German Treatment of World War II Prisoners of War: Soviet POWs


Figure 1.--We are not sure quite what to make of this photograph. It appears to be Soviets POWs taken by the Germans. Unfortunately is is not well labeled. The boys are wearing uniforms, so presumbably they were in the Red Army. The fact that the uniforms are tasttered suggest to us that they masy have attempted to avoid capture after their unit surrendered. They look still healthy so they were presumably just captured by the Germans. It is possible that they were working with the Partisans, but if this was the case the Germans probably would have sumarily shot them. Or could it be that the boys are Red Army deserters. (The Russian in the background does not look like a POW.) Perhaps HBC readers may hsave some insights here.

The German treatment of Polish and Soviet POWs was barbaric and esential genocidal. Many died from starvation, exposure, and mistreatment. The German policy was in part a planned method of elimination, following a series of Hitler's standing orders to the Whermacht orders as well as orders from Wehrmacht commanders. One aspect was the Hunger Plan. Another aspect was the inablity of the Wehrmacht to deal with the massive numbers surrendering. Most Soviet POWs were taken during Barbarossa (June-December 1941). Whole Red Army Army Groups surrenderd en masse. The Germans took 0.6 million Red Army soldietrs captive at Kiev alone. German plans for the Occupied East were a genocide targetting the Slavs. Thus when it looked liked the Soviet Union would be quickly knocked out of the War, there was no real desire on the part of the Germans to provide for the vast numbers of Red Army POWs. At some camps the Soviet POWs were not even provided barracks and other structures and were exposed to the elements even during the winter. While in terms of fatalities, the worst time for POWs was in 1941 when the German took huge numbers of POWs. There would be Red army soldiers taken after Barbarossa, but not in the same huge numbers, in part because the Red Army was learning how to deal with Blitzkrieg and German power had been reduced after the Red Army Winter offensive (1941-42). With the failure of Barbarossa, the NAZIs had to begin drafting workers, including the workers in araments plants. This created a severe labor shortage. German treatment of the Russian POWs improved somewhat as they began to use Soviet POWs for forced labor, but it was still unimagineitevly brutal. The Germans recruited some anti-Soviet POWs to form anti-Soviet Russian units. The Germans never, however, fully trusted these units and did not fully equip them. The Soviet POWs liberated by the Red Army were treated abonamally. Many were transported to the Gulag. Stalin's attitude was that they should have never surrendered.

German Policy

The German treatment of Polish and Soviet POWs was barbaric and esentially genocidal. Many died from starvation, exposure, and mistreatment. The German policy was in part a planned method of elimination and in part their inablity to deal with the massive numbers surrendering during Barbarossa. The genocidal nature of German policy was meerly an extension of Hitler's concept o waging war in the East. Hitler plasnned it from the start as a of annihilation. And the Wehrmacht leadership, despite post-War denials, was fully complicit in the effort. [Fritz]

Generalplan Ost

German plans for the Occupied East were a genocide targetting the Slavs--Generalplan Ost. The SS Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA -- Reich Security Office) was the NAZI agency which drafted the Generalplan Ost (General Plan East). This was the NAZI blueprint for the most horendous crime ever envisioned in human history. The Holocaust directed at Europe's 11 million Jews was just one part of Generalplan Ost. The basic outline for Generalplan Ost was sketched out by Hitler in Mein Kampf. The invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia gave the NAZIs the first slice of eastern territory to begin their transformation of eastern Europe (March 1939). But the NAZIs considered the Czechs to be the most advanced Slavs. Anbd they needed Czech industry for arms production. So the Czechs were left with a pupet government and Germinization was put off least it disrupt arms production. Polandd was the next slize of the East. It was auch bigger slice and the Poles were Slavs that Hitler dispised. Himmler launched into aminization process in the EWartergau, but Frank protested with Himmler began dumping Jews and Poles in the General Government. So again Germinization and whole-scale deportations had to be delayed. Himmler and NAZI Party officials argued about Eastern policy. Himmler wanted to settle Germans in the East and to carefully select the existing populations for German blood. Some NAZI Party officials wanted to pursue a less biolgically oriented policy and to accept large numbers of the existing population which was anti-Bolshevik. The debate over Eastern policy raged in NAZI circles for 2 years. With the stunning success of Opperation Barbarossa (June 1941), Hitler finally decided. He essentially acceopted Himmler's approach and SS planners began preparing Generalplan Ost. It was developed in secret. The principal area covered was the Sovie Union (including the Baltics), but Poland and Czehoslovakia was also included. Himmler and Heydrich was anxious to put it into operation. The major impediment to carrying it out was the Red Army.

