Where are the prisoners Russians? Army of the Russian Federation and Donbass. German captivity Tragedy of Soviet prisoners of war prisoners in Gulag

The war in the Donbas continues the third year.

During this time, Ukraine has repeatedly declared a massive - thousands of participation in hostilities.

However, according to yesterday's general prosecutor, Yuri Lutsenko, under investigation are now, and behind bars - six. The courts on them were sad, without the attraction of the media.

At the same time, Ukrainians detained for work on LDNR, dozen, if not hundreds of times more.

Correspondent.net. I decided to collect all the versions about Russian participation in the ATO.

Ukrainian data

Confirmations for the participation of the Russian military in combat actions in the Donbass, the Ukrainian side has already given repeatedly: from Pskov paratroopers before the detention of special forces.

At the same time, data on the number of Russian military, who are constantly divided into the Donbas.

In June 2015, President Petro Poroshenko stated that 200 thousand Russian servicemen were located on the territory of Ukraine.

"Today, by order of Putin, there are 200 thousand people, equipped with the arsenal of tanks and the launch systems of anti-aircraft missiles. One of them hit the civil airliner from Malaysia last year, "Corriere Della Sera quotes Mr. Poroshenko.

In April 2016, Poroshenko has already stated that 6 thousand personnel Russian military and 40-thousand militants army are located in the combat accident at Donbass.

According to the Ministry of Defense, the number of Russians fighting for LDNR -.

Opinion of west

In the OSCE - the main international organization, which monitors the situation in the ATO zone - never declared the availability of Russia's personnel compounds in the Donbas.

The Secretary General of Lamberto's organization Zanier stated that the presence of regular parts of the Russian army in Ukraine.

"There were always citizens of Russia, possibly coming there for some reason entering the region and supporting separatists. We have evidence of people who come in private order - we ourselves met with them and talked. However, whether there are any Other Russian military units [...] - it is more difficult to demonstrate, "said Zanyer.

But the USA who do not participate in Minsk and Norman formats, were always more categorical.

"Russian military and technique are still in the Donbas. Russia is directly responsible for the implementation of Minsk agreements," said John Tefft.

US Ambassador to the OSCE Daniel Baer declared the continuation of the supply of Russian weapons to the Donbass.

"Russia does not show any signs of termination of aggression; On the contrary, it raised the intensity of violence, "he stressed.

Russian answer

In April 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that there are no Russian troops in Ukraine.

"To the question, there are or not our troops in Ukraine, I speak directly and definitely: there is no Russian troops in Ukraine," Putin replied.

At its press conference in December 2015, Putin noted that in Ukraine there are no regular troops of Russia, "decisive military issues."

"We never said that there are no people who are engaged in a solution to certain issues in the military sphere, but this does not mean that there are regular Russian troops there, feel the difference," said Putin.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov has always denied everything.

"We see that the Ukrainian side is now trying to justify its inability to fulfill what it has subscribed to, references to a serious security situation, on the" mythical "presence of Russian troops - that never had anyone confirmed and proven. The launched" disinformation "floats In the media space, as we can make sure of this today, "says Lavrov.

What's with deeds

For the unleashing of war against Ukraine, 39 Russian citizens are brought to criminal responsibility, six of which have already been prison. This was stated by the Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko.

"A total of 39 citizens of the Russian Federation, of which 31 are soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, were attracted to criminal responsibility for participating in the unleashing and conduct of the aggressive war against Ukraine. The courts are sent to the court for 10 citizens of the Russian Federation, of which 6 have already been sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 11 to 15 years old, "said the Prosecutor General.

The Prosecutor General's Office notified the suspicion of crimes against the foundations of the National Security of Ukraine, 18 persons from among the authorities and leadership of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, including the President of the Russian Federation Sergey Glazyev and the head of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergey Shoigu.

Warning: Photographs attached to article +18. But I strongly ask these photos
The article was written in 2011 for the Site The Russian Battlefield. All about the Great Patriotic War
the remaining 6 parts of the article http://www.battlefield.ru/article.html

At the time of the Soviet Union, the topic of Soviet prisoners of war was under the unlawful ban. The maximum, recognized that some Soviet soldiers were captured. But there were practically no specific figures, only some foggy and unauthorized common numbers were given. And only after almost half a century after the end of the Great Patriotic War, we were talking about the scale of the tragedy of Soviet prisoners of war. It was difficult to explain how the victorious Red Army under the leadership of the CPSU and the brilliant leader of all time during 1941-1945 managed to lose only the prisoners of about 5 million servicemen. And after all, two thirds of these people died in German captivity, just over 1.8 million former prisoners of war returned to the USSR. Under Stalinist mode, these people were a "paria" of the Great War. They did not mark them with disgrace, but in any questionnaire there was a question about whether the questionnaire was in captivity. The captivity is a stacked reputation, in the USSR the panta is easier to arrange their lives than the former warrior, honestly devoted the duty to his country. Some (although not many) returned from the German captivity re-served in the camp "native" Gulag only because they could not prove their innocence. With Khrushchev, they became a little easier, but the ugly phrase "was in captivity" in all sorts of questionnaires spoiled not one thousand fate. Finally, during the time of the Brezhnev era about the prisoners, it was simply silent. The fact of staying in German captivity in the biography of the Soviet citizen became an immemorable disgrace for him, injected suspicions in betrayal and espionage. This explains the poverty of Russian-speaking sources on the problem of Soviet prisoners of war.
Soviet prisoners of war undergo sanitary processing

Column of Soviet prisoners of war. Autumn 1941.

Himmler examines the camp for Soviet prisoners of war under Minsk. 1941 year.

In the West, any attempt to tell about German war crimes on the Eastern Front was regarded as a propaganda reception. The lost war against the USSR smoothly flowed into his "cold" stage against the Eastern Evil Empire. And if the FRG leadership officially recognized the Genocide of the Jewish people, and even "repeated" for him, then nothing like that did not happen about the mass destruction of Soviet prisoners of war and civilians in the occupied territories. Even in modern Germany, there is a steady tendency to dump everything on the head of the "idle" Hitler, the Nazi Top and the CC apparatus, and also to whitelitiate "the glorious and heroic" Wehrmacht, "simple soldiers, honestly performed their duty" (I wonder what?). In the memoirs of German soldiers, they completely and close as soon as the question enters the crimes, the author immediately declares that ordinary soldiers had all the cool guys, and all the abominations were created by the "beasts" from the SS and Sondercoma. Although almost all the former Soviet soldiers say that the vile attitude towards them began with the first seconds of the captivity, when they were not yet in the hands of the "Nazis" from the SS, but in the noble and friendly arms of "beautiful guys" from ordinary build parts, " No relation to the SS. "
Distribution of food in one of the forward camps.


Column of Soviet prisoners. Summer 1941 district of Kharkov.


Prisoners of war in operations. Winter 1941/42.

Only from the mid-70s of the twentieth century, the attitude towards conducting hostilities in the USSR began to change slowly, in particular German researchers engaged in the study of the fate of Soviet prisoners of war in Reich. The work of Professor Heidelberg University of Christian Standy played a big role. "They are not comrades to us. Wehrmacht and Soviet prisoners of war in 1941-1945.", refuted many Western myths regarding hostilities in the East. Strette worked on his book for 16 years, and it is at the moment the most complete study on the fate of Soviet prisoners of war in Nazi Germany.

Ideological installations for the appeal with Soviet prisoners of war came from the very top of the Nazi leadership. Long before the campaign in the east of Hitler at the meeting on March 30, 1941, said:

"We have to abandon the concept of the soldiers' partnership. The communist was never and there will be no friend. We are talking about fighting for destruction. If we do not look like that, then, although we will break the enemy, after 30 years there will be a communist danger again ... "(Galder F." Military Diary ". T.2. M., 1969. p.430).

"Political commissars are the basis of Bolshevism in the Red Army, carriers of ideology, hostile nationalism, and cannot be recognized as soldiers. Therefore, after the capture, they need to shoot."

About the attitude towards the peaceful population, Hitler said:

"We are obliged to destroy the population - this is part of our Mission to protect the German nation. I have the right to destroy millions of lower races people, which multiply as worms."

Soviet prisoners of war from the Vyazemsky boiler. Autumn 1941.


On San Drophotka before sending to Germany.

Prisoners of war in front of the bridge across the river San. June 23, 1941. According to statistics until the spring of 1942, no one lives from these people

The ideology of national-socialism to couple with racial theories led to an inhuman attitude towards the Soviet prisoners of war. For example, of the 1,547,000 French prisoners of war in German captivity, only about 40,000 people died (2.6%), mortality of Soviet prisoners of war to the most gentle estimates amounted to 55%. For the fall of 1941, the "normal" mortality of the prisoners of Soviet soldiers was 0.3% per day, that is about 10% per month! In October-November 1941, the mortality of our compatriots in German captive reached 2% per day, and in separate camps up to 4.3% per day. Mortality in captivity of the Soviet soldiers in the same period in the Governor-General (Poland) camps amounted to 4000-4600 people per day. By April 15, 1942, from 361,612 prisoners deployed in Poland in the fall of 1941, only 44,235 people were left alive. 7559 Captive fled, 292 560 died, and another 17 256 were "transferred to the SD" (that is, shot). Thus, the mortality of Soviet prisoners of war in just 6-7 months reached 85.7%!

