depriving all Germans living in the Sudetenland of citizenship.
According to official figures, three million people were expelled from Czechoslovakia within two years.
According to official data, three million people were deported from Czechoslovakia within two years. At the same time, 18,816 died: 5,596 people were killed, 3,411 committed suicide, in concentration camps 6615 died, 1481 people died during transportation, immediately after transportation - 705, during the escape - 629, for unknown reasons - 379.
Law enforcement agencies often found cases of rape of women in a sophisticated form.
The Brunn Death March entered the history of the deportation of Germans: on May 29, the local national committee decided to evict all women, children and old people. About 20 thousand people were gathered into one formation and driven towards Austria. The Germans could take with them only what they could carry. Only able-bodied men were spared, who were left in the city to restore the economy destroyed by the war.
Přerov shooting
Czechoslovakian counterintelligence officers stopped a train with German refugees that was passing through the city of Přerov. The night from June 18 to 19 will be the last for 265 people. All the property of the internally displaced persons was plundered. Lieutenant Pazur, under whose leadership this action took place, was arrested and convicted.
Ustica massacre
In the city of Ústí nad Labem, an explosion occurred at one of the military warehouses in the middle of summer, which killed 27 people. Without waiting for the end of the investigation, the main culprits were named - participants in the German underground ("Werewolf"). The hunt for the Germans immediately began - they were easy to recognize by their white bandage with the letter “N”. Those caught were thrown into the river, beaten, and shot. The number of killed, according to various estimates, ranged from 43 to 220 people.
In the two years following World War II, more than two million people were deported from Czechoslovakia. But it took another three years for this country to completely get rid of the Germans: in 1950, the “German question” was finally resolved. About three million people were deported.
The NKVD is worried about the Germans
“Up to 5,000 Germans arrive in Germany every day from Czechoslovakia, most of whom are women, old people and children. Being ruined and having no prospects for life, some of them commit suicide by cutting the veins in their arms with a razor. For example, on June 8, the district commandant recorded 71 corpses with open veins. In a number of cases, Czechoslovak officers and soldiers in populated areas, where the Germans live, in the evening they set up reinforced patrols in full combat readiness and open fire on the city at night. The German population, frightened, runs out of their houses, abandoning their property, and scatters. After this, the soldiers enter the houses, take away valuables and return to their units.”
Poland - the largest expulsion
In 1945, Poland was given three German territories - Silesia, Pomerania and East Brandenburg, where more than four million Germans lived. Also on the territory of Poland there were about 400 thousand Germans, historically living here since the First World War. In addition, the territory of East Prussia, which came under the control of the Soviet Union, was also settled by Germans: there were more than two million of them.
All of them were subject to eviction as soon as possible.
According to historians, this was the largest deportation of the population in the 20th century.
Hungarians paid for becoming Germans
In Hungary, which was also an ally of Germany, in 1945 a decree was passed “on the deportation of traitors to the people,” according to which property was subject to complete confiscation, and persons subject to the law were deported to Germany. Almost half a million people fled their homeland. After all, many of them preferred to indicate in their questionnaires during the years of occupation that they were Germans, although in fact these people were Hungarians. Many of them were the “fifth column” of the fascist regime during the war.
There was devastation and famine in Germany
After the forced deportation, the surviving Germans began to live in Germany. The country was destroyed. Women, children and old people are the main share of repatriates. In some regions of the country it reached 45 percent. They united in different societies to tell the world about the Germans expelled from many countries. According to the German public organization “Union of Exiles,” between 12 and 14 million Germans were deported after the end of World War II.