Barbarossa (June 1941)

Hitler launched what would prove to be the largest military campaign in human history. The initiual assault was Operation Barbarossa (June 1941). The Red Army despite wenings to Stalin was unprepared. Red Army soldiers surrendered in huge numbers, in some cases without resisting. The victories in the first weeks and rapid German advances looked like the Soviets would quickly surcome to Blitzkrieg as had been the case with other NAZI victims. When it looked liked the Soviet Union would be quickly knocked out of the War, there was no real desire on the part of the Germans to provide for the vast numbers of POWs. Most Soviet POWs were taken during Barbarossa (June-December 1941). Whole Red Army Army Groups surrenderd en masse. The German took vast numbers of Red Army soldiers in a series of text book encirclements around Minsk, Smolensk, Bryansk, and Kiev. The Germans took 0.6 million Red Army soldietrs captive at Kiev alone. It was the largest mass surrender in military history. Stalin played a major role in the German successes. By ordering the Red Army to stand and fight and not retreat regardless of the circumstances, he made the vast encirlements possdible.

Whermacht Standing Orders

The German Army in Belgium executed 6,000 civilians and acquired a reputation for brutality that lasted the entire war. The Whermact and paramilitary formations killed about 100,000 civilians in Poland (1939). Operation Barbarossa was to be something even more terrible. It woukd be unlike any other campaign in modern history. Hitler made it very clear that the campaign in the East would be conducted differently than any other modern campaign--it was to be a war of extermination. Mass executions of Jewish men, women, and children as well as Communists were carried out. Four SS Einsatzgruppen were responsible for most of the killings, together with local collaborators, but the numbers of Jews encountered was so large that regular Wehrmacht units also participate in the killing. It was not just the Jews that were killed, but also Communist Commisars in the army army and Communist officials. Eventually large numbers of Slavs were to be killed to clear land for German colonization. In the end this war of extinction may have doomed Operation Barbarossa because it precluded the effective utilization of anti-Communist Russians and Ukranians to fight the Red Army.

Definition

The German concept of a Red Army soldier seems to have been flexible. One source says that Nazi policy in the occupied areas was 'very explicit': "Men between the ages of 15 and 65 were to be treated as POWs ... [and] taken to POW camps." We are not sure just what order they are referring to or who issued it. The numbers of POWs taken seem more in keeping with the actual number of Red Army soldiers than all military age men in the occupied areas. Perhaps this was a policy followed to some extent during the encirclements. One historian tells us that the 18th Panzer Division had "orders to arrest all men of military age and send them to the rear". [Bartov, p. 110.] Here the sheer numbers placed limits in the number of civilians the Germans could arrest. Available images of Red Army POWs show men mostly in uniform.

