German historian: First they fought for Hitler, and then worked for Stalin

When the whole world celebrated the victory over fascism in May 1945, the war was not over for German prisoners of war. And if earlier they fought for the interests of Hitler and the Nazis, then, having been captured, they had to work for Stalin.

The fate of German prisoners of war to the Czech online publication Aktualne was told by a German historian, Rüdiger Overmans.

For the entire time of the Great Patriotic War, about three million German troops were captured by Soviet soldiers. Their work was used in Siberia, Ukraine, the Urals and in many other regions of the USSR. In addition, they were engaged in the restoration of the destroyed economy in the countries of Eastern Europe previously occupied by them, and also worked there in hazardous and harmful industries.

More than a million Germans were allowed to go home in 1946. The last prisoners of war returned to Germany in 1955.

Overmans claims that none of the German soldiers captured in 1941-1942 survived. Subsequently, mortality became lower. Of the three million German prisoners of war, according to the historian, “a quarter or a third” perished.

After their release, many of them with great difficulty adapted to peaceful life, because the former prisoners returned to a completely different country, not to the Nazi Germany that they remembered.

Overmans also notes the difference in attitudes towards these “repatriates” in the GDR and the FRG:

From the point of view of West Germany, they were martyrs in the struggle against communism. East Germany, in turn, saw in them criminals who deserved their fate.

Comments

[rocket757]

What are we sorry for them?
They came to us without an invitation, got what they deserved .... and the boys, grandfathers, "historians", groaning, should be taken to the places of their "exploits", EVERYTHING !!! We have a lot of them, such places.

[PalBor]

And then, they did not work for Stalin, but restored what they destroyed. In a country that came to be razed to the ground. Oh, how poor they were, poor things. Again Kolya smells from Urengoy.

[Alexander Suvorov]

Overmans claims that none of the German soldiers captured in 1941-1942 survived. Subsequently, mortality became lower. Of the three million German prisoners of war, according to the historian, “a quarter or a third” perished.

Forgive the moderators, but this German rot reptile, does not want to remember how many prisoners of war of the Red Army died in German camps?
No, well, how much can snot chew on our Foreign Ministry?
Isn't it time to remind, and actually what did the German prisoners of war in the USSR forget? Did Stalin brazenly steal them from Germany and make them work? And mind you, not for free. Where, in what other country were prisoners of war paid for their work? Probably few of today's youth from that category of "kolsurengoy" know that the Germans for their labor received not only rations, which were sometimes higher than even the soldiers of the Red Army received, but salary for your work.
The German does not want to remember what compatriots did to his monsters with our prisoners of war? And what did they do with the civilian population? And with the children who took all the blood for the German wounded?
Stsukodla, some mats in the language, but we had every moral right to destroy the German people without exception, after what they had done here. But no, we are kind, we paid prisoners of war from the money that we ourselves had little, we fed the starving Germans and their offspring in the destroyed cities of Germany.
WHEN DO WE ALREADY TELL ABOUT THIS WITH AN EXTRA VOICE? And we will not bleat over the next destroyed our monument?

[rocket757]

Quote: Alexander Suvorov

WHEN DO WE ALREADY TELL ABOUT THIS WITH AN EXTRA VOICE? And we will not bleat over the next destroyed our monument?

It’s useless to say sho, to bleat! must be punished! if we count it right.
Medieval is beautiful, like a balm for wounds, but now it is not possible!
It means otherwise, no less painful!
Shaw the capitalist is the most painful, for sho he is to any politician and to anyone, more / sh \ ku or sho another will immediately collapse ??? It’s not difficult to guess .... that’s why and to beat, with all the foolishness or wit that will be even more effective.

[Hlavaty]

Quote: Alexander Suvorov

Forgive the moderators, but this German rotten reptile does not want to remember how many prisoners of war of the Red Army died in German camps?
No, well, how much can snot chew on our Foreign Ministry?

Here you are immediately grabbing the Foreign Ministry, and this "companionship" is flourishing at all levels.
Even at the level of this reputable site: here I wanted to put a minus article, but no way Remember how in the comments they tried to introduce the same "Bologna" system - like you can approve (+), but you can object (-) nizzzya. Thank God, after long debates in the comments, this tolerance was removed, and now you can put both plus and minus.
But with the articles, for some reason, they left this one-sided system - you can only approve. Why? We are afraid of offended authors to offend? Let them continue to be mistaken?

So is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - it seems to him that they have also been forbidden to set cons.

There is no room for objection in the new world - you either agree or be silent.