During Soviet prisoners from the marching column on the streets of Kiev. 1941 year.

Unfortunately, the size of the article does not allow any sufficient amount of consecration of this issue. My goal is to familiarize the reader with numbers. Believe: They are terrifying! But we need to know about it, we must remember: Millions of our compatriots were deliberately and mercilessly destroyed. Dying wounded on the battlefield, shot at the stages, frozen hunger, who died of diseases and unbearable labor, they were targeted by the fathers and grandfathers of those who live in Germany today. Question: What can your children teach such "parents"?

Soviet prisoners of war chamed by the Germans during the retreat.


Unknown Soviet prisoners of war 1941.

German documents about the attitude towards Soviet prisoners of war

Let's start with the prehistory directly regarding the Great Patriotic War: For 40 months of World War I, the Russian Imperial Army lost prisoners and missing 3,638,271 people. Of these, the German captivity contained 1,434,477 people. Mortality among Russian prisoners amounted to 5.4%, and slightly exceeded natural mortality in Russia at the time. Moreover, mortality among prisoners of other armies in German captivity was 3.5%, which was also a low indicator. In the same years, in Russia there were 1,961,333 military opponents, mortality among them accounted for 4.6%, which practically corresponded to natural mortality in Russia.

Everything changed after 23 years. For example, the rules for the treatment of Soviet prisoners of war prescribed:

"... Bolshevik soldier lost all right to claim him, as with an honest soldier in accordance with the Geneva Agreement. Therefore, it is quite consistent with the point of view and the dignity of the German Armed Forces, so that every German soldier would spend a sharp line between his own and Soviet Prisoners of Secret. The appeal must be cold, albeit correctly. The most stringent way to avoid any sympathy, and even more support. The feeling of pride and superiority of the German soldier appointed for the oculating of Soviet prisoners of war must be noticeable for others. "

Soviet prisoners of war were practically not fed. Look at this scene.

Owned by investigators of the USSR emergency state commission, the mass burial of Soviet prisoners of war


Madrid

In Western historiography, up to mid-70s, the version was completely common that the "criminal" orders of Hitler were imposed on the oppositional commanding of the Wehrmacht and were almost not performed on the ground. This "fairy tale" was born during the Nuremberg process (protection actions). However, the analysis of the situation shows that for example, the order of the Commissioners was performed in the troops very consistently. Under the "selection" of Ainzatskomand SS fell not only all the servicemen of Jewish nationality and the Polymatochief of the Red Army, but in general, everyone who could be a "potential opponent." The Military Top of the Wehrmacht almost unanimously supported the Fuhrera. Hitler in his unprecedentedly frank speech on March 30, 1941 "pressed" not on the racial reasons for the "war of destruction", namely, to combat alien ideology, which was close to the spirit of the military elite of the Wehrmacht. Halder's mark in his diary unequivocally indicate the overall support of Hitler's requirements, in particular Halder recorded that "the war in the East differs significantly from the war in the West. In the east, cruelty is justified by the interests of the future!". Immediately after the program speech of Hitler's headquarters (it. Okh - Oberkommando des Heeres High Command of the Ground Forces) and the OKV (OKW - Oberkommando Der Wermacht, the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces) began to design the Fuhrera program into specific documents. The most odious and famous of them are: "Directive on establishing an occupying regime on the territory of the Soviet Union to be seized" - 13.03.1941, "On military jurisdiction in the area" Barbarossa "and the special powers of the troops"-13.05.1941, directives "On the behavior of troops in Russia" - 19.05.1941 and "On the handling of political commissioners"More often by the "Order of Commissioners" - 6.6.1941, the disposal of the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht on the treatment of Soviet Prisoners of Secret - 09/18/1941. These orders and directives were published at different times, but they were prepared by almost in the first week of April 1941 (except for the first and last document).

Unlocked

Almost in all the forward camps, our prisoners of war were kept under the open sky in conditions of monstrous crowdability.


German soldiers finish the Soviet wounded

It cannot be said that the oppositions of the opinion of Hitler and the High Command of the German Armed Forces on the Institute of War in the East did not exist at all. For example, on April 8, 1941, Ulrich von Hassell, together with the headquarters of Admiral Kanaris, Colonel Osteromo had a Colonel General Ludwig von Beck (who was a consistent opponent Hitler). Hassel recorded: "The hair stands on the fact that it is documented in orders (!), Signed by the galder and given to the troops, about the actions in Russia and from the systematic use of military justice in relation to the civilian population in this caricature mocking. Submitting to orders Hitler, Braukich sacrifices the honor of the German army. " So, no more and no less. But the opposition to the decisions of the National Socialist Guidelines and the Wehrmacht command was passive and until the very last moment is very sluggish.

I will definitely be called institutions and personally "Heroes" on whose orders the genocide against the civilian population of the USSR was unused and under whose "sensitive" supervision was destroyed by more than 3 million Soviet prisoners of war. This is the leader of the German people A. Hitler, Reichsführer SS Himmler, Obergroupenfuer SS Geydrich, Chief of OKV General Field Marshal Kaitel, Head of Land Forces General Field Marshal f. Brahich, Head of the General Staff of the Ground Force General Colonel Galder, Operational leadership headquarters and his chief of artillery general Yodel, Head of the legal department of the Wehrmacht Lehman., Division "L" of the OKV and personally his chief Major General Varlimont, group 4 / QU (head under-to f. Tippelskirm), General for special assignments at the Commander-in-law of the Lieutenant Lieutenant Force Muller, chief of the legal department of land forces Latman, General-schoolster General Major Wagner, Head of the Military Administrative Department of the Land Forces f. Altenstadt. And under this category, all commanders of armies, armies, tank groups, buildings, and even individual divisions of the German armed forces (in particular, the famous order of the commander of the 6th Field Army F. Ryhehenau is indicative, virtually unchanged in all the versions of the Wehrmacht).

Causes of mass prison of Soviet soldiers

The unaware of the USSR to the modern high-depth war (for various reasons), the tragic start of hostilities led to the fact that by mid-July 1941 of the 170 Soviet divisions of the war in the border military districts, 28 were surrounded and did not come out of it, 70 compounds The division class was actually defeated and became unable. Huge masses of Soviet troops often randomly rolled back, and Germanized motorized compounds, moving at a speed of up to 50 km per day, cut off the path of waste, which did not have time to move away the Soviet compounds, parts and units came to the environment. Large and small "boilers" were formed, in which most of the servicemen fell in captivity.

Another cause of the mass capture of Soviet fighters, especially in the initial period of the war, was their moral and psychological state. The existence of both affected moods among the part of the Red Army soldiers and common anti-Soviet sentiments in certain layers of the Soviet society (for example, among the intelligentsia) is currently no secret.

It is necessary to recognize that the affected moods that exit in the Red Army became the reason for the transition of a certain number of redarmeys and commanders to the side of the enemy from the first days of the war. It was rare, but it happened that the front line was organized by whole military units with their weapons and headed with their commanders. The first definitely dated such case took place on July 22, 1941, when two battalions passed on the side of the enemy The 436th Rifle Regiment of the 155th Infantry Division, under the command of Major Kononov.It is impossible to deny that this phenomenon is preserved even at the final stage of the Great Patriotic War. So, in January 1945, the Germans recorded 988 Soviet miners, in February - 422, in March - 565. For which these people hoped to understand difficult, most likely just private circumstances that have disagreed to seek the savings of their own life at the cost of betrayal.

Whatever it was, and in 1941, the prisoners amounted to 52.64% of the total number of losses of the North-Western Front, 61.52% of the Western losses, 64.49% of the losses of the south-western and 60.30% loss of southern fronts.

The total number of Soviet prisoners of war.
In 1941, about 2,561,000 Soviet soldiers were captured in large "boilers". In the reports of the German command, it was reported that 300,000 people were captured in the boilers under the Bialyst, Grodno and Minsk, 103,000, under Vitebsk, Mogilev, Orsche and Gomel - 450,000, 180,000, in the region of Kiev - 665,000, under Chernigov - 100,000, in the Mariupol district - 100,000, under Bryansk and Vyazma 663,000. In 1942, in two large "boilers" under Kerch (May 1942) - 150,000, under Kharkov (at the same time) - 240,000 people. Here it is immediately necessary to make a reservation that German data seems to be superfluous because the claimed number of prisoners often exceeds the number of armies and fronts of participation in a particular operation. The most striking example of this is the Kiev boiler. The Germans announced 665,000 people in captivity east of the capital of Ukraine, although the complete list of the South-Western Front at the time of the beginning of the Kiev defensive operation did not exceed 627,000 people. Moreover, about 150,000 red-Armenians remained outside the ring of the environment, and about 30,000 have managed to exit the "boiler".

K. Strette, the most authoritative specialist in the Soviet prisoners of war in World War II, argues that in 1941, Wehrmacht captured 2,465,000 fighters and commanders of the Red Army, including: the Army Army Group - 84,000, Army Group "Center" - 1,413 000 and the "South" armies group - 968,000 people. And this is only in large "boilers". In total, according to Strette in 1941, the German armed forces were captured by 3.4 million Soviet soldiers. This is about 65% of the total number of Soviet prisoners of war captured from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945.