Initial Treatment

There was no real planning for dealing with the massive numbers of Soviet POWs taken as a result of Barbarossa. Planning focused only on the rapid movemnent east. Other matters were ignored including what happened if the offensove did not succeed by the onset of winter. There was no transport available for the men who surrendered. There was little enough transport available for the advancing German troops. As a result, the captured men often had to walk a hundred miles or more to the areas designated as intermim POW camps. These were camps in name only. There were virtually no facilities at these camps besides a barbed wire enclosure. On the march at even at the camps there was little provision for food and water. A German officer observing this wrote, "The columns of [Soviet] prisoners of war moving on the roads make an idiotic impression like herds of animals. The guard details ... can only maintain some semblance of order ... by using physical force. Because of the physical exertion of the marches, the meager diet and poor conditions in the quarters in individual camps, prisoners of war often break down, are then carried by their fellow-soldiers or are left lying. The 6th Army has given orders that all prisoners of war who break down are to be executed. Unfortunately, this is done on the road, even in towns ..." [Lahousen, pp. 100, 142.] The camps set of for the Soviet POWs were camps in name only. The Soviet POWs were not even provided barracks and other structures. Thus they were exposed to the elements when the fall rains came and then the winter which proved to be one of the most severe in recent history. In terms of fatalities, the worst time for POWs was in 1941 when the German took huge numbers of POWs. From the beginning, the Soviet POWs were given little food or medical treatment. Thus most were very weak when the terrible Russian winter descended upon them. Soviet POWs began dying in the tens of thousands. The actual circumstance varied. Many died behind barbed wire with no protection from the cold and snow. Some were executed en masse by the Germans. Other were transported west for extermination in the camps being contructed in NAZI occupied Poland. One historian writes, "Epidemics and epidemic diseases decimated the camps. Beatings and abuse by the guards were commonplace. Millions spent weeks without food or shelter. Carloads of prisoners were dead when they arrived at their destination. Casualty figures varied considerably but almost nowhere amounted to less than 30 percent in the winter of 1941-42, and sometimes went as high as 95 per cent." [Bartov, p. 110.]

Jewish POWs

Some 0.1-0.2 million Soviet POWs taken by the Germans were Jewish. As aesult of Soviet atheist campaigns, most were non-practicing Jews. There were also quite a number of individuals with mixed Jewish and non-Jewish ancestors, what the Germans would call Mischings. We are not entirely sure how they were dealt with by the Germans. We suspect that men who surrendered in small groups were shot if they looked Jewish under the authority of the Whermacht standing orders. There were, however, massive surrenders of whole Army Groups. We do not know just how strongly thec Whermacht attempted to separate the Jews from other Red Army soldiers. We know that in some cases it was done immediately even before they reached POW camps because we photographs of groups of Jewish POWs. How this was done we are not sure. The Germans may have simply asked who was Jewish. We do not know how many voluntarily came forward. Undoubtedly many had the good sence to remain silent. Of course a person's phsical appearance was a factor. Many looked obviously Jewish. But one of the problems the Germans found after seizing power in Germany is that many Jews did not look particularly what might be called Jewish. Another factor were names. Many Jews could be idebtified through their names. And a phyical examination would reveal who was circumsized. Again we do not know what happened in the camps. Did other POWs turn in their Jewish comrads? The conditiions were so bad that the POWs died in large numbers. The Germans may have felt there was no imperative to separate the Jews. We believe, however, that efforts were made. We are not sure yet just what happened to the men identified as Jewish. We do know that virtually no Soviet POW identified as Jewish by the Germans.