[cost]

Alexander Suvorov: : Where, in what other country were prisoners of war paid for their labor?

In all countries of the world that have complied with the Hague Convention on Prisoners of War
The USSR observed it with respect to German prisoners of war. Of course, they were not paid the average salary of a Soviet citizen, but they received a monetary "allowance" that was equal to 10 rubles for a soldier and 25 rubles for a general. With this money, you especially do not fatten, but it was quite possible to buy yourself a smoke, paper for letters and other little things. By the way, the prisoners were not limited in communication with the outside world. They had the right to write letters home and receive money orders.

As a result, according to the Central Federal District of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR from 1943 to 1950. prisoners of war worked 1 man-days and set up in the amount of 067 billion rubles. In those days it was astronomical money.

[cost]

Alexander Suvorov: few people know that the Germans for their work received not only rations, which were sometimes higher than even the soldiers of the Red Army received

Well, where is the above?
The daily ration of German prisoners of war, according to the Central Federal District of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR from 1943 to 1950, was 350 g of rye bread, 80 g of fish, 350 g of vegetables
The daily allowance rates of the Red Army men and the commanding officers of the army included 800 g of rye wallpaper bread (900 g in the cold season, from October to March), 500 g of potatoes, 320 g of other vegetables (fresh or pickled cabbage, carrots, beets, onions, greens), 170 grams of cereals and pasta, 150 grams of meat, 100 grams of fish, 50 grams of fat (30 grams of fat and fat, 20 grams of vegetable oil), 35 grams of sugar. Smoked servicemen were supposed to have 20 grams of shag daily, monthly - 7 smoking books as paper and three boxes of matches. Compared to pre-war standards, only wheat bread disappeared from the main diet,

[Mordvin 3]

Quote: Rich

Well, where is the above?

Often higher than workers. At Drabkin some German recalled how they fed our girls that they could not cope with the plan.

[cost]

Often, higher than workers.

. So give a specific example.
In the meantime, the faith of the Central Federal District of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR is much greater than the stories about "girls who cannot cope with the plan" in the camps for German prisoners of war.

[Mordvin 3]

Quote: Rich

The faith of the Central Federal District of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR is much greater

And where is written in the Central Federal District of the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the attitude of the population towards prisoners? Or vice versa?

[cost]

And here is the attitude of the population towards prisoners? There is no need to wag and evade the question. You argue that the daily ration of German prisoners of war is often higher than that of workers.
So give a specific example.

[Mordvin 3]

Quote: Rich

No need to wag and evade the question.

Poke a finger into the question, I do not see point-blank.

Quote: Rich

You argue that the daily ration of German prisoners of war is often higher than that of workers.

Not me, the Wehrmacht soldier who was captured.

Quote: Rich

So give a specific example.

Look at Drabkin, I’m not going to interview him with the Germans for the sake of your Wishlist.

[antivirus]

They rushed to us without invitation, got what
-but "we reached Magadan and Baku"

[rocket757]

As they got there, they stayed there, many. Just another lesson - Who is to us with a sword .... and then as usual.

[Cyril G ...]

Overmans claims that none of the German soldiers captured in 1941-1942 survived.

Insolent lies and pathetic attempt to wash. This wonderful man did not want to compare mortality in prison camps in the USSR and Germany?

[AU Ivanov.]

Our prisoners of war were fed according to the standards established for the rear units. They that rations for the fifth flight norm had to be prescribed? Nobody destroyed the prisoners of war consciously, unlike ...

[Paranoid50]

Quote: AS Ivanov.

Our prisoners of war were fed according to the standards established for the rear units.

And yes, our people are broad-minded. In 1945, when my grandfather returned home to Ulyanovsk, on the way from the station he met some neighbors that "secretly" told him: "And your nemchuru is feeding Stepanida ... Enemies, after all ..." I got home , met with his wife, children, and on the way learned what and how - it turned out that some townspeople gave waste to the Fritzes for food. And where was it to fatten at that time? A little later I went to see what kind of nemchura this was ... There was a construction site nearby, and prisoners of war were involved in the back room - their appearance was appropriate. The grandfather's verdict was unequivocal: "What are they enemies today ... Tea, not warriors already ..." And he had every right to do so. Winner's right.

[orionvitt]

Quote: AS Ivanov.