In any case, the number of Soviet prisoners of war captured by the Reich armed forces to the beginning of 1942 is not amenable to accurately calculating. The fact is that in 1941, the provision of reports to the supervisory headquarters of the Wehrmacht on the number of the Soviet soldiers taken were not obligatory. The order for this issue was given to the General Command of the Ground Forces only in January 1942. But there is no doubt that the number of redarmeys captured in 1944 exceeded 2.5 million people.

There is also no accurate data on the total number of Soviet prisoners of war captured by the German Armed Forces from June 1941 to April 1945. A. Dallin, operating with German data, leads a figure of 5.7 million people, the team of authors under the leadership of Colonel-General G.F. Crivosheeva, in the editorial office of its monograph, reports about 5, 059 million people (of which about 500 thousand military-ridden designed by mobilization, but captured by the enemy on the way to military units), K. Strette assesses the number of prisoners from 5.2 to 5 , 7 million

It should be borne in mind that the Germans could have such categories of Soviet citizens as: the partisans who have captured, the underfloors, the personnel of the unfinished formations of the national militia, local air defense, fighter battalions and police, as well as railway workers and militarized formations of civilian departments. Plus, the same number of civilians hijacked for forced work in the Reich or occupied countries, as well as taken hostage. That is, the Germans tried to "isolate" as much as possible the male population of the USSR of a call age, it is especially not hiding. For example, in the Minsk camp, the prisoners of war contained about 100,000 prisoners of the RKKA military and about 40,000 civilians, and this is practically All men's population of Minsk. The Germans adhered to this practice and in the future. Here is an excerpt from the order of the 2nd Tank Army of May 11, 1943:

"When classing individual settlements, you need to immediately and suddenly seize the existing men aged from 15 to 65, if they can be found to be able to wear weapons, send them to the railway camp 142 in Bryansk. Captured, capable of carrying weapons. , declare that they will continue to be considered prisoners of war, and that at the slightest attempt to escape will be shifted. "

Considering this, the number of Soviet prisoners of war captured by the Germans in 1941-1945. hesitated from 5.05 to 5.2 million people, including about 0.5 million people formally not soldiers.

Captive from the Vyazemsky boiler.


Execution tried to escape Soviet prisoners of war

THE ESCAPE


It is necessary to mention the fact that a certain number of Soviet prisoners of war was released from captivity. So, by July 1941, a large number of prisoners of war, the maintenance of which there were no means there was no funds to be accumulated in the collection points and forward camps. In this regard, the German command went to an unprecedented step - the Order of the General-Starmaster dated 25.07.41 №11 / 4590 Soviet prisoners of war of nationalities were released (ethnic Germans, Balts, Ukrainians, and then Belarusians). However, the OKV order of 13.11.41 No. 3900 was terminated. In just one period, 318,770 people were liberated, of which, in the OK zone - 292,702 people, in the OKV zone - 26,068 people. Among them, 277,761 Ukrainians. Subsequently, only persons who entered volunteer security and other formations were released, as well as to the police. From January 1942 to May 1, 1944, 823,230 2,22 Soviet prisoners of war were released, of which 535,523 people in the OKOV zone - 287,707 people in the OKV zone. I want to emphasize, we do not have a moral right to condemn these people, because in the overwhelming number of cases it was for the Soviet prisoner of war the only opportunity to survive.Another thing is that most of the Soviet prisoners of war, deliberately refused any cooperation with the enemy, which in those conditions actually was equivalent to suicide.



To achieve an exhaustible captivity


Soviet wounded - the first minutes of captivity. Most likely they will be happy.

On September 30, 1941, an order was ordered by the commandants of camps in the east to start a card file for prisoners of war. But it was necessary to do after the campaign ended on the Eastern Front. It was especially emphasized that only information on those prisoners who "after selection" produced by Ainzatskomands (protection) were reported to the central reference department, "finally remain in camps or in relevant work." From this, it should be directly that in the documents of the Central Reference Division there are no data on previously destroyed prisoners of war with redeployment and filtering. Apparently, therefore, there are almost no complete documents on the Soviet prisoners of war on Reikhskyissariat "Ostlata" (Baltic States) and "Ukraine", where in the fall of 1941 contained a significant number of prisoners.
The massive shot of the Soviet prisoners of war of Kharkov. 1942 year


Crimea 1942. Ditch with the bodies shot by the Germans of prisoners.

Paired photo to this. Soviet prisoners of war make their grave.

The reporting of the Department for Prisoners of war OKV, provided to the International Committee of the Red Cross, covered only the system camps of subordinate OKV. Information in the Committee on Soviet prisoners of war began to come only since February 1942, when it was decided to use their work in the German military industry.

The system of camps for the content of Soviet prisoners of war.

All cases related to the content of foreign prisoners of war in Rehehe, the department of prisoners of war vermochet as part of the general administration of the Armed Forces led by General German Reinek. The department was headed by: Colonel Breier (1939-1941), General Grevienits (1942-1944), General Westhoff (1944), and Obergroupenführer SS Berger (1944-1945). In each Military District (and later in the occupied territories), transmitted to civilian government, was "commander of the prisoners of war" (a commandant for prisoners of war of the relevant district).

The Germans created a very wide network of camps for the content of prisoners of war and "Ostarabiters" (forcibly hijacked in slavery of the USSR citizens). Camps for prisoners of war were divided into five categories:
1. Prefabilities (camps),
2. Power camps (Durable, Dulag),
3. Permanent camps (stalam, stalag) and their variety for the command composition of the Red Army (Offlag),
4. Basic working camps,
5. Small working camps.
Camp under Petrozavodsky


In such conditions, we transported our prisoners in the winter of 1941/42. Mortality at the forwarding stages reached 50%

HUNGER

The team points were in close proximity to the front line, there was a final disarmament of the prisoners, and the primary accounting documents were compiled. The forward camps were close to large railway nodes. After the "sorting" (precisely in quotes) of the prisoners as a rule, they were sent to camps having a permanent location. Challenges differed by numbers, and at the same time they contained a large number of prisoners of war. For example, "Stalan -126" (Smolensk) in April 1942 contained 20,000 people, in the "Stalan - 350" (surroundings of Riga) at the end of 1941 - 40,000 people. Each "stalan" was a base for a network of main working camps, to him subordinates. The main working camps had the name of the corresponding Strauca with the addition of the letter, they contained several thousand people. Small working camps submitted to the main working camps or straightforwardly. They were named most often by the name of the settlement, in which they were located, and by the name of the main working camp, they were from several tens to several hundred prisoners of war.

In total, in this in German, a slim system included about 22,000 large and small camps. They contained simultaneously more than 2 million Soviet prisoners of war. The camps were both on the territory of Reich and in the territory of the occupied countries.

In the front-line strip and in the army rear, the corresponding OKM services began with prisoners. Only forward camps were usually located on the territory of OK, and the stals were already in the department of the OKV - that is, within the borders of military districts on the territory of Reich, Governor-General and Reik Assariates. As the German army is promoted, Dulagy turned into permanent camps (offlags and stals).

In Okch, the prisoner was engaged in the service of the army-General. She was obeyed by several local commandators, each of which was a few dulags. The camps in the SIX system were obeyed by the management of prisoners of war of the corresponding Military District.
Tortured by Finns Soviet prisoners of war

To this senior lieutenant before death, cut the star on the forehead


Sources:
Funds of the Federal Archives of the Frang-Military Archive. Freiburg. (Bundesarchivs / Militararchiv (BA / MA)
OKM:
Documents of the propaganda of the Wehrmacht RW 4 / V. 253; 257; 298.
Particularly important cases according to the plan "Barbarossa" Department "L IV" headquarters of the operational leadership of the Wehrmacht RW 4 / V. 575; 577; 578.
Documents hectares "North" (OKW / NORD) OKW / 32.
Documents of the Wehrmacht Reference Bureau RW 6 / V. 220; 222.
Documents of prisoners of war (OKW / AWA / KGF.) RW 5 / V. 242, RW 6 / V. 12; 270,271,272,273,274; 276,277,278,279; 450,451,452,453. Military Economic and Armament Management Documents (OKW / Wiruarnt) WI / IF 5/530; 5.624; 5.1189; 5.1213; 5.1767; 2717; 5.3 064; 5.3190; 5.3434; 5.3560; 5.3561; 5.3562.
OKM:
Documents of the head of the armament of the land forces and the commander of the army of the reserve (OKH / ChHRU U. BDE) H1 / 441. Documents of the Department of Foreign Army "East" of the General Staff of the Ground Force (OKH / GENSTDH / ABT. Fremde Heere OST) P3 / 304; 512; 728; 729.
Documents chief archive of land forces N / 40/54.