The Hunger Plan

The German Hunger Plan (der Hungerplan) also called der Backe-Plan or Starvation Plan was a NAZI World War II food management plan. It is sometine called the Backe Plan because he plaed such an important role in planning and implementing the plan. Herbert Backe was an official in the Ministy of Food and evenually appointed to that post. The Ministry was responsible for the German rationing program. Actually there was no single centrally coordinated plan, but several separate if some times related operations. Germany's World War I experience encouraged the idea of using food as a weapon. Hitler was not the first in this arena. Stalin preceeded him by about a decade with the Ukranian famine (1932-33). We are not sure to what extent NAZI officials were aware of this. The NKVD did an efficent job of preventing details from leaking out to the West. And Western Socialists and Communists, including those in Germany did not want to believe the rumors. The desire to use food as a weapon. This combined with the NAZI regime's rush to acceptance eugenics theories as scientific fact resulted in a genocidal brew of genocidal policies. NAZI food policies were different than the Allied blockade policies which were designed to win the War. Part of Hitler's war objectives were the murder of millions of people which sometimes were given a priority over the war effort. The Hunger Plan was not a policy designed to help win the War, although sometimes presented as that. Many of the individuals killed were working in war industries supporting the German war effort. This actually impeeded the war effort as a labor shortage developed in Germany requiring the introduction of forced labor to man German war industries. Rather the killing of millions Jews and Slavs was a primary German war goal. Hitler asked officials in the Ministry of Food, the agency responsible for rationing, to develop a Starvation Plan, sometimes referred to as the Hunger Plan. The Minister was one of the chief advocates for eugenics in the NAZI heirarchy. The largest elements of the Hunger Plan were: 1) Occupation policies in Poland, 2) Ghetto policies, 3) Starvation of Polish and Soviet POWs, 4) Generalplan Ost. Scholars studying the Hunger Plan provide a somewhat varried list of its elements, largely because there was no single, well coordinated NAZI eff ort, but rather the work of various officials with similar objectives and values. These include besides Backe, Reicharshall Göring, Reichführer SS Himmler, SS Obergruppenführer Heydrich, and Minister of Food Darré.

Susequent POWs Taken

There would be Red army soldiers taken after Barbarossa, but not in the same huge numbers, in part because the Red Army was learning how to deal with Blitzkrieg and German power had been reduced after the Red Army Winter offensive (1941-42). The Wehrmacht achieved a series of military victories in the south during their Spring-summer offensives (1942), but the take of POWs was only a fraction of what they had achieved during Barbarossa during 1941.

Slightly Improved Conditions

German tretment improved somewhat as they began to use Soviet POWs for forced labor, but it was still unimaginativelybrutal.

Camp Assignments

The treatment of Soviet POWs varied. Some were sent to the death camps. Others to concentation camps like Auchwitz. Not all perished, but the mortality rate was very high. Soviet POWs sent to a labor camp rather than a POW camp he had a much better chance of surviving. Some of the Soviet POWs sent to the death camps were used a prioner labor there. But they would eventially be killed as well as their health deteriorated. In addition the SS did not want any survivors to report on what they had done. We do not yet have details on the various camps where they were held. Nor do we know how these camps were selected. We believe it was to an extent happenchance, depending on what camps were available at any given time to accept them or who needed additional workers.

Death camps

Some of the Soviet POWs sent to the death camps were used a prioner labor there. But they would eventially be killed as well as their health deteriorated. In addition the SS did not want any survivors to report on what they had done. The Soviet POWs at Sorbibor helped orgaize a rare uprising.

Concentration camps

Soviet POWs who survived the 1941-42 winter were trasported to concentration camps, mostly in occupied Poland. These camps were used for slave labor suppoting the war effort. Auschwitz was the largest, but there were many other camps. The Germans had thought that the War was won after the early successes of Barbarossa. Thus the death of Soviet POWs was of no great concern. But as thec Red Army held before Miscow and counter attacked and America entered the War, the Germans found theselves in awar with opponents that had far greater human and material resources. And as German workets had to be conscripted to continue the War, suddenly foreign workers were needed to support the war economy. Much of this was done in a vast network of concentration and labor camps. As far as we know, the Soviet POWs were always held in the higher security concetntration camps. Conditions were not as bad as in the primiotive camps thatr firsr winter, but they were still horific. As badly as the Germans needed workers they made no effort to improve conditions so that the workers could survive. Instead they began conscripting civilkians in occupied countries. In the east there were continual roundups of workers--the Ostarbeiter.

POW camps

The first camps for Soviet POWs were in the East and exclusively for the Soviets. As the war continued this changed. The huge mortalities substabtially reduced the numbers of Soviet POWs. And as the Red Army advanced west after Stalingrad, Soviet POWs were transported into the Reich. Some were interned at campsith other POWs, but they were always kept separate. And they wrre given less food than the Western POWs who also had access to Red cross packages through Sweden. The Western POWs would sometimes throw food over the barbed wire seoparating their coimpoiunds.