Our prisoners of war were fed according to the standards established for the rear units

The story was told by a former employee (who was a kid in 1946). How hungry they were at the prisoners of the Germans who worked at construction sites, exchanged potatoes and canned food for various small things. Note that the prisoners of war, the locals exchanged food. And like the captured Germans, after they were released, before leaving for Germany, goods were swept in stores (they especially liked men's hats with a feather). And who from the German "historians" will tell me about the atrocities of the "Stalinist regime"?

[cost]

exchanged potatoes and canned goods for different small things. Note, in prisoners of war, the locals traded food

Everything could be. Although VS Vysotsky asserts exactly the opposite - "at construction sites, the Germans exchanged knives for bread for bread"

[Motorist]

Thanks - I have not heard for a long time. You, but first of all, of course, to Vladimir Semyonovich.

[hagen]

Overmans claims that none of the German soldiers captured in 1941-1942 survived. Subsequently, mortality became lower. Of the three million German prisoners of war, according to the historian, “a quarter or a third” perished.

Even in 1943, during preparations for repelling the Citadel, the troops of the Central Front had a case of death of personnel from exhaustion. So even if only one of all the millions of captured Germans returned, then this would be a lot for them. They came to a land foreign to them. In all fairness, every one of them should have been buried on it, including the cooks and pig bristle producers.

[AU Ivanov.]

We are not fascists, destroy prisoners of war. Even in fairness. This is our difference.

[Vasyan1971]

From the point of view of West Germany, they were martyrs in the struggle against communism.

Well yes. The perverted logic of the unfinished Nazi: "I went to get some wool, returned with a haircut and ransacked ... offended. That means - a holy martyr! Suffered for a just cause!"
Have pity on him and make peace with him.

[NordUral]

The perverted logic of the unfinished Nazi: "I went for fur, came back with a haircut and ransacked ... offended. That means - a holy martyr! Suffered for a just cause!

This is the whole West.

[Cananecat]

It could not be otherwise ... only the German historian missed the moment, how many prisoners remained then in the Union, as they will say now for permanent residence. Let not enough, but there were such.

[AU Ivanov.]

I personally knew this. I stayed in the USSR for permanent residence, I don’t know how Makar, but the fact is clear. Engineer: His name and surname were changed, in order to avoid. He spoke with a slight accent, everyone considered him for the Baltic states. The most interesting thing is that even the veterans, knowing who he was, did not beat his face, but drank vodka with him. Magnanimous we are the people.

[iouris]

Quote: AS Ivanov.

but drank vodka with him

They drank vodka ... When they were building, in the rear, Russian people sometimes passed bread to the prisoners, although they themselves did not finish: "Why, they are simple people, like us ..." (this is me, according to the stories of a woman who did this herself , although her husband died at the front, and she was left with four children in her arms), of course, the food standards were severe ...
On May 9, in Galle, a rather elderly German came to the houses in which we lived, thanked him for not being allowed to die in captivity, cried ... They all knew and understood.
They did not work for Stalin, but worked out.
But there were units that went over to the side of the USSR to fight. I knew one.
Many of them were re-educated in captivity, they consciously built the GDR, a state in which the German national spirit was not killed (unlike West Germany, Germany, where the British and Americans were purposefully doing this).

[ccsr]

Quote: AS Ivanov.

I personally knew this. I stayed in the USSR for permanent residence, I don’t know how Makar, but the fact is clear. Engineer: His name and surname were changed, in order to avoid. He spoke with a slight accent, everyone considered him for the Baltic states. The most interesting thing is that even the veterans, knowing who he was, did not beat his face, but drank vodka with him. Magnanimous we are the people.

I'll tell you a story that happened to my friends during the Soviet era, which somehow repeats your memories. They lived in a Crimean city, and through the military registration and enlistment office they went to the GDR as freemen to work in our units. There we met the Germans, became close to them, and invited one such young couple to their place in the summer, when their business trip expired and they returned to the USSR. Those, having received an invitation, came to them for a week, because traveled around our country and decided to stay with them, swim in the sea. And at the entrance where my friends lived, after leaving the Stalinist camps, an old German woman, a dandelion of God, settled, who during the war either served as a warden in the camps, or in the SS forces, but she received her term in the form of a dozen, and back she did not want to return to Germany, apparently she understood that she would not be welcome there, and most likely there were no relatives. On the whole, our camp life, the northern climate and long sitting and unconvoted living made her almost our person, and the camp jargon only added color to this former prisoner. And my friends didn’t come up with anything clever how they decided to invite her to a meeting with East Germans in order to establish contact between different generations of Germans. I do not describe in detail how this meeting took place, but the first time the Germans got their eyes on their foreheads, when this "dandelion" waved a glass of vodka, sniffing bread and offered to raise a toast to Stalin. And when she got a little stale and dragged on "Horst Wessel", remembering the songs of her youth, these guests slipped slightly under the table and got so busy that they didn't open their mouths anymore. In general, their entire vacation began to fly downhill because of such a meeting - they later admitted that they perceived it as a provocation by the KGB with the aim of tying them up as anti-Soviet. This whole story ended as harmlessly as it began - in general, the young Germans believed that my friends had no malicious intent, and just out of good feelings they wanted the old German woman to communicate in her native language with her compatriots, especially since it was the eighties ... As for this old German woman, my friends were friends with her, they did not feel hostility towards her, however, she herself was already more our person, albeit with a distorted fate. These are the stories that happened in Soviet times, when we really were a great people and even the defeated Germans were treated like ordinary people who suffered.