A. Dallin "German Board in Russia 1941-1945. Analysis of occupation policy." M. from the Academy of Sciences of the USSR 1957
"SS in action." Documents on crimes. M. Iil 1960
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"Criminal goals are criminal funds." Documents on the occupation policy of the fascist Germany in the USSR. M. "Politicize" 1968
"Completely secret. Only for command." Documents and materials. M. "Science" 1967
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V. Galitsky. "The problem of prisoners of war and the attitude towards it of the Soviet state." "State and Law" №4, 1990
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V. Gurkin "On Human Losts on the Soviet-German front in 1941-1945" Nini №3 1992.
"Nuremberg process. Crimes against humanity." Collection of materials in 8 volumes. M. "Legal literature" 1991-1997
M. Erin "Soviet prisoners of war in Germany during the Second World War" "" Questions of History "№11-12, 1995
K. Strette "Soviet prisoners of war in Germany / Russia and Germany during the war and peace (1941-1995)". M. "Gay" 1995
P. Pollay "The victims of two dictatorships. Life, labor, humiliation and death of Soviet prisoners of war and Ostarabi players in a foreign land." M. "ROSPEN" 2002
M. Erin "Soviet prisoners of war in Nazi Germany 1941-1945. Research problems." Yaroslavl. Yargu 2005
"Fighter War in the East. The crimes of the Wehrmacht in the USSR. 1941-1944. Reports" Edited by Gorzika and K. Rod. M. "Airo-XX" 2005
B. Vetta "The image of the enemy: racist elements in German propaganda against the Soviet Union." M. "Yauza", Eksmo 2005.
K. Strette "They are not comrades. Wehrmacht and Soviet prisoners of war in 1941-1945." M. "Russian Panorama" 2009
"The Great Patriotic War without a secrecy griff. Lossbook." The team of authors under the direction of G.F. Krivosheeva M. Veche 2010

German captivity of that time is not the same as captivity in the Second World War. The camp of the Great War did not stall slaves and not the production of death, but the forge of Germanophiles and cheap labor.

Policy disagreement of prisoners and conflicts

According to German statistics, 1 420 479 Russian soldiers and 14,050 officers were captured during the war years. After arriving from the front of the prisoners of war, they were shared on companies or barracks led by a non-commissioned company Nationality officer. The division of prisoners on the national basis was also one of the most important elements of the German Office of Captive - Ukrainians, Poles, Balts, Georgians were offered the best conditions of detention in the complex with propaganda literature. After the war, the prisoners had to become conductors of Germanophile and anti-Russian home policy. Often, prisoners from the national outskirts of the Empire, especially Ukrainians and Georgians, resisted themselves to this processing, spreading propaganda literature collected and hid, beat those who were susceptible to her. Aguscious to cooperate with the camp administration was called traitors and they threatened with violence.

Russian prisoners in Germany were brought up in the National Spirit

The officers (rank above the Unter-Officers) and the soldiers were kept separately - it was also supposed to also according to international agreements, and that officers did not organize sabotage, escape or other anti-miners with the participation of soldiers.

Control in captivity was installed and with the help of the prisoners themselves. Unter-officers in the barracks were to cooperate with the camp and maintain the established procedure. If everything was fine, the officer received a cash remuneration. Thanks to the various kinds of gifts, such as tobacco, products, accelerated mailing to the Motherland of the Comferential Purpose, were acquired by groups of "trusted" prisoners who reported different kinds of information about the Russian army, about the behavior and mood of other prisoners.

Among the prisoners, they gained knowledgeable Germans for work by translators and supervises for mandatory work in the kitchen, in the field or in craft workshops. Unter-officers and translators, trying to keep their privileged position in the service of the Germans, often poorly applied with compatriots. Social conflicts between officers and soldiers peculiar to the Russian army remained in captivity. One soldier who fled from captivity said later: "It was good, until our olders took the top. And then the Germans gave them the right to bother us and snew the rugs and with their elders it became worse ... When the prisoners became controlled by themselves, at that time they began all sorts of theft and trouble ... We lived among themselves in quarrels that came out of food. " .

Rugan and disobedience of Unter-Officers were the most common violations of the camp rules. In captivity, where the lack of essentials was constantly tested, the usual communication and communication environment, the atmosphere of complete solidarity was rarely created in the atmosphere.

Even conflicts between camps, for example, because of the right to go home in 1918, no camp "didn't want to share places with strangers" and wounded German institutions and the Soviet bureau for prisoners of war in Germany with the requirements of them as soon as possible .

At the same time, against the background of the revolutionary explosion in Russia and the German policy of disagreement among the prisoners, national conflicts agreed. The Germans recorded the cases of bloody tracks between the prisoners configured in the national and imperial spirit, especially after the independence of Ukraine. The Russians were angry at supporting the independence of natives of Ukraine, wrote in Russian organizations that sent assistance camps, the requirements to stop supporting now self-sufficient Ukrainians.

Military camps: self-government

In the camps of the First World War, the usual practice was the assumption of self-government - the prisoners were discovered in the bench camps, they led artistic activities, looking for charitable assistance and distributed. The camp committees of self-government collected libraries, built small churches, organized lectures, circles for interests up to the most exotic officers (for example, Society of sunbathing lovers in Neuss). German commandants reserved the right in case of violations of the order to punish prisoners, for example, the abolition of concerts and performances for a while.

The camp committees themselves determined and punishment for minor misconduct. For example, for the illegal trading "Dog" (Samogon) could be sentenced to several days of "Cracka", that is, cleaning toilets, and for more serious disruptions, the twenty could spend several nights outside the barrack and sleep on the street even with bad weather.

Source: www.berliner-zeitung.de.

With the permission to control the camps of prisoners, they released work on nearby farms and in workshops, selling goods produced by them (the Germans were especially in demand for carpentry art with Russian carvings). Part of the revenue funds went into the pocket of workers, part - on the content of the camp. The prisoners had the possibility of correspondence and receiving parcels, the ability to submit complaints and requests to international and Russian organizations, to negotiate works with German enterprises outside the camp.

Hunger and censorship

Although the Germans did not bring to a mass mortal hunger, but there was never abundant food to food, especially at the end of the war, when Germany experienced a brutal food crisis. Worst of all had to those who did not have access to agricultural work. It was also possible to ask about the parcel with food from the house, but to inform home about the hunger and other problems the prisoners were not allowed. Captured showed considerable ingenuity at around the postal censorship. One plague wrote home: "I live here with Yermolam Kormilich's Has, with whom you will soon meet, we are inseparable." Not every translator, daily tens and hundreds of letters written by a different quality by Russian handwriting, could pay attention to such a trick. Some censors, especially Russian Germans, were still able to detect allegory in the post office. For example, one soldier with humor wrote that he lives "... as on the Vyborg side," the other - what lives "no worse than in our guest house in the village of Medvedskaya." At the same time, it was about psychuclearies or prisons in Russia.

At work. (TOPWAR.ru)

Another tweeted, officer, in the text of the letter made a link to the Bible: "2 Cor. 11 - 27 ". Opening the Scripture in the specified location, we read the words: "In the work and in the exhaust, often in the dignity, in hunger and thirst, often in the post, fit and highlights."

Homecoming

The return of prisoners in the conditions of the civil war began in Russia turned into a large number of problems, especially in 1918, when the prisoners went with tremendous masses, sometimes tens of thousands of people per day. Their meeting was often poorly prepared, people were taken boringly, did not provide sufficiently medicines, food and clothing (especially in winter). Many died on the way. According to the memoirs of the writer V. B. Shklovsky, there were instructions on some cars: "If you die, you will take off to Kursk and they will be buried in the" Torn Forest ", and the coffins [will be lucky] back." More or less safely arrived mainly by those who in stock from the camps were food and money, that is, above all, those who worked at different German enterprises.

"Finally, I managed to unbutton the belt with a pistol holster, and I handed it to the first Russian approaching. Then I raised my hands again. Not to say a word, Russian devastated my pockets: a handkerchief, cigarettes, a wallet, gloves - it seems that he will come in handy all this, "he remembered the first seconds in the Soviet captivity Heinrich von Ainzindel, Pilot Luftwaffe, Count and Lights Otto Bismarca (his mother There was a Countess Bismarck). August 24, 1942, when his plane was shot down in heaven over Stalingrad, the young Count Ainzindel was 20 years old.

"In the steppe, the September nights are quite cold, but they did not even allow me to move to at least somehow warm up. As soon as I started to move, the guards wake up on me with rifle butts, "wrote a twenty pilot in his memoirs, published in many years.

There were no conditions for the detention of prisoners in the current army, at best, dugouts and tents, more often - night in the open sky. Therefore, they were trying to send them as quickly as possible to the reception station 20-40 kilometers from the front line guarded by the Troops of the NKVD, and already from there - to the prefabricated items and to front-line forward camps.

What is a reception point for prisoners, where they were not only interrogated, but they were officially decorated, conducted San Drops (shaved themselves and disguised themselves in a Russian form without signs of distinction, if she was), told in his book "in front of the gates of life" Gelmut Bon, who was captured under the brief in 1944: "Until we arrive at the camp for prisoners of war, the daily nutrition rate is near a liter of liquid soup and three hundred gram of a stalk bread. But in those days when we cut the firewood for Russian field kitchen, we were given a few hot tea for dinner.<...> Firewood we pour on the street before the head of the goats, in which we, about a dozen of the prisoners, were kept under the lock.<...> In this punch for goats, a woman was answered in the form of the younger lieutenant of the Red Army. "

Gupvi archipelago

The Office of prisoners of war and internned (payment, later - GUPVI, that is, the General Directorate for Prisoners of Executives Affairs) existed in the NKVD system before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. In 1941, there were 8 camps in his jurisdiction. "To receive prisoners from the military units, in accordance with the mobilization plan developed by the Gulag of the NKVD, from the beginning of the war, it was necessary to deploy 30 reception points for prisoners of war, but in reality in combat conditions, only 19 points managed to deploy," writes in their monograph "Coming with world. To the history of the repatriation of German prisoners of war from the USSR (1945-1958), historian Vladimir Vsevolodov.

