German prisoners of war in the USSR: conditions of detention, repatriation

During the Soviet period a number of socio-political and historical themes were removed from the framework of general discussion for various ideological reasons. In particular, taboo was imposed on everything that had anything to do with prisoners of war, who fought during the Second World War on the side of Hitler's Germany. They did not seem to exist. Meanwhile, according to official data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, the number of these individuals was 2,389,560 people, which is comparable to the population of a modern metropolis. Of these, 356,678 died without waiting for release.

"Parade of the Defeated"

After the famous parade on Red Square was held on May 24, 1945, in which the troops that defeated fascist Germany stood before the rostrum of the Mausoleum, another significant event took place in Moscow. In history it came in as the "Parade of the Defeated". His photo opens an article.

On July 17 of the same year, columns of soldiers of the Third Reich, captured by units of the Soviet Army (mostly soldiers of the three Belorussian fronts), accompanied by an armed escort, were driven through the Garden Ring and some other streets of the capital. In this shameful procession, 57 thousand captured Germans took part, followed by the watering machines that symbolically washed the land from the "fascist evil spirits." Note that on May 24, when the parade on Red Square took place, 16 thousand soldier-winners passed through its paving stones. These two events were a fitting end to the Great Patriotic War.

Number of German prisoners of war in the USSR

During the Great Patriotic War, under the NKVD of the USSR, a special directorate was created (GUPVI), which dealt with issues related to prisoners of war and later internees, including representatives of the civilian population of Germany and several European states, for one reason or another Subjected to restriction of freedom. It was on the basis of the reports of this department that the total number of German prisoners of war in the USSR was subsequently established.

It should immediately be clarified that, according to the established tradition, the term "German prisoners of war" is understood to mean all those who were in captivity military, who fought on the side of the Third Reich, regardless of their ethnicity. In fact, they included representatives of 36 other nationalities, who for one reason or another found themselves in the ranks of opponents of the anti-fascist coalition.

The data given in the GUPVI reports and in 1959 voiced in the report of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR (they were mentioned at the beginning of the article) differ in many respects from the results of studies by foreign historians. In particular, German researchers argue that the true number of servicemen caught in the Soviet captivity exceeds 3 million people, of which at least 1 million died without waiting for their return to their homeland.

This discrepancy in statistics is understandable. The fact is that in the camps for prisoners of war and army posts, people were poorly recorded, and their frequent movements from one place of confinement to another merely complicated the task. It is known that at the beginning of the war the number of prisoners was small and by 1942 it barely reached 9 thousand people. For the first time a huge number of Germans ─ 100 thousand soldiers, officers and generals - was captured after their defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad.

How were German prisoners of war in the USSR?

This question can be answered with a well-known saying: "What you sow, you will reap." Since the atrocities that the Nazi invaders were doing in the occupied territories caused general hatred towards them, they were not particularly ceremonious. Many prisoners of war died, unable to withstand the long transitions to places of detention, during which time stripped and hungry people had to walk several dozen kilometers a day on foot. Mortality among them was extremely high and, as a rule, was not reflected in the reporting.

The constant shortage of qualified doctors caused a high mortality rate as a result of diseases and injuries, and systematic food shortages caused chronic malnutrition and depletion of prisoners. But even in cases when the products were delivered on time, the established norms of nutrition were so small that they did not allow restoring the forces undermined by debilitating physical work. If we add here the cold, mud and crampedness in which the prisoners were held, it becomes clear why in some periods the mortality rate between them reached 70%.

In addition to the soldiers and officers who fought on the side of Germany, numerous representatives of the Third Reich generals also appeared in the Soviet captivity. In particular, after the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, 32 German generals, led by General-Field Marshal Paulus, were forced to surrender (his photo is presented in the article). In all, during the war years, 376 fascist generals were in captivity, of which 277 returned to their homeland, 99 died without waiting for repatriation, and 18 were hanged for committing war crimes.

The undervalued convention

The document that determined the international standards for the treatment of prisoners of war was the Geneva Convention of 1929, signed and ratified by 53 countries of Europe, Asia and America, but rejected by the Stalin government. The Soviet Union refused to join their number, than did millions of its citizens, who were caught in German captivity during the Second World War, felt incredible suffering. They were not covered by the Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War and established in accordance with its requirements of legal norms.

In the same situation, the Germans were also held in numerous camps and other places of detention on the territory of the USSR. The Soviet authorities did not consider themselves obligated to comply with any norms established by the world community. However, it is generally accepted, and not only here, but also abroad, that the conditions of detention of German prisoners of war in the USSR were still more humane than those that were created in Germany and in the occupied territories for our compatriots.

The use of labor of German prisoners of war

The Soviet Union has always used the work of prisoners widely, regardless of whether they were their own citizens convicted of criminal offenses or victims of political repression. Similar practice was also applied to prisoners of war. If during the war years their contribution to the economy of the country was small, then in the subsequent period acquired very great importance.

German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union were a large and cheap labor force, with the help of which the restoration of the national economy destroyed by the war was carried out. Yesterday's soldiers and officers of the Third Reich worked on the construction of factories, railways, ports, dams, etc. Their hands restored the housing stock in the cities of the country, and they also worked on logging, as well as the development of minerals such as, for example, uranium , Iron ore and coal. In this regard, many of the prisoners of war had to spend many years in remote and hard-to-reach areas of the Soviet Union.

In the post-war period, the entire territory of the country was divided into 15 economic regions, 12 of which used the work of former German soldiers and officers. The camps of German prisoners of war in the USSR were not much different from those in which millions of victims of Stalinist repressions were held in terms of the conditions of detention. It was especially difficult during the war.