[avia12005]

About 70 percent of the Wehrmacht prisoners of war taken by the Red Army returned to Germany. In the Soviet Union-only about 40 percent of prisoners of war of the Red Army, taken by the Wehrmacht. Any questions, Herr Rüdiger Overmans?

[Gray brother]

Quote: avia12005

Any questions, Herr Rüdiger Overmans?

Herr has no questions, he clearly does not consider Russians for people.

[nikon7717]

After such articles from different herrs, the desire to unwind a new process for the Germans for their atrocities like the Holocaust somehow wakes up. And make their payments lead another 200 years to all the descendants of those killed in the camps.
Did they bring lesser plans and evil to the Slavs than to the Jews?

[Gray brother]

Quote: nikon7717

After such articles from different herrs, the desire to unwind a new process for the Germans for their atrocities like the Holocaust somehow wakes up.

That's what the calculation is, I think. They provoke reciprocal hatred, because their one-sided Russophobia looks idiotic.

[Gray brother]

They didn’t work for Stalin, but they restored what was destroyed, which was essentially fair. And he draws parallels, damn German.

[1536]

Damn them!

[T.Henks]

Some kind of smelly sediment from a German historian and a Czech publisher. The summary is: they are martyrs. Liberty further, gentlemen. A common human tendency, however.

[Barmaleyka]

Overmans claims that none of the German soldiers captured in 1941-1942 survived.

I'm crying now, but this fig historian doesn’t know how much survived in Leningrad? !!!!!

[ssergey1978]

Delusional article. They should kiss the Soviet soldier for the fact that he allowed to live, and did not whisper as it should.

[Vladimir_2U]

Martyrs, their Nazi mother. Mortality is big for them, yeah.

[Cyril G ...]

Somehow it stinks strongly both from the Nazi Herr and the istorega, and from Czech prostitutes who are always willing to serve herrams ..

[rotmistr60]

The German historian talks about German prisoners of war in the Czech Internet edition - today, it is so directly symbolic (the demolition of the monument to Konev, "ricin", Prague was not liberated by Soviet troops ....).

From the point of view of West Germany, they were martyrs in the struggle against communism

Attempts to whitewash the Nazis, rewrite history over the years only intensify. If at that time it was the point of view of the West Germans, today it is practically the whole of Europe. Especially in this is Eastern Europe.

[nov_tech.vrn]

Another anonymous dumping of feces on the pages of VO, what is the matter of the Czech Internet publication “Aktualne” to German prisoners of war, and what historical value are the stories of the German historian Rüdiger Overmans. And about the concentration camps in Czechoslovakia, the online edition does not want to ask? Three auxiliary camps in Moravia served as branches of Auschwitz, several camps in the north of the country were administratively subordinate to Gross-Rosen in Lower Silesia. Most were run by the Bavarian Flossenburg. Including the concentration camp Svatava of the Sokolov region, through which about 10 thousand women of different nationalities passed. They worked for 12 hours for the benefit of the Hakenfelde concern, a branch of Siemens that manufactured products for the defense industry. Many of them died as a result of typhoid and exhaustion. The question is why in the Czech Republic so little is known about the existence of almost forty concentration camps on its territory during the war years?

[IL-18]

East Germany, in turn, saw in them criminals who deserved their fate.

Correct point of view

[Crowe]

In the GDR, in general, everyone understood correctly.

[NordUral]

they were engaged in the restoration of the destroyed economy

And it is fair! And they could simply starve to death, as they did with ours.

[Miller]

Well, some managed to adapt in the GDR. In 70-74 years. In the Krampnits garrison of the GSVG, the former military Luftwaffe pilot (the personnel at the base was German) worked as the head of the industrial goods base of the special trade, the base was located on the territory of the garrison.