As the nicknames occurred, the camp for the prisoners of war had not to open, but to turn and transfer, in August 1941 there were only three - Gryazovetsky in the Vologda region, Suzdal in Vladimir and Starobelsky in Voroshilovgrad (now - Lugansk region of Ukraine). As of January 1, 1942, 8925 people were kept in six existing ones of the USSR of the USSR. Most of them were captured during the battle near Moscow.

After a year, the number of prisoners increased ten times. On paper, the movement of the "living force of the enemy" was carried out as follows: from the army reception point they entered the national point, from there with echelons to front-line receiving and forward camps, and from there - in the rear camps. In fact, he writes Vsevolodov, out of 282,451 captured, "taken into account" in January-February 1943, only 19 thousand people were delivered to stationary camps - the rest "depended" in front-line. These reinforced camps were either peasant huts in evacuated or destroyed by the Nazis villages, or just tents and dugouts.

Heinrich von Ainzindel described how the prisoners were told from one camp to another: "The next day, the first group was sent from the camp: two hundred people who left the columns four.<...> ... We marched straight through the steppe accompanied by 30-40 armed to the teeth of the Red Army. During the day, they forced us to overcome about 70 kilometers. Then we gave us a rest several hours directly on the road, after which we passed another 40 kilometers in about twelve hours. Then we had three days to wait at the station of arrival of Echelon. Then we were cut down fifty people in every car. Most of us have already managed to infect dysentery, and death began to reap their crop. "

In the process of transmission from the current Army, the NKVD troops, during their stay in the improvised camps and in the stages in 1943, the majority of those captured were passed: according to the payment of Vsevolodov, 176,186 people were delayed for the year, loss (mainly died) - 157 460 people. By January 1, 1944, more than 95 thousand people were contained in the GUPVI camps, of which 60,854 were the former military personnel of the German army.

By May 1, 1945 in the USSR and in the liberated territories in Europe there were more than 140 camps of the GUPBC with a capacity of more than a million people. In 1946 there were already 240 - the largest number in the entire history of the Soviet system of camps for prisoners of war and interneed.

Light Bismarck and other anti-fascists

It happened that the prisoners did not immediately appear in the rear camps, and remained near the front line not because of the logistics problems, but according to propaganda considerations. Heinrich von Ainzindel recalled how the Russian military who captured him in captivity did not hide their delight when they had a descendant of the Iron Chancellor. After a series of interrogations, he was offered to write a leaflet with a call to give up. "I passed hello to my parents and my friends. I said that they are treated correctly. I stated that I believe that Germany will lose this war and that the warning of Bismarck regarding the war with Russia was confirmed again. "

Gelmut Bon, who wrote a similar leaflet, recalled how they were lucky to read it to the Germans through the loudspeaker on the front line: "Finally, the car stops.<...> The mechanic fixes the loudspeaker on the roof. I fix three text on the pwatera.<...> At the signal, I start to read: "German soldiers and officers! In the boiler near Kursk, the victorious Red Army destroyed eleven German divisions. Here the corporal Helmut Bon says. Put the end of the madness! Give in captivity one and groups ..."

Vsevolodov writes that the leadership of military units and the NKVD staff since 1943 even led prisoners to "to their" propaganda goals. During the battles on the Volga in January and February 1943th, 439, the person was released in this way not only returned, but also brought with them another 1955 prisoners. In January-February 1945, in battles against the garrison in the Polish Poznan 211, the prisoners led to 4,350 soldiers and officers who decided to surrender. "According to incomplete data, only in the period from January 1943 to June 1945, the use of this method led to a capture of 91,539 people," the historian reports.

A few months after the capture of Pilot Luftwaffe, Ainzindel was in the camp in the monastery in the village of Oranki Gorky (now - Nizhny Novgorod). There was already working on one of the first anti-fascist schools - a camp unit, designed to "re-educate" prisoners of Wehrmacht fighters, agreed to cooperate with the Soviet authorities. Ainzindel recalled the German emigrant-Communist Wagner, who recruited the prisoners: "In the evenings he invited everyone to conversations, and those who came, received a appointment on work in the kitchen or some other encouragement. After the person was asked by such "gifts", Wagner asked him if he would not want to join the camp group of anti-fascists. If he refused, he was immediately deprived of all presented privileges. "

Since 1944, the cadets of anti-fascist schools have relying on the increased rate of nutrition - 700 grams of bread, as a prisoner of production of production that performed more than 80% of the norm. German historian and researcher Problems of prisoners Stefan Karner in the book "Gupvi Archipelago. The captivity and interchange in the Soviet Union "cites such data on the number of anti-fascist among the prisoners" in one of the largest soldiers' camps ": in July 1943 - 4.5%, in December 1943 - 27.6%, in April 1944 - 67.1%, in July 1944 - 96.6% of the total number of prisoners in this camp.

Carner quotes the story of one of the former cadets of such a school, Wilhelm F., about how the learning process proceeded: historical materialism taught a professor from the Leninist Higher School in Moscow, and the remaining items (the history of the CPSU, European working movements and political economy on "Capital" Marx ) - German-speaking communists-emigrants. "Classes consisted of lectures, consultations, seminars.<...> Classes were conducted from 8.30 to 14 hours and from 17 to 19.30. From April, they began to issue officer content. After deprivation and hunger in ordinary working camps, each dinner has become a real holiday.<...> There was still good medical care, sports and cultural events. " The main motivation for entry into the ranks of the cadet antifascies was promised by the captive random to their homeland, they were remembered later.

In March 1943, the school from the Orange Camp moved to the suburban camp # 23 in Krasnogorsk. In the same place, in the factory house of culture, the constituent conference of the "National Committee" Free Germany "- the organization of German political immigrants and prisoners of war. Her vice-president was the most great-grandfather of Bismarck Heinrich von Ainzindel, translated into Krasnogorsk.

Here, in the 27th camp, many high-ranking prisoners of war were held: in particular, the commander of the 6th Army General Feldmarshal Friedrich Powlyus. He was placed in a separate house called a block house in Zone No. 1.

In the summer of 1944, the temporary inhabitant of the camp number 22 in Krasnogorsk was the Lieutenant General Vintage Muller - commander of the 12th Army Corps of the Center for the Center for Army, captured captive together with hundreds of thousands of German soldiers and officers during the Bagration Operation. Muller is known for the fact that on July 17, 1944, he headed the 57,000th column of prisoners of war in Moscow from the hippodrome and the Dynamo Stadium on Leningrad Avenue and Gorky Street (now - Tverskaya), and then in the Garden Ring. This propaganda campaign conducted by the NKVD and shot For the Soviet newsreel, got the name "Big Waltz".

"Harvesting"

The mass capture of soldiers and officers of the Hitler's army during the operation "Bagration" troops of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Belarusian fronts were part of another large-scale operation called "Harvesting Harmansky Labor". This is what Vladimir Vsevolodov writes about her: "The prisoners began to be considered by the USSR not only as a combat trophy, important in wartime, and as a source of labor used to cover the costs of their content, but also as a resource intended for use in the country's economy not only During the war, but most importantly - in the post-war time. For the USSR, prisoners who have fallen into his power have given the opportunity to replace their own human losses. "

Relying on the data on the dead and missing soldiers and officers of the Red Army in 1941 and 1942 (almost 4 million people), Stalin at the Tehran Conference in November 1943 announced the need to find the "replacement element" in the USSR - 4 million German citizens , enemy prisoners who for several years after the end of the war will restore the destroyed Soviet cities and lift the industry. "The first step in this direction was the creation in November 1943 of the Commission for the NCID on the compensation of damage caused by the USSR of Hitler's Germany and its allies, which was headed by the Soviet diplomat I.M. May. The Commission was to justify the idea put forward by Stalin. "

In 1944, this commission developed a reparation program, which said about the use of labor of prisoners for ten years: "This issue has two aspects: on the one hand, reparations must serve the goals of the early restoration of damage caused by Germany to the USSR and other countries, on the other hand Reparations, in particular, repairing repair, i.e., withdrawal from the German national economy of several thousand working units annually, inevitably need to weakenly act on its economy and on its military potential, "the use of German labor in a note addressed to the foreigners addresses Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov.

In practice, this meant the growth of the structures of the NKVD: the payment turned into a GUPVI, and by the summer of 1944 this body appeared on all fronts and in the armies. Different kind of instructions were regulated by the procedure for circulation of prisoners, the timing of their transportation, the requirements for their physical condition, and cases of mass death were investigated.

But by the fall of 1944, it became clear that if only the soldiers and officers of the enemy were captured, the plan for attracting 4 million Germans to the forced labor was not fulfilled. "A new object of economic interest of the Soviet Union was the German civilian population, the Germans are not citizens of the Reich, who lived in the territory of the Nazi German countries occupied by the Red Army. The program "Harvest" among this category of German civilian population within the framework of the task of "Reparation Labor" was launched shortly after the signing of a truce agreement with Romania on September 12, 1944, "writes Vsevolodov.

