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Video: Captured by the Russians: What German POWs Remembered About the Years Spent in the USSR
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In the fall of 1955, the last German prisoner of war was released to Germany. In total, about 2 million people went home during the repatriation period. In the postwar period, they were involved in the construction and restoration of the national economy. The Germans mined coal and Siberian gold, restored Dneproges and Donbass, and rebuilt Sevastopol and Stalingrad. Despite the fact that the special camp is not a pleasant place, in their memories the former prisoners spoke relatively well of the time they spent in the USSR.
The hardships of the first prisoners
The procedure for the treatment of prisoners at the beginning of World War II was regulated by the Geneva Convention of 1929, which the USSR did not sign. At the same time, paradoxically, the Soviet camp regime was much more in line with the prescribed Geneva regulations. Nobody hides the fact of the difficult living conditions of German prisoners of war, but this picture cannot be compared with the survival of Soviet citizens in German camps.
According to statistics, at least 40% of the captured Russians died in fascist dungeons, while no more than 15% of Germans died in Soviet captivity. Of course, the first German prisoners of war had a hard time. In 1943, after the Battle of Stalingrad, about 100 thousand captured Germans were in a terrible state. Frostbite, gangrene, typhus, head lice, dystrophy - all this contributed to the fact that many of them died even during the transition to places of detention. Later it will be called the "death march". A harsh atmosphere reigned in the camps of that period. But there were reasons for that. Even the civilian population lacked food, everything was sent to the front. What can we say about the prisoners of the Nazis. The day when they were given bread with empty soup was considered lucky.
Postwar thaw
The situation of prisoners has significantly improved at the end of the Great Patriotic War. After the victory of the Russians, at least 2.5 million German troops remained on the territory of the Soviet Union. Their present camp life was not much different from the imprisonment of “their own”. To this day, opinions have been expressed regarding the maintenance of German prisoners of war about the overly soft approach of the Soviet regime. The daily ration of yesterday's enemy included a set set of products: bread (after 1943, the rate almost doubled), meat, fish, cereals, vegetables, or at least potatoes, salt, sugar. Sick prisoners and generals were entitled to an increased ration. If some products were lacking, they were replaced with bread. Consciously, the prisoners were not starved, such an approach was not practiced in Soviet camps. In the USSR, the order concerning the preservation of the lives of German soldiers was carried out quite tolerably.
Paid labor of prisoners
The prisoners of war, of course, worked. The historical phrase of Molotov is known that not a single German prisoner of war will return home until Stalingrad is fully restored. Following this covenant, the Germans were not only employed in large construction projects in the USSR, but also used in public works. By the way, the prisoners did not work for a piece of bread. By order of the NKVD, prisoners were instructed to issue a monetary allowance, the amount of which was determined by military rank. Bonuses were awarded for shock work and overfulfilment of plans. In addition, prisoners were allowed to receive letters and money orders from their homeland. And in the camp barracks one could find visual agitation - boards of honor, the results of labor competitions.
Such achievements also gave additional privileges. It was then that the labor discipline of the Germans became a household name in the Soviet environment. They still say about everything that was built by their hands, meaning high quality: "This is a German building." By the hands of prisoners who for years lived side by side with the citizens of the Soviet Union, though behind barbed wire, objects of important industrial and economic importance were erected in a short time and with high quality.
The Germans were involved in the restoration of factories, dams, railways, ports destroyed during the war. Prisoners of war restored old dwelling houses and built new ones. For example, with their help, the main building of Moscow State University was built, whole districts of the same Yekaterinburg were erected by the hands of the Germans. Among them, highly qualified specialists in various fields, doctors of sciences, engineers were especially appreciated. Thanks to their knowledge, important rationalization proposals were introduced.
Memories
The memoirs and letters of former prisoners of war published in Germany clearly shed light on the events of that period. According to the testimony of the prisoner Hans Moeser, the attitude of the Soviet people towards the Germans who came to the USSR as enemies seemed to him especially striking. He cites facts of humanity even on the part of the guards, who allow Germans who do not have enough warm clothes to stay within the camp walls in severe frosts. Moezer also talked about a Jewish doctor who diligently saved the lives of seriously ill prisoners. I remembered the old woman at the Volsky train station, embarrassedly distributing pickles to the Germans.
Klaus Meyer also spoke positively about camp life. According to his testimony, the quality of the prisoners' food was slightly inferior to that of the guards. And for overfulfillment of the working norm to the usual diet, they always served "dessert" in the form of an increase in portions and tobacco. Mayer argued that over the years he lived in the USSR, he had never once encountered the Russians' outright hatred of the Germans and attempts to take revenge for their sins, contrary to the established order. Mayer remembered the small camp library, where volumes of the German classics Heine, Schiller and Lessing stood on the hastily knocked down wooden shelves.
German Josef Hendrix gives grateful testimonies, who kept a wristwatch dear to his heart until he returned home. As a rule, such things were taken from prisoners. Once in Krasnogorsk, a Soviet lieutenant who noticed a watch hidden in the bootleg asked Joseph a question: "Why hide a watch from civilized people?" The prisoner was confused and did not find an answer. Then the Russian silently left and returned with a certificate in which the watch was recorded as my personal property. After that, the German could openly wear a watch on his wrist.
Maybe that's why some prisoners of war refused to leave the USSR, creating families and having children? Once upon a time, their compatriots also came to this northern distant country, and their descendants live with us today.
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