[AU Ivanov.]

Heh, my grandfather in the 50s taught the GDR to pilot the IL-14. Former Luftwaffe pilot.

[ccsr]

Quote: Miller

Well, some managed to adapt in the GDR.

Not only did they adapt, but those East Germans who visited our captivity and returned to the German Democratic Republic, according to the opinions of many of our military personnel, were very nice to our people, because they themselves saw what they did with us and how we feel about the Germans . They even sometimes treated our officers on Victory Day when they were in the gash on that day, or if they lived together in the same houses. Only those old Germans treated us badly, who either did not fight, or for some reason were not on the Eastern Front. In Torgau, an old German woman brought a saucepan daily to the brigade checkpoint to feed our soldier on duty - I saw it myself, and was taken aback until I found out that our soldiers saved her from starvation after the war.

[Was mammoth]

"The last prisoners of war returned to Germany in 1955."
Yesterday I sent photos to the Immortal Regiment. One of my uncles, a peaceful man who had spent four years returning from the army seven years after the Victory.

[Avior]

I wonder if everyone is aware that the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS veterans, with the exception of those convicted at the tribunal, received and are receiving a good pension, just like from a widow.
Moreover, the Germans also pay pensions in other countries - there was, I remember, the scandal that Germany pays the Belgians in Belgium, who served in the SS or the Wehrmacht. And to no avail, continued to pay.
And these pensions are much larger than Russian ones.

[Igor Borisov_2]

After their release, many of them with great difficulty adapted to peaceful life, because the former prisoners returned to a completely different country, not to the Nazi Germany that they remembered.


Pity them and cry? How is boy Kolya? And after Auschwitz, Auschwitz was it easy for former prisoners of concentration camps to adapt? Cynical bastard ....

[Mavrikiy]

From the point of view of West Germany, they were martyrs in the fight against communism. East Germany, in turn, saw them criminalswho deserve their fate.

Propaganda zapadentsa. In the GDR, millions served in the Wehrmacht, and they went through the full course of Goebbels education. And for the FRG they were, who lost the war and worked for the enemy.

[7,62x54]

They did not work for Stalin, but atoned for their sin before the Soviet people.

[hohol95]

From the point of view of West Germany, they were martyrs in the struggle against communism.

But this historian did not provide data on the mortality of Soviet prisoners of war and stolen citizens in the Third Reich?
These "martyrs" were released early ...

[akarfoxhound]

Good old story ...

In the GSVG, one driver of a garbage truck leaving the unit on a German street accidentally hooked a German grandfather who was riding a velisiped ..... grandfather died ...... building in the parade ground ... the poor guy drove his head down in the middle of the parade ground .. Kompolka yelling from the rostrum pointing at him ........ Old German ... senior citizen !!!!!!!! during the war he was a tankman in the SS Dead head off !!!!!!! several times it was hit and burned in the Tiger !! Captured !!!!! went through all the horrors of the Soviet camps !!!! miraculously half-dead returned home !!!!!! So what!!! And so!!!!!!!! 40 years later, at the doorstep of his own house in his hometown, he perishes under the wheels of a Soviet trolley !!!! 
HOW IT'S CALLED???? 
Silence, the polkan wipes his forehead and is touched by the bass: 
I call it - RETURN!

[Sklendarka]

This is how the casket simply opens up- "... they were martyrs in the fight against the communists ..."
These words say it all.
I always have a question: were there old people, children, women whom they raped, burned, buried alive by communism?

[Prisoner]

At nemchury it seems again in memory cells the mess begins. And not just them, actually. And even before the new big war, you can play out.

[Free wind]

Well, nobody considered them martyrs there, except for neo-Nazis. It seems that many and many former prisoners of the USSR treated quite loyally. Suppose Hartman, having served his sentence of 11 years, never said bad things against the USSR. On the contrary, the strudel, who received help from Argentina, who did not need anything, when he heard the USSR, began to spit poison. He was the ideological inspirer of neo-Nazis. Uncle Sasha knew, a Japanese, a Japanese prisoner of war, stayed with us, married to a Russian, they died, there were two children, an interesting peasant.

[vkd.dvk]

They did not work for Stalin. They, a small part of all those guilty of such a universal calamity, corrected what they themselves had destroyed. If the WHOLE people of Germany worked for the restoration of the USSR FOREVER, then this would not atone for guilt. For the dead, 30 million, cannot be resurrected by any labor.

[vkd.dvk]

Quote: akarfoxhound

Good old story