The first filtering of residents already controlled by the Red Army of the territories were held in October-November 1944, the work was led by the departure of the NKVD Arkady Apollonov: "On the accountable territory, only 551,049 people of German nationality were revealed, of which 240,436 men and 310,613 women, of which are working age Only men 199 679 people. "

On December 16, 1944, the practice of an interchange was regulated by a completely secret decree of GKO No. 7161: "Mobilize and interneeted with the direction to work in the USSR of all able-bodied Germans aged - men from 17 to 45 years old, women from 18 to 30 years, located on the liberated Red Army of the territory Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. "

The mobilization order was announced in settlements, pre-hinting it (used as NKVD troops and gendarmerie from among local residents). Mobilized was prescribed "to have clothes, bedding, dishes, objects of hygiene and food for 15 days. All products must be laid in bags or suitcases, convenient for transportation, total weighing up to 200 kg, writes Karner.

As Germany is progressed, the Soviet military was taken captive and the female service personnel of the Wehrmacht (about 20 thousand women), and participants in semi-consolidated organizations (Volkssturm, Hitlergendan and the like). Also in the Soviet Union turned out to be more than 200 thousand interned among civilian Germans.

"... In the" Accounting "plan" Harvest "plan there were not only profitable articles, but also the consuming part. It was 462,775 people, among which 318 489 died during the war, as well as 55,799 prisoners transferred to the formation of national units participating in the war on the Soviet side, etc., indicates Vsevolodov.

After the end of the war, the NKVD troops did not stop the operations on captivity and dispatch to the Soviet Union as a former military personnel of the German army and civilians. Historians note that American troops starting from 4 May 1945 gave all the prisoners of war "Disarmed opponent". The command of the British army did not consider prisoners of war to those who surrendered after the surrender of Germany (they passed in the documents as "the capitulous opponent"). The USSR (as well as France) announced all German soldiers and officers who fell under his power, prisoners of war.

On June 5, 1945, the Declaration on the defeat of Germany was adopted, which legalized all these actions: all the statuses attached by the commander-in-chief of the winning countries were legitimate.

In total, according to various sources, in Soviet camps, it turned out from 3 to 3.8 million prisoners of war and interned Germans.

Who works, he eats

In the USSR, all these prisoners took more than two hundred camps across the country from Khabarovsk to Donbass: Prisoners of war from Gorlovsky Camp №242 built houses in a destroyed Stalingrad, in the camp №236 in Georgia worked in the oil industry and built roads, in camps №195 and № 286 Airports and residential buildings were built in Vilnius and Tallinn, in the camp №256 in the Red Ray (Voroshilovgrad region) worked at coal mines.

Internet and mobilized Germans worked mainly at the coal mines of Donbass, as well as in metallurgy, fuel and oil industry. They also lived in the camps, but the zones were mixed for men and women, they should only spend the night in different barracks. Worked as part of the so-called working battalions - 750, 1000, 1250 and 1500 people.

Vsevolodov in the book "Storage term - constantly: a brief history of the camp of prisoners of war and the IPPS of the NKVD-MVD of the USSR No. 27" cites data on what percentage of prisoners working at the Soviet Union enterprises ranged from the total number of workers. In March 1947, every fifth worker on the construction of black and non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises was captive, in the aviation industry - almost every third, on the construction of power plants - every sixth, on the construction of fuel enterprises and in the production of building materials - every fourth. Many prisoners worked directly at metallurgical enterprises and in coal mines. If the camp was not in the steppe, then almost every day was the so-called camp business trip or a lagpunkt in the forest - for wood harvesting.

From the memories of the former prisoners of war Renhard Brown: "At first, we had to load two wood cars during the work shift, then the norm was increased to three cars. Later we were forced to work at sixteen hours a day - on Sundays and on holidays.<...> We returned to the camp at nine or ten o'clock in the evening, but often at midnight. There we got a watery soup and covered without his strength, to go to the plot the next day at five in the morning. "

From the conversation with the engineer Herman's song, which the Stefan Carner leads in his book: "We installed the telegraph poles ...<...> They should not swing when the electrician climbs on them. We burned them, squeezed and deeply wrapped in the ground. Russians also set the telegraph poles. And then we were told: "What are you not working? Look there, how many Russians set." I then scratched there and looked. They put pillars, blocking them by 40 cm, around lay a few stones, watered with water and everything, ready to deal. And we knocked them on one and a half meters. Then I told my people: "Lord, from now on, we finish all this. Now we will do how the Russians". "

The song explained with his brigade that otherwise they will receive only 50% soldering and will soon turn into the order: the power standards in different years have changed, but they always depended on the norms of production. For example, in 1944, 500 grams of bread received those who produced up to 50% of the norm, 600 grams - completed up to 80%, 700 grams - those who fulfilled more than 80%. In 1946, the edible grass was met in the "basket of additional nutrition of prisoners": squeezed, plantain, sorrel, midge, oxygen, nettle, surepice, overshaft, dandelion, cucumber grass (ramp) and others.

Mortality in the camps was especially high in recent years of war and in the winter of 1945-1946, primarily due to insufficient nutrition. According to the archives of the GUAPVI NKVD of the USSR, from 1945 to 1956, 580,548 people died in camps for prisoners of war, from them Germans - 356,687 people. Almost 70% of deaths fell on the winter of 1945-1946.

Vsevolodov leads as an example statistics on the Krasnogorsk camp No. 27 and shares the mortality history for two periods: "The first period covers 3.5 years - from July 1942 to December 1, 1945. The second period is the last four years of the existence of the camp (1946-1949). From the total figure of the dead in 770 people for the first period there are 730 cases of death, on the second - 40 ".

The camp described by the historian in Krasnogorsk was far from the largest in the country: his maximum appeal was in 1944 - 11 thousand people, in 1946 - a little more than 4 thousand people. The camp branches were scattered in Moscow and neighboring regions: in the Moscow region Lytkarino, the prisoners worked on the glass plane, in the village of Mordvez Tula region worked with a sub-economy, worked at the factories in Dmitrov, Tushino and in the village of Konakovo Kalininskaya region, the forest was harvested at C Wristino, Guccovo stations (now - City of Dedovsk) and Rumyantsevo.

In Krasnogorsk, the prisoners built a school building, the NKVD archive, the city stadium of Zenit Society, houses for workers' workshops and a new residential comfortable town with a house of culture, houses and pioneergorem for engineering and technical workers of the Ministry of Geology in Optiha. They were built at home for employees of various police bodies and carried out work on the repair and improvement of Dynamo Stadium in Moscow.

The camp worked its own carpentry workshop with qualified chapel specialists from prisoners who have ordered furniture for Soviet sanatoriums and state bodies. The services of the car repair workshop of the Camp used the MVD motorcycles (the chaufferes were driven by the trophy machines), in the camp Atelier, the costumes of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Foreign Ministry, employees of the Pravda newspaper, artists of Moscow theaters were ordered. The prisoner has sewed a suit writer Boris Field.

The historian notes that the archive building in which the State Archive of Film Documents is currently located in Krasnogorsk, not only built the German workers, but also designed the German architect - Paul Spiegel, also in captivity.

Spiegel was one of the qualified professionals, whom from 1945 revealed the GUAPVI system in the camps and registered in a special way, and after they attracted to work in the specialty. "According to the NKVD, on October 15, 1945, various specialists of physicists, chemists, mechanical engineers, scientists with degrees of doctors, professors and engineers of 581 people" consisted in specialists of physicists, chemists, mechanical engineers, and 581 people in the camps.

Carner writes that by 1946 already 1600 specialists were selected in the Gupvi camps: "Among them were about 570 engineers of general engineering, almost 260 builders engineers and architects, about 220 electrician engineers, over 110 doctors of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and Technical Sciences , as well as engineers of 10 other specialties. Among them were large scientists and managers of famous German firms, such as Christians Manfred, the former technical director of the Motorized Ratio Firm "Argus", Certified by the USSR Academy of Sciences as a major gas turbine and jet engine specialist. "

Highly qualified specialists by order of the Council of Ministers of the USSR were created by special working conditions: many of them were transferred from the camps and provided accommodation near objects or enterprises where they worked. All paid a salary - about the same as Soviet engineers, and the half was issued in the currency of which they were prisoners. Such a "free" life continued, so far that or that agency needed a specific specialist: "For the Ministry of Internal Affairs it remains right at any time to send back to the camp of those professionals who did not show themselves at work for three months or for any other reasons Could be used in production. "

Captured in Gulag

And Christians Manfred, and Paul Spiegel, and Heinrich Ainzindl, and prime-prisoners of war, who worked in coal mines, at construction sites and forestryovals - only more than three million people were not convicted of any war crimes. Each prisoner after the arrest was repeatedly interrogated, the NKVD staff collected the testimony of its subordinates, residents of the territories occupied by the Nazis - and if evidence of its involvement in war crimes was found, the prisoner did not wait for the Camp of the GUBA system, but the death or catguard in Gulag.

On April 19, 1943, Decree No. 39 of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet "On the punishment measures for the German-fascist villains, guilty of murders and the rinses of the Soviet civilian population and prisoners of Red Army, for spies, Motherland, from among Soviet Citizens and for their accomplices" Chairman of the Presidium Mikhail Kalinina. The document provided for the Nazis and their accomplices of the death penalty or up to 20 years of hard labor. The executions were prescribed "publicly, with the people, and the bodies hang out on the gallows for several days, so that everyone knew how they were punished and what retribution would comprehend anyone who commit violence and violence over the civilian population and who betrays their homeland."