Military Recruitment

The Germans recruited some anti-Soviet POWs to form anti-Soviet Russian units. Some of this was done without Hitler's approval. He necver trusted these units and did not fully equip them even as the Eastern Front began to desintegrate.

Liberation (May 1945)

The Soviet POWs liberated by the Red Army were treated abominably. Stalin's attitude was that they should have never surrendered. Here he had a vested interest. It was his leadership that had led to the disasters in the early weeks of Barbarossa. To pardon those who has surrendered might lead to the question of why they were so ill-prepared to resist the Germans. There was another consideration. For 20 years, Soviets authorities has assured the population that they lived in a worker's paradise and that in the West workers were starved and exploited by capitalist taskmaskers. This presented a problem. The further West the Red army went, the more they encountered people that lived in more prosperous societies. Of course the POWs did not get to see this, but Red Army soldiers as well as the Ostarbeiter. The Ostarbeiter (civilians often teenage girls and young women) rounded up by the Germans and transported to the Reich for forced labor. The soldiers were subject to Order No. 270, which prohibited any soldier from surrendering to the enemy regardless of the circumstances. Even before the War ended, freed POWs were sent to 'filtration' camps. One reportt indicates that in 1944, more than 90 per cent of the freed prisoners were cleared of collaboration. About 8 per cent were subsequentky arrested or condemned to serve in penal battalions. At first they were sent to reserve military formations to be investigated by the NKVD. As the Red Army moved east, Stalin had the NKVD set up about 100 filtration camps to receive the liberated Ostarbeiter, POWs, and various other displaced persons. The Ostarbeiter women were often raped by Red army soldiers who 'liberated' the camps. They were then sent to the filtration camps. We do not have details on the conditions in the camps. The filtration camps processed more than 4 million Soviet citizens by 1946. An estimated 80 per cent of the civilians and 20 per cent of POWs were freed. About 5 per cent of civilians and 43 per cent of POWs were re-drafted. Some 10 per cent of civilians and 22 per cent of POWs were sent to labor battalions. The final 2 per cent of civilians and 15 per cent of the POWs were turned over to the NKVD and sent to the Gulag. [Военно-исторический журнал]. Soviet/Russian authors provide varying estimates of the number of people assigned to each category and procecuted. [Werth, et. al. p. 322. and Krivosheev] We have no specific insights on the relative number of people in each category. There is, however, no doubt that Stalin set up these filtration camps to which the POWs and Ostarbeiter were subjected. The Gulag survivors were finally released as a result of a general amnesty for all POWs and accused collaborators (1955). This was 2 years after Stalin's death (1953) and a year before Nikita Khrushchev launched the larger De-Stalinization effort (1956).

Sources

Bartov, Omer. The Eastern Front.

Военно-исторический журнал (Military-Historical Magazine) (1997) №5.

Fritz, Stephen G. Ostkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the East (2011).

Krivosheev, G.F. Россия и СССР в войнах XX века - Потери вооруженных сил (Russia and the USSR in the wars of the XX century - Losses of armed forces). Krivosheev is a respected Russian historian.

Lahousen, Erwin. Quoted in The Hamburg Institute for Social Research, The German Army and Genocide: Crimes Against War Prisoners, Jews, and Other Civilians, 1939-1944 (New York: The New Press, 1999). Colonel Lahousen was a German foreign intelligence officer.

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I. The Gulag Archipelago (Harper & Row: New York, 1973), 660p.

Werth, Nicolas, Karel Bartošek, Jean-Louis Panné, Jean-Louis Margolin, Andrzej Paczkowski, and Stéphane Courtois. The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression (Harvard University Press, 1999), 858p.








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Created: 4:40 AM 4/21/2006
Last updated: 12:13 PM 1/13/2013