Wikipedia Caption:  An improvised camp for Soviet prisoners of war.  August 1942
Original historic description:  Scherl: Seit Beginn der Frühjahrskämpfe wurden an der Südostfront über eine Million gefangene Bolschewisten eingebracht. Riesig sind auch die Materialverluste der Sowjets. Wieder füllten sich die Gefangenenlager mit Tausenden von Bolschewisten und bedecken mit ihren wimmelnden Massen weiterhin das Gelände. PK-Aufnahme: Kriegsberichter Wahner 13.8.1942 [Herausgabedatum]
Wikipedia warning concerning original historic description:  For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme.

Nazi crimes against Soviet POWs

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Nazi crimes against Soviet Prisoners of War relates to the deliberately genocidal policies taken towards the captured soldiers of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany.  These efforts resulted in some 3.3 to 3.5 million deaths, about 60% of all Soviet POWs.

Summary

During Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union (USSR), and the subsequent German–Soviet War, millions of Red Army prisoners of war were taken.  Some of them were arbitrarily executed in the field by the German forces, died under inhuman conditions in German prisoner of war camps and during ruthless death marches from the front lines, or were shipped to Nazi concentration camps for extermination.

Some 3.3 million Soviet POWs died in Nazi custody out of 5.7 million.  This figure represents a total of 57% of all Soviet POWs and may be contrasted with only 8,300 out of 231,000 British and American prisoners, or 3.6%.  Some estimates range as high as 5 million dead, including those killed immediately after surrendering (an indeterminate, although certainly very large number).  Only 5% of the Soviet prisoners who died were of Jewish ethnicity.  Among those who died was Stalin's son, Yakov Dzhugashvili.

The most deaths took place between June 1941 and January 1942, when the Germans killed an estimated 2.8 million Soviet POWs primarily through starvation, exposure, and summary execution, in what has been called, along with the Rwandan Genocide, an instance of "the most concentrated mass killing in human history (...) eclipsing the most exterminatory months of the Jewish Holocaust".  By September 1941, the mortality rate among Soviet POWs was in the order of 1% per day.  According to the USHMM [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum], by the winter of 1941, "starvation and disease resulted in mass death of unimaginable proportions".  This deliberate starvation, leading many desperate prisoners to resort to acts of cannibalism, was Nazi policy in spite of food being available, in accordance to the Hunger Plan developed by the Reich Minister of Food Herbert Backe.

By comparison, between 374,000 and 1 million German prisoners of war died in Soviet labor camps.

Commissar Order

The Commissar Order (German: Kommissarbefehl) was a written order given by Adolf Hitler on 6 June 1941, prior to Operation Barbarossa.  It demanded that any Soviet political commissar identified among captured troops be shot immediately; those prisoners who could be identified as "thoroughly bolshevized or as active representatives of the Bolshevist ideology" were also to be executed.

Prisoner-of-war camps

The prisoners were stripped of their supplies and clothing by ill-equipped German troops when the cold weather set in.  This resulted in fatal consequences for the prisoners.  The camps established specially for the Soviets were called Russenlager.  In others, the Soviets were kept separated from the prisoners of other countries.  The Allied regulars kept by Germany were usually treated in accordance with the 1929 Geneva Convention (signed by Germany but not by the Soviet Union).

In the case of the Soviet POWs, most of the camps were simply open areas fenced off with barbed wire and watchtowers with no housing.  These meager conditions forced the crowded prisoners to live in holes they had dug for themselves, which were exposed to the elements.  Beatings and other abuse by the guards were common, and prisoners were malnourished, often consuming only a few hundred calories per day.  Medical treatment was nonexistent and a Red Cross offer to help in 1941 was rejected by Adolf Hitler.  Some of these conditions were actually worse than those experienced by prisoners in the German concentration camps.

In the summer and fall/autumn of 1941 during the German invasion, vast numbers of Soviet prisoners were captured in about eleven different encirclements (so-called cauldrons).  Due to the rapid advance and an expected quick victory, the Germans did not want to ship these prisoners back to Germany.  Under the administration of the Wehrmacht the prisoners were processed, guarded, forced marched, or transported in open railcars.  Much like the Bataan Death March, the treatment of prisoners was brutal, without much in the way of supporting logistics.

Wikipedia Caption:  Distribution of food in a POW camp near Vinnytsia, Ukraine. June 1941
Original historic description:  Ausgabe von Brot an gefangene Russen im Lager Winnica. 28.7.1941
Wikipedia warning concerning original historic description:  For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme.

Wikipedia Caption:  Naked Soviet prisoners of war in Mauthausen concentration camp.  Unknown date.
Original historic description:  Österreich.- Konzentrationslager Mauthausen, Sowjetische Kriegsgefangene vor der Baracke
Wikipedia warning concerning original historic description:  For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme.

