Soviet Prisoners of War
During the first months of war, when the Red Army was in steady retreat, the Germans captured millions of Soviet soldiers. In August 1941, Stalin, concerned that there were several generals among the prisoners, issued his notorious order № 270. Although the document stated only that the Red Army soldiers were not allowed to surrender, it was construed as an order to never be captured regardless of the situation. This interpretation later ruined the lives of many people returning from captivity.
Although at one time, the Soviet Union had refused to sign several international conventions on humane treatment of prisoners of war, once the war started Stalin declared his willingness to be bound by them. Germany ignored Stalin’s pronouncement: Nazi propaganda used the USSR’s failure to sign these conventions as an excuse to mistreat captured Red Army soldiers. In German concentration camps they faced a terrible fate: starvation, filth, cold, abusive guards and lack of shelter. In the spring of 1942, the Germans,who were in dire need of exploitable labor, recounted their prisoners and discovered that out of 3,500,000 people captured in 1941 about 60% had either perished or been executed. After that, the living conditions in the camps were somewhat improved, but only enough to enable the prisoners to work at the military factories.
After the war, the former prisoners of war returned to the Soviet Union and were forced into the so-called infiltration camps where they had to prove that they were innocent of aiding the enemy. Yet another imprisonment awaited many of those returning to their country, and having been a prisoner of war remained a dishonor until the mid-1950’s.
Although at one time, the Soviet Union had refused to sign several international conventions on humane treatment of prisoners of war, once the war started Stalin declared his willingness to be bound by them. Germany ignored Stalin’s pronouncement: Nazi propaganda used the USSR’s failure to sign these conventions as an excuse to mistreat captured Red Army soldiers. In German concentration camps they faced a terrible fate: starvation, filth, cold, abusive guards and lack of shelter. In the spring of 1942, the Germans,who were in dire need of exploitable labor, recounted their prisoners and discovered that out of 3,500,000 people captured in 1941 about 60% had either perished or been executed. After that, the living conditions in the camps were somewhat improved, but only enough to enable the prisoners to work at the military factories.
After the war, the former prisoners of war returned to the Soviet Union and were forced into the so-called infiltration camps where they had to prove that they were innocent of aiding the enemy. Yet another imprisonment awaited many of those returning to their country, and having been a prisoner of war remained a dishonor until the mid-1950’s.