became an international incident. Enlisted personnelwere held in fetid camps and began starving. Consditions changed after Barbarossa (June 1941). The Polish POWs were allowed to join the Red Army or join Polish units eing organized by the British in the Mideast.
Finnish POWs
The Soviet Union invaded Finland (November 1939). ThevRd Army had notbexpecteda serious fight, but the Finns put up a sreal fight in what beca,e known as the Winter War (1939-40). Finland declared war on the Soviet Union (June 1941). It was not an Axis ally, but a co-beligereant. Finland's goal was to retake the territory seized by the Soviet Union in the Winter war (1939-40). More Finnish POWs wre aken at this time.
German POWs
German POWs fared better than domestic prisoners in the Soviet Gulag. It is unclear why. Some belive that Stalin wanted to influence POWs that were to be repatriated. A German reader writes, "I don‘t know whether PoWs were allowed to chose to went back to East or West Germany. I think that there is an international convention (Geneva convention) for PoWs that they may return to their home country when dismissed from the camp. So, it probably depended where their family was living after the war. In the 1950s it was not too difficult and dangerous to travel/move from the former DDR to West Berlin and then further on to Western Germany." One would think after 10 years in Soviet labor camps that the POWs would want to get as far away from the Soviets as possible.
German Allied POWs
The Soviets also took large numbers of prioners from German allies (Italy, Hungary, Romania, and others). Few of these men survived. The Soviets captured about 70,000 Italians during the Stalingrad pffensive. Most persished during the forced marches and camp conditions. Only 10,087 ever returned to Italy (14 percent). More Italians died at the end of the War when the Soviets "liberated" POW camps with Italians. We do not yet have details on the other German allies.
Japanese POWs
Nor do we have much information about what happened to the Japanese soldiers that the Soviets captured Manchuria (1939 and 45). Few Japanese soldiers surrendered to the Americans in the Pacific War. The largest numbers of POWs were taken on Okinawa, but even here only a small fraction of the force defending the island. This was a studied decesion of the Japanese High Command to delay the Americans and show them what the cost of invaing the Home Islands would be. The Japanese in Manchuria, however, surrendered in large numbers to the Soviets. We are unsure why there was such a differece. The surprise and force of the Soviet attack may have been factors as well as the geography of Manchuria. One source suggests that most were not captured in battle, but laid down their arms voluntarily after Japan surrendered. The policy of bleeding the Americans was not implemented against the Soviets in Manchuria. About 570,000 Japanese soldiers surrendered to the Soviets. Japanese sources claims that the Soviets held about 0.6-0.8 million Japanese POWs in labor camps at the end of the War.
They were interned in Siberia and Central Asia. Perhaps 10 percent died during the first winter. [Applebaum] Tey were employed in construction projects under inhuman condtions. The Soviets began returrming the POWs/internees, but only small numbers (1946). Some 0.4-0.5 million were returned (1947-49). Estimates of the deaths vary. Soviet authoritie issued some 60,000 death certificates. An American academic working with Jaanese data estimate a much higher death toll, perhaps as high as 350,000 men. One report suggests that many of the POWs taken in 1945 spent up to 10 years in Soviet camps. These apparently were the individuals classified as war criminals. We have no idea how they were identified. Solzhenitsyn suggests it was a ruse to hang on to the labor as long as possible. [Solzhenitsyn, p. 84.] This seems, however, unlikely given the relatively small numbers classified as war criminals. When the Communists emerged victorious in China (1949), the Soviets turned over 1,100 'war criminals' to the Chinese. We are unsure how they were selecred. The Chinese subjected them to re-education (1950). The Chinese eventually released them and allowed them to return to Japan (1956). The Japanese received them with suspision. They were suspected of being Communist plants and they experienced years of discrimination.
Korean POWs
Koreans were drafted by the Jpanese during World War II and assigned to labor brigades. U.S. foreces in the Pacific encountered these units. So did the Soviets in Manchuria (1939 and 45). We do not know to what extent if any they were treated differently than he Japanese/ We do notice one Korean, Yang Kyoungjong, drafted by the Japanese (1938) and taken as POW in Manchuria (1939) who was allowed to volunteer for the Red Army (1942) and then catured by the Germans (1943) and allowed to join one of their Ost Brigades. He was captured by the Americans in Normandy (1944). We do not know how many Korean POWs the Soviets enducted into the Red Army. We have not noted the similar treatment of Japanese POWs.
Manchuria/Chinese POWs
Soviet citizens joining the Wehrmacht
Large numbers of Soviet citizens joined the Germans in an effort to destroy the Soviet regime. They were a varired group. They included anti-Soviet Russians. Here motivation varied. Some simply wanted to avoid starvation in German POW camps. There were also the Balts who hated the Soviets because of the invasion and annexatioin of their countries (June 1940). Unknown at the time was Generalplan Ost which involved the murder of a substantial part of the Balt population. Many Muslims hated the Soviet regime because of its atheism campaign and supression of Islam.
Soviet citzens held as POWs and slave labor
Large numbers of Soviets citizens survived the War in various German POW and slave labor camps. Most POWs taken in 1941 perished in Whermacht POW camps that were giant killing machines. The Germns realized after Barbarossa failed before Moscow, that the War was going to be a ling one and that Soviet POWs were needed for thge developing labir shirtahe as German workers even in war indutries were drafted for military service at the front. And then Soviet citizens were rounded up for slave labor. Both of these groups when the Red Army entered the Reich were seen with creat suspicion by Stalin and the NKVD. Many were committed to the Gulag or treated as potential spies and traitors by the NKVD.
Other Soviet Prisoners and Internal Exiles
POWs were not the only prioners in Soviet hands. The Gulag continued to operate during the War. And conditiins worsened as serious food shortages developed. In addition, certain population groups were judged suspect and evacuated fromm European Russia to Central asia and the Far East. This included both Soviet citizens and countries occupied by th Soviet Union beginning with Poland (1939), the Baltics (1940). Large numbers of these groups were shot and commited to the Gulag, but thousands of familie were deported East. Soviet citizens inluded the Volha Germans, Chechans, and Crimean Tartars.
Sources
Applebaum, Anne. Gulag: A History (Doubleday: 2003).
Nimmo, William.
Solzhenitsyn, Alexsanddr I. Trans, Thomas P. Wjitney. The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-56: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (Harper & Row: New York, 1973), 660p.
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Created: 1:49 AM 7/26/2005
Last updated: 3:40 AM 4/25/2014