From 1943 to 1949, in accordance with Decree No. 39, thousands of sentences were made in the Soviet Union, including citizens of Germany. Most of those captured by the accused were sentenced in closed, right in the national camps. But there were also open, public processes - they lasted for several days, the audience was allowed there, and journalists, including foreign ones (for example, in 1943, even correspondents visited the processes in Krasnodar and Kharkov BBC. and THE NEW YORK TIMES). On all such court hearings took place 21, 17 of them - with respect to German war criminals.

On December 19, 1943, in the marketplace in Kharkov, they were hung on the convicts for the tortition of prisoners and civilians, as well as mass murders of the Hans Ritz, the Secretary Police of the Raingard of the Replafa and the officer of Abwehle Langheld. On December 20, 1945, on the Parprovskaya Square in Smolensk, the Willy Weiss Wijis and still six years of the Hitler's army, recognized as guilty of mass murders, rape, burning people alive, hung in Smolensk. On January 5, 1946, at Kalinin Square in Leningrad, the former Commedian of Pskov Heinrich Relanger, about 8 thousand people were destroyed by whose orders, and more seven convicts of Nazi criminals were destroyed. Executions were consistent with the large accumulation of local residents and removed For newsreel.

Among the accused, who came to these vessels, and those who received a long term were: Gendarmerie officers Franz Candler and Johann HAPP, who shot prisoners of war and peaceful citizens in Odessa were sentenced to 20 years of hard work each; Bobruisk's depth Bruno Getz and Hans Hehtl, who shot 280 people and burned 40 houses, received cautious cautious cauti in Minsk for 20 years; The same amount - 20 years of religious works - received the Efreitor Johann Laurer in Kiev, who participated in the shootings in Ternopil, Vinnitsa, Poltava, Mariupol, Lviv.

Since 1947, the death penalty in the Soviet Union was canceled, and the highest punishment has become a 25-year-old reference to cortish works. Camps were camps in Vorkuta, Kazakhstan, Norilsk, Taishet and Kolyma. In January 1950, "on the numerous requests of the working people", the death penalty was returned to the decree "On the use of the death penalty to the Motherland, spies, demolition-saboteurs".

Karner tells in his book about Major General of Mass MS Helmut Becker, who in 1947 in Kiev was sentenced to 25 years old cautious and serving a sentence in Vorkuta. In September 1952, Becker and his comrades on the camp department during work at the construction site were allegedly discovered an overhexious granite sleeve and did not become reported by find, fearing the wrath of the camp bosses. According to the investigation into the circumstances of the execution of Becker, which is referred to the author of the book "The Archipelago of the Gupvi", it is this careless find who caused the accusation of the SS general in the sabotage of construction work. The military tribunal sentenced him to the death penalty, in February 1952, Becker was shot.

The carner leads general statistics of convicted prisoners of war: "... 37,600 prisoners of war were convicted of everything, about 10,700 were convicted in the first years of captivity, and about 26 thousand in 1949-1950.<...> ... From 1942 to 1953, the processes of the NKVD 263 people were sentenced to death, the rest - to imprisonment of up to 25 years. "

Among those sentenced by 25 years were the head of the Distribution Division "Abver 3", Lieutenant General Franz Benenia, a participant in the preparation of the attack on the Soviet Union; Commander of the group of troops "Center" General Feldmarshal Ferdinand Sherner and many others. And how many others, Beneny and Sherner in 1955 released their homeland.

Return to Germany

The repatriation of the prisoners of Germans from the Allied States to Germany began almost immediately after the end of the war. In August 1945, Directorate of prisoners of war and displaced citizens were created under the control board. The heads of the Directorate were the heads of the departments of prisoners of war and displaced persons of each zone of the Occupation of Germany.

In the USSR, the progress of repatriation was regulated by government solutions and the orders of the NKVD. The first ruling of GKO came back in June 1945, it was discussed on the repatriation of 225 thousand "patients and weakened" of German and Austrian prisoners of war. In fact, on this ruling from the camps, there were even more prisoners - about 232 thousand, including 195 684 Germans. Two months later, August 13, 1945, the order of the NKVD was published about the release of more than 700 thousand people, 412 thousand people from this list were the Germans.

"Patients and weakened" until 1947 constituted the majority of repatriates sent to Germany: so the internal affairs bodies, fulfilling international agreements, at the same time got rid of the "live strength" who became unsuitable for the forced labor.

"I could hardly stand on my feet. He experienced a severe heart attack. Steering, I entered the room where the Commission on Medical Examination was located.<...> From the conversation, I realized that I was too young to allow me to leave home - I was 23 years old - and that I should stay in Russia and continue to work, - recalled Rudolf Honold, who was held until March 1948 in the camp in Stino (now - Ukrainian Donetsk). - And then my doctor helped. She convinced the camp officers, argued them that I was because of my sick heart and a lot of weight loss - and I weighed then a little more than 40 kg - I can't be useful for Russia.<...> After endless negotiations, I was heard the cherished word, which my doorship was hard to achieve for me: Home.

According to the instructions in force in the camps, prisoners 10 days before shipment to Germany were to be removed from work, to pay money earned, to carry out sanitation, to make vaccinations and return personal belongings. Soviet rubles were not allowed to export, so before sending the prisoners bought products that could be exchanged on the way, mostly sweet and tobacco: "For example, Wilhelm Loze, repatriated in 1949, drove with him almost 6 kg of sweets (cookies and candy ), 2355 pieces of cigarettes and 600 grams of tobacco. "

For the transport of prisoners, commercial wagons with scratches were used. In two-axis cars, according to the instructions, 40-45 people should have been loaded, in four-way Pulmanovsky - 80-90 people. In one echelon there were 60-65 wagons. Protected such trains The fighters of the Konvoy Service of the NKVD - 30-36 people at the echelon.

"The next day, when we approached the transport, which had to go on," recalled the former prisoners of war schwarzvalder, they were amazed seen. "Ancient" passenger train with wooden benches stood waiting for us. Locomotive pushed black smoke clubs into the air. He worked on the brown corner. It was impossible to open the windows. The trains were late for many hours on one-rone paths. "

At the stage, the condition of the already not the most healthy prisoners deteriorated significantly: this was facilitated not only the long road in cramped conditions, but also a lack of food and even water. The archives of the NKVD retained some examples of violations made during the transportation of repatriates: In August 1948, the prisoners of war in the train from Camp in Karaganda did not receive bread; Passengers of the train, which followed from the camp in Georgia in June 1948, gave two water buckets by 64 cars; In the train from Camp No. 1699 in the Novosibirsk region there was no food-food for nutrition of prisoners; A convoy, accompanied in April 1948, echelon with prisoners from Wolsk was eaten due to prisoners; Repatriates who followed the Tambov region in April 1948, did not feed seven days.

In the course of the following filtration of prisoners of war could be subjected to additional filtering, revealing among them aimed at repatriation by mistake of former members of the SS, CA, SD and Gestapo. It is known that in Brest from 1946 to 1950 thus removed from the trains and returned to the camps of 4,450 people.

In Germany, the captive Germans, as a rule, arrived in the national camp of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 69 in Frankfurt-on-Oder and held there for two or three days. It was the first place where they returned, even because of the barbed wire, could see their compatriots. The spectacle was depressed: In 1947, 70% of the prisoners who arrived in the camp were sick and left Frankfurt-on-Oder on Lazaret trains.

Those who could move independently returned to the place of residence - and the further procedure depended on whether it was in whose occupation zone. This is how the American Hans Schwarzvalder described his transfer: "Retail-colored Novobine-Krasnoarmec stood with a bayonet rifled to the rifle in a distance from his guard house and, before we ran 20 m in a narrow bridge to the Americans on the other side, examined repatriates. Finally you are free! Indescribable luck! Many rushed to Earth and kissed her! We are again in the homeland! [...] "AMIS" (Americans) met us coldly, emphasized politely. We received scrambled eggs, cocoa and white bread. Newly new checks, there was nothing without stamp and signature. After three hours I achieved a goal. In my arms, I had 80 DM (Doichmok, German brands - MZ), a certificate of liberation and a ticket to Munich. We still have a telegram home: "Everything is behind, arrive in two days. Large greetings from Hofa."

Those who were inhabitants of East Germany were supposed to undergo a camp quarantine, and then with a certificate of release to register at the police station. The repatriate was also obliged to undergo a medical examination, to register in the employment service and then could get product cards. All the movements of the former prisoners in East Germany until 1948 fixed the Swag (Soviet Military Administration of Germany), and after - the internal affairs bodies of the GDR.

In 1945, according to Gupvi, 1,009,589 prisoners of war were repatriated from the USSR camps, more than 600 thousand of them are Germans.

In 1946, more than 146 thousand German prisoners of war and about 21 thousand were repatriated and about 21 thousand internals.

In 1947, about 200 thousand Germans were repatriated, some of them are to Poland, as they were citizens of this country.

In 1948, more than 311 thousand prisoners of war and interned Germans repatriated.

In 1949, the USSR left more than 120 thousand former prisoners of war and about 38 thousand interned Germans.

On May 5, 1950, it was officially announced that the repatriation of German prisoners of war was finished. The TASS agency stated that in total since 1945 1,939,063 German prisoners of war were repatriated. "In the USSR, there are 13,532 convicts of German prisoners of war; 14 people temporarily delayed due to illness. "

A few more people left the USSR in 1951-1953. In 1955, the German Chancellor Conrad Adenauer arrived in Moscow. After signing the agreement with Germany, about 10 thousand Germans were repatriated. The last part of the former prisoners was transferred to the German authorities on January 16, 1956.

The exact number of Soviet prisoners of war of the Great Patriotic War is still unknown. Four to six million people. Through what had to go to the Nazi camps with the captive Soviet soldiers and officers?

Speak numbers

The question of the number of Soviet prisoners of war in the Great Patriotic War is still a debate. In German historiography, this figure comes to 6 million people, although the German command spoke about 5 million 270 thousand.
However, it is necessary to take into account the fact that violating the Hague and Geneva Convention, the German authorities included not only the soldiers and officers of the Red Army, but also the employees of the party bodies, partisans, underground workers, as well as the whole men's population from 16 to 55 years, retreating along with Soviet troops.

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the loss of prisoners in the Secondary Grooms amounted to 4 million 559 thousand people, and the Commission of the Ministry of Defense chaired by M. A. Gareeyev declared approximately 4 million.
The complexity of the counting is largely related to the fact that Soviet prisoners of war until 1943 did not receive registration numbers.

It is precisely established that 1,836,562 people returned from German captivity. Further fate is such: 1 million sent for further military service, 600 thousand - to work in industry, more than 200 thousand - in the Camp of the NKVD, as compromised themselves in captivity.

The first years

Most of the Soviet prisoners of war falls on the first two years of war. In particular, after an unsuccessful Kiev defensive operation in September 1941, about 665 thousand soldiers and Officers of the Red Army turned out to be in German captivity, and after the failure of the Kharkiv surgery in May 1942, more than 240 thousand redarmeys got to the German troops.

First of all, the German authorities were filtered: the commissars, the communists and the Jews were immediately eliminated, and the rest were steady in the special camp created in the rush order. Most of them were on the territory of Ukraine - about 180. Only in the notorious camp of Boguni (Zhytomyruschina) there were up to 100 thousand Soviet soldiers.

Captive had to make exhausting march-throws - 50-60 km per day. The path was often delayed for a whole week. The meal on the march was not envisaged, so the soldiers were content with the last feed: everything went into the food - spikelets of wheat, berries, acorns, mushrooms, foliage, bark, and even grass.
The instruction prescribed convoirs of all exhausted destroy. During the movement of the 5-thousandth column of prisoners of war in the Luhansk region on a segment of a distance of 45 kilometers a "shot of mercy", 150 people killed.

As the Ukrainian historian Gregory naked notes, about 1.8 million Soviet prisoners of war died on the territory of Ukraine, which is approximately 45% of the total number of victims among the prisoners of war of the USSR.

Soviet prisoners of war were in much more stringent conditions than soldiers of other countries. The formal basis for this Germany called the fact that the Soviet Union did not sign the Hague Convention of 1907 and did not join the Geneva Convention of 1929.

In fact, the German authorities carried out the Directive of the Supreme Command, according to which the Communists and Commissioners were not recognized as a soldier, and no international legal protection on them was distributed. With the beginning of the war, this applied to all RKKA prisoners of war.

Discrimination of Soviet prisoners of war was manifested in everything. For example, in contrast to the rest of the prisoners, they often did not receive winter clothes and were attracted exclusively to the most severe work. Also, the Soviet prisoners did not extend the activities of the International Red Cross.

In camps, intended exclusively for prisoners of war, the conditions were even more terrifying. Only a small part of the prisoners was placed in relatively adapted premises, most of the incredible recurrence could not only lie, but also stand. And someone was completely deprived of the roof above the head.

In the camp for Soviet prisoners of war - the "Uman Yama" prisoners were in an open-air, where there was no possibility to hide from the heat, wind or rain. "Umanskaya Yama", in fact, turned into a huge fraternal grave. "Died for a long time lay next to alive. No one paid attention to the corpses, there were so many of them, "they remembered the surviving prisoners.

Ration

In one of the orders of the director of the German concern "IG Farbenindastr", it was noted that "improving the productivity of prisoners of war can be reduced by the rate of food issuance." This directly related to Soviet prisoners.

However, in order to maintain the working capacity of the prisoners of war, I had to accrue the added food rate. For the week she looked like this: 50 gr. Cod, 100 gr. Artificial honey and up to 3.5 kg. Potatoes. However, the adding power could be obtained only for 6 weeks.

The usual diet of prisoners of war can be seen on the example of Starak No. 2 in Hammerstein. On the day, prisoners received 200 grams. Bread, Erzats-coffee and vegetable soup. The feeder of the diet did not exceed 1000 calories. In the zone of the Army Group "Center", the daily rate of bread for prisoners of war was and less - 100 grams.

For comparison, we will call the food provisions of German prisoners of war in the USSR. On the day they received 600 grams. Bread, 500 gr. Potatoes, 93 grams. Meat and 80 gr. croup
What fed the Soviet prisoners of war was little similar to food. Erzatz-bread, which in Germany was called "Russian" had the following composition: 50% of rye bran, 20% beets, 20% cellulose, 10% straw. However, the "hot lunch" looked even less edible: in fact, it is a scope of stinky liquid from poorly washed horses, and this "snack" was preparing in boilers in which the asphalt was cooked.
Disabled prisoners of war were deprived of such nutrition, and therefore their chances to survive were reduced to zero.

Work

By the end of 1941, in Germany, a tremendous need for working force was revealed in Germany, mainly in the military industry, and the deficit decided to fill first of all due to Soviet prisoners of war. This situation saved many Soviet soldiers and officers from mass destruction planned by the Nazi authorities.

According to the German historian G. Mommena, "With appropriate nutrition", the productivity of Soviet prisoners of war was 80%, and in other cases and 100% of the productivity of the German workers. In the mountain and metallurgical industry, this figure was less than - 70%.

Mommesen noted that the Soviet prisoners constituted "crucial and profitable labor", even cheaper than concluded concentration camps. Income to the state treasury, obtained as a result of the work of Soviet workers, was calculated by hundreds of millions of brands. According to another German historian, W. Herbert, all the works in Germany were employed 631,559 prisoners of war of the USSR.
Soviet prisoners of war often had to develop a new specialty: they became electricians, locksmiths, mechanics, turkeys, tractor drivers. The payment of labor was piecework and provided for the premium system. But, isolated from workers other countries, Soviet prisoners of war worked at 12 o'clock a day.

Resistance

Unlike the remaining prisoners of concentration camps, for example, the Jews, among the Soviet prisoners of war there was no single and massive resistance movement. Researchers call many reasons explaining such a phenomenon: this is the effective work of the security service, and constant hunger, which was experienced by the Soviet military. As an important factor, the fact that Stalin called all Soviet prisoners, "traitors," and Nazi propaganda did not fail to take advantage of it.

Nevertheless, since 1943, the foci of protest among Soviet prisoners of war began to occur more and more. So, in Stalage Zeitkhain by the central figure, around which the Soviet writer Stepan Zlobin became organized by the resistance was organized. With his comrades, he began produced by the newspaper "True on Captive". Gradually, the Zlobin group rose to 21 people.
A more large-scale resistance among Soviet prisoners of war, according to historians, began in 1944, when confidence in the inevitable death of the Nazi regime arose. But even then, not everyone wanted to risk a life, I said on a quick liberation.

Mortality

According to German historians, until February 1942, up to 6,000 Soviet soldiers and officers were destroyed in camps for prisoners of war. Often it was done by rejection with gas of entire barracks. Only in Poland, according to local authorities, 883,485 Soviet prisoners of war were buried.

It is now established that the Soviet military turned out to be the first, poisoning substances were tested in concentration camps. Later, this method was used everywhere to destroy the Jews.
Many Soviet prisoners of war died of diseases. In October 1941, in one of the branches of the Mauthausen-Guzen camp complex, where the Soviet soldiers were kept, the epidemic of the Tifa, which took about 6,500 people in the winter life. However, without waiting for the fatal outcome, many of these camp authorities destroyed gas right in the barracks.
Great was mortality among the wounded prisoners. Medical assistance to the Soviet prisoners turned out to be extremely rare. No one cared for them: they were killed both during the marches and camps. The diet of the wounded rarely exceeded 1000 calories per day, not to mention the quality of food. They were doomed to death.

Return

Those few soldiers who survived the horrors of the German captivity, waiting for a difficult test at home. They needed to prove that they are not traitors.

Special Directive Stalin, at the end of 1941, special filtration and test camps were created, in which the former prisoners of war were placed.
In the deployment band of six fronts - four Ukrainian and two Belarusian - more than 100 similar camps were created. By July 1944, almost 400 thousand prisoners of war were held in the special test. The overwhelming majority of them were transferred to Railoencomats, about 20 thousand became personnel for the defense industry, 12 thousand were full of assault battalions, and more than 11 thousand were arrested and convicted.