The scale of the work carried out by German prisoners of war in the USSR from 1943 to 1950, according to the report of the Central Finance Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to the materials available in them, for these periods on the construction sites of the national economy, they worked out more than 1 billion (more precisely - 1,077,564,200) man-days. At the same time, the volume of works performed, according to the rates accepted in those years, amounted to about 50 billion rubles.

Propaganda work among prisoners of war

During the Great Patriotic War, the NKVD officers conducted incessant work to create antifascist organizations among prisoners of war. Its result was the formation in 1943 of the National Committee "Free Germany", at first a few and had no influence among the prisoners, as it consisted of representatives of the rank and file army and the lower ranks of the army.

However, the political significance of the committee has significantly strengthened after it was expressed by the desire to enter Lieutenant-General Alexander von Daniels and two major-general Otto Corfers and Martin Lattamn. Their step aroused at the time the protest and indignation of many former colleagues who were also in captivity. A large group of German generals led by Paulus issued a written appeal in which she branded them a disgrace and declared traitors to Germany's interests.

However, very soon the attitude to the transition of generals to the side of anti-fascist forces has changed, and Paulus himself played a decisive role in this. On Stalin's personal orders, he was transferred from a prisoner of war camp to one of the NKVD's special facilities, a dacha in Dubrovo outside Moscow.

There, as a result of psychological treatment, the Field Marshal General radically changed his former position and soon publicly announced his joining the anti-fascist coalition. It is generally believed that the adoption of such a decision was largely facilitated by a radical change in the course of military operations, as well as a conspiracy of generals, which in 1944 almost cost the Führer life.

Beginning of the repatriation process

The repatriation of German prisoners of war (their return to their homeland) was conducted in several stages. The first one was launched after the decision of the State Defense Committee of the USSR was issued in August 1945, on the basis of which 708,000 invalids and disabled servicemen of all nationalities from the rank and file of non-commissioned officers were given the right to return to Germany.

A month later, on September 11 of the same year, a new document appeared that significantly expanded the circle of repatriated persons. In addition to the previously mentioned categories, it included soldiers and lower ranks of all nationalities, except Germans, regardless of their physical condition and disability. They were sent home in January 1946. The exception was only those who were accused of committing grave war crimes. It was specially noted that persons who served in the SS, SA, SD, as well as Gestapo staff, were not subject to repatriation.

Thus, in the first post-war years, the main contingent of prisoners of war, who continued to trumpet over the restoration of the country's destroyed national economy, consisted mainly of Germans. According to the report of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR for October 1946, there were almost 1.5 million people in camps, workers' battalions and special hospitals, including 352 generals and 74,500 officers. Thus the notorious Drang nach Osten ("The Onslaught to the East") ended the inglorious conquest of the Nazis.

Long way home

In the future, the number of German prisoners of war in the USSR was decreasing, but rather slowly. In May 1947, on the basis of a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, about 100,000 incapacitated prisoners from among the Germans who did not serve in the SS, SD, SA and the Gestapo were sent to Germany and also did not take part in the commission of war crimes. Repatriation was subject to both soldiers and officers who held the rank not higher than the captain.

In June of the same year, the leadership of the NKVD conducted an action that was clearly propagandistic in nature. According to the directive signed personally by Stalin, a thousand German prisoners of war of all ranks were sent home, openly expressing their anti-fascist sentiments and being among the leading industrialists. All the remaining prisoners were widely informed about this dispatch, and the message placed special emphasis on the labor achievements of the repatriates.

Government policy on repatriation

By the end of 1947, the number of prisoners of war sent to their homeland had increased, but the policy of the Government of the USSR on the question of their repatriation became very clear. First of all, this process went on gradually, and only relatively small groups of certain categories of individuals received freedom. In addition, those who in the opinion of the Soviet authorities were least able to influence the further development of the political situation both in Germany itself and in countries that fought on its side during the war were sent to their homeland first of all.

In this connection, patients were sent primarily, who for obvious reasons, after returning from captivity, will be engaged in the restoration of health, and not politics. There was no doubt that ordinary soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers, even if they tried to take part in the political life of the country, would achieve a much smaller result than the generals who had returned from captivity. In particular, the flow of repatriates increased after the establishment of a pro-Soviet government in the Eastern part of Germany.

Later, all freedom was given to former servicemen, up to junior officers inclusive, who were in good physical shape and suitable for use as a labor force. In addition, the stay in captivity was delayed for senior officers, generals and admirals, SS officers, SD, Gestapo, as well as for all those convicted of military and criminal offenses.

Completion of the repatriation of prisoners of war

By the end of 1949, more than 430,000 German servicemen were still detained in the Soviet captivity, which contradicted the commitment made by the representatives of the USSR in 1947 at a meeting of foreign ministers of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. According to the document signed by them, the repatriation of prisoners of war was to be completed by December 1948.

Such a clear violation of the agreed agreement caused discontent among the leaders of Western states and forced Stalin to accelerate the rate of sending prisoners. Finally, not only the representatives of higher officers, but also generals and admirals, were brought back to Germany step by step. The exception was only 99 of them, who died from diseases, and 18 were hanged for committing war crimes.

In general, repatriation was completed in May 1950. In an official TASS report on May 5, it was said that all former servicemen who fought on the side of the Third Reich were sent to Germany, with the exception of 9,716 convicts, 3,816 people under investigation, and 15 seriously ill patients.