Germany's war of annihilation in the Soviet Union resulted in millions of civilian deaths.  Here six supposed partisans are executed in September 1941.
Photograph and bottom caption are from David Stahel, Kiev 1941: Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2012, p. 195.

And here is another group of six victims in the same assembly-line procedure, perhaps the tenth or the hundredth group of the day, the volly having just been fired this time.  Behind the victims is a pit into which they fall after being shot.



When the moaning from the pit becomes annoying, the officer steps forward and takes potshots at anyone he sees moving.

Germans didn't just shoot Ukrainians, they also hanged them, just as they hanged Russians and Belarusans and Poles and Czechs and other Slavs.








russian-victories.ru~


russian-victories.ru~


russian-victories.ru~
In connection with the above Belarusan hangings, see also the clickable images at www.charonboat.com~

To the Germans, hanging Slavs was not obeying a horrific order, it was having fun, at least once they got used to it, and they did get very used to it.

Civilians were hanged most often in retaliation for some anti-German act committed by others or for suspected partisan activity, also sometimes for refusing to work, and for many other reasons, among which seems to be a woman having sex with Germans, as is said to have been the case depicted in the three photographs below which originate from www.charonboat.com~.  However, it may be wondered whether a practice as commonplace as soldiers having sex with local women would have brought on such severe punishment had it not simultaneously been characterized by something that the military command regarded as insidious and subversive, which in its most most extreme manifestation would have been the woman bewitching a senior officer, and upon that foundation strengthening both his sympathy for the conquered people and his aversion to German cruelty, and following that up with persuading him to release her arrested father or husband or son and with supplying her with enough food to feed her family, and in the worst nightmares of the high command, would have culminated in persuading the high-ranking officer to turn traitor to the Nazi cause and giving aid the Slavic resistance.  In short, it is more plausible that the woman below was hanged for using her youth and beauty to undermine German war aims than for breaking a sex rule.

Some German hangings of civilians can be followed step by step, but possibly none in such detail as in the case of the unknown girl in the photographs below around whose neck a placard has been hung, and with a bearded Kiril Trus standing to her right, and with a capped 16-year-old Volodia Shcherbatsevich standing to her left, in Minsk, Belarus on 26 Oct 1941.  It has been speculated that the unknown girl might be either Masha Bruskina or Shura Linevich or perhaps Natasha the assistant nurse who worked in the Minsk Military Hospital.  The placard reads, We are partisans — we have shot at German soldiers.  This same placard being draped across other victims (compare to the placard in the "Belorussia, in the streets of Minsk, 26 October 1941" photo above) suggests that it was mass printed and used to give the appearance that the victim had been proven to have committed the act named on the placard, when in fact the placard may have served as a blanket condemnation of anyone being hanged for any reason. www.charonboat.com/item/36

As German hanging of civilians was commonplace, there is today no dearth of corroborating photographs, as is demonstrated by the following collection on the Yad Vashem web site, with it being useful to remember that "USSR" often means Ukraine, and that even "Russia" often means Ukraine:

USSR, Man hanged in suspicion of Partisan activity.   @
Serbia, Mass hanging of hostages, apparently by the SS but in the presence of German soldiers.   @
USSR, A man hanged by the Germans.   @
USSR, Man hanged in suspicion of Partisan activity.   @
Ukraine, Bogoduchov, Hanging of two suspects of Partisan activity Shavczenka Street, year 1942.   @
USSR, Man hanged in suspicion of Partisan activity.   @
Belorussia, Minsk, Two men and a woman that were hanged by the Germans ...   @
USSR, Three men hanged in suspicion of Partisan activity.   @
Serbia, Pancevo, Hanging of local civilians by German soldiers ...   @
Romania, Arad, Hanging of civilians by the Germans.   @
USSR, People hanged by the Germans in suspicion of Partisan activity ...   @
USSR, Two men hanged by the German army.   @
USSR, Hanging of two men by German soldiers.   @
Russia,German soldiers hanging a man in the Porkhov area.   @
USSR, Two suspects of Partisan activity that were hanged by the Germans ...   @
USSR, A citizen hung by the Germans, seemingly because of suspicion ...   @
Ukraine, Kharkov, People hanged in the street by the Germans in Shavczenka Street, year 1942.   @
Ukraine, Kharkov, Men hanged by the Germans in retaliation for ...   @
USSR, Suspects of Partisan activity, hanged by the Germans in the ...   @
Gayvoron, USSR, Suspects of Partisan activity, hanged by the Germans...   @
Ukraine, Kharkov, Men hanged by the Germans in retaliation for ...   @
USSR, Partisan hanged by the Germans.   @
USSR, Public hanging in the presence of German soldiers.   @
Ukraine, Kiew, Man hanged by the Germans.   @
USSR, Man hanged for arson.   @
USSR, People hanged by the Germans.   @
Poland, People hanged in public by the Germans.   @
Ukraine, Kiew, A man hanged by the Germans.   @
USSR, A suspect of Partisan activity hanged by the Germans.   @
USSR, A partisan hanged by the German army.   @
USSR, Two men hanged by the German army.   @
USSR, A partisan hanged by the German army.   @
USSR, Suspects of Partisan activity hanged by the Germans   @
USSR, Suspects of Partisan activity hanged by the Germans   @
USSR, Man hanged by the Germans.   @
USSR, Orel, People hung by the Germans in public for sabotage and for refusing to work ...   @
USSR, Two men hanged by the Germans.   @
USSR, Man hanged for suspicion of Partisan activity.   @
USSR, Suspects of Partisan activity hanged by the Germans   @
USSR, public hanging in the presence of German soldiers.   @
Ukraine, Bogoduchov, Hanging of two suspects of partisan activity ...   @
Ukraine, Bogoduchov, Hanging of two suspects of Partisan activity ...   @
Ukraine, Kharkov, Man hanged by the Germans, in suspicion of Partisan ...   @
USSR, Man hanged by the Germans.   @
Ukraine, Kharkov, Civilians hanged by the Germans in retaliation ...   @
Ukraine, Teploye, A woman hanged by the Germans for carrying ammunition...   @
USSR, Man hanged by the Germans in suspicion of Partisan activity.   @
USSR, Man hanged by the Germans for looting and hiding abandoned ...   @
Ukraine, Ten hostages hanged by the Germans.   @
Poland, Lodz, Hanging of three men by the German police.   @
Ukraine, Hanging of civilians by German soldiers.   @
Ukraine, Ten hostages hanged by the Germans.   @
USSR, man who was hanged after refusing to work.   @
Ukraine, Sumy, Two suspects of Partisan activity hanged by the Germans.   @
Ukraine, Sumy, Two suspects of Partisan activity hanged by the Germans.   @
USSR, men who were hanged after refusing to work.   @
USSR, men who were hanged after refusing to work.   @
USSR, Men who were hanged by the Germans near a train station.   @
USSR, Men who were hanged by the Germans near a train station.   @
USSR, Men who were hanged by the Germans near a train station.   @
USSR, Two civilians hanged by the Germans.   @
USSR, German soldiers beside men who were hanged after refusing to work.   @
USSR, A suspect in Partisan activity that was hanged.   @
Belorussia, Minsk, Suspects of Partisan activity hanged in public, 1941.   @
Yugoslavia, Serbia, Mass hanging of hostages, probably by SS...   @
USSR, Man being hanged by the Germans.   @
Poland, Lodz, Hanging of three men by the German police.   @
Yugoslavia, Pancevo, Hanging of locals by German soldiers in retaliation ...   @
Ukraine, Kharkov, Civilians hanged by the Germans in retaliation ...   @

Ah, well, but surely not all German soldiers spent their time shooting civilians on the edges of pits or hanging them with placards around their necks.  Weren't some Germans employed in blameless activities at some distance from the violence, as perhaps in food procurement, as is exemplified in the photographs below?  Shouldn't the Germans shown in these photographs be recognized as merely participating in the time-honored army activity of scrounging?  Should we not recognize that the sort of work that these scroungers did was as harmless as chasing honking and flapping geese around farmyards?  Should not their congenial smiles remind us that they bore no ill will and participated in no murder?

USSR, Soldiers from the German air force with fowls that were confiscated from local peasants.
Photo and caption from yadvashem


USSR, German soldiers and POW's by a field kitchen.
Photo and caption from yadvashem


USSR, German soldiers with sheep.
Photo and caption from yadvashem


USSR, German soldiers leading a confiscated cow.
Photo and caption from yadvashem

And when it came to food stores, wouldn't the local farmers have been happy to share their supplies with the Germans?

USSR, Peasants with crops, February 1942.
Photo and caption from yadvashem


USSR, German soldiers seemingly confiscating food from the local inhabitants.
Photo and caption from yadvashem

And other soldiers not occupied with food procurement might have been put to the blameless and nonviolent work of procuring accomodation such as that pictured below:

USSR, A peasants hut used to quarter German soldiers, 29/09/1941.
Photo and caption from yadvashem


Poland, Wlosow, A peasants hut used to quarter German soldiers, 10/11/1941.
Photo and caption from yadvashem

However, the captions above have already begun to erode the image of blameless and fun-loving Germans, for the captions contain the words "confiscated" and "confiscating" which in the present context are synonyms for robbing, and which image of blameless Germans the analysis below does not merely undermine so much as it turns on its head:

The fabled spectre of campaigning through a Russian winter thus assumed a certain foreboding prominence, which loomed in the minds of many Landsers as the weather began to change.  Solomon Perel, who was travelling with a group of soldiers from the 12th Panzer Division, noted that the men "had not forgotten Napoleon's defeat in 1812 and ... [t]hey were scared out of their wits".  Another soldier wrote home on 21 September, "God save us from a winter campaign in the east.  It is very cold here already and rains practically every day."  Wilhelm Prüller wrote in his diary on 28 September that it was so cold he and his comrades had to sleep in their vehicles.  He then continued, "Terribly cold.  You can't wrap yourself in too many blankets.  When I think back on the July and August days, when we simply spent the nights lying in a field on the grass, I have to mourn for the summer...  And who knows what's in front of us as far as the weather goes?"  It was a prudent question, which held dire implications not only for the operational aspects of the campaign, but also for the war of annihilation.  With a chronic shortage of housing in the forward areas of the front, German soldiers ensured they were not the ones being left out in the cold.  As Wilhelm Prüller's diary records: You should see the act the civilians put on when we make it clear to them that we intend to use their sties to sleep in.  A weeping and yelling begins, as if their throats were being cut, until we chuck them out.  Whether young or old, man or wife, they stand in their rags and tatters on the doorstep and can't be persuaded to go...  When we finally threaten them at pistol point, they disappear for a few minutes, only to return again yelling even more loudly. While no one was freezing to death in September 1941, the Russian peasants knew better than anyone what was coming and knew that survival depended on shelter and stores of food for the coming winter.  Without access to these the weather would soon prove fatal for countless Soviet peasants.  In this indirect way Germany's war of annihilation involved average German soldiers to a far greater extent than is often acknowledged.  Between seventeen and eighteen million Soviet civilians died in the war with Nazi Germany and most of these died not as a direct result of a German action (that is, by being shot), but rather from the conditions created by the German army and occupational forces (starvation, disease, exposure, overwork, etc.).  Accordingly, however some historians may seek to "interpret" the circumstances or apply restrictive definitions to what constituted a war crime, the fact remains that the Ostheer and its soldiers, each to varying extents participated in and contributed to the conditions which resulted in the deaths of so many.  In this sense one must keep in mind that the well-known suffering of the German army during the winter fighting had even worse results for the civilian population, especially in the areas of heavy German troop concentrations. David Stahel, Kiev 1941: Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2012, pp. 332-333.

And so John Demjanjuk speaks of eleven million of his fellow Ukrainians having been murdered by the Germans, and author David Stahel speaks of between seventeen and eighteen million Soviet civilians having died in the war, but the two sorts of murderers we have glanced at above, the firing-squad men and the hangmen, could not possibly have been responsible for that many deaths.  They were brutal killers, without question, and they killed vast numbers, and they deserve the deepest contempt and the harshest punishment, and yet they must have been only the small-time killers.  And so who were the big-time killers?

The big-time killers in the German annihilation machine were those grinning confiscators we saw just above, chasing geese around the farmyard, grabbing a sheep here and there, leading away a cow, carting away sacks of wheat, slamming the door in a peasant's face.  It is these killers who racked up the holocaust of eleven million or seventeen or eighteen million deaths.

Murder is murder whether it is accomplished by shooting or hanging or starving or freezing.  Eighteen million murders is eighteen million murders whether they are committed inside barbed-wire enclosures or outside.  As the vast mortality figures demonstrate, confiscating a peasant's livestock and food store and house as winter approaches is indistinguishable in degree of culpability from putting him into a POW camp where his diet is starvation and his housing is a hole in the ground that he digs himself.  Thus it follows that thousands of Germans alive today deserve to be prosecuted for war crimes before John Demjanjuk is prosecuted, starting with those above that we saw murdering civilians with bullets and nooses, and including all those involved in the running of the POW death camps, and continuing on to those who snatched from others the food and the habitation that were needed to sustain life, and extending finally to those who were present at the snatching and understood the death sentence it pronounced, but who sat by the fire inside the peasant's house and ate the peasant's food anyway.

Here's how a few of the dispossesed tried to survive, shown suffering and dying even before the snows arrive (note the tree stripped of bark):

People had to chew the wood putty because of starvation.



The child survived.

The two above photographs and captions are from englishrussia.com~

Hundreds of thousands of Soviet prisoners of war were taken in the aftermath of the battle of Kiev, but very few would survive captivity.   ullstein bild — Arthur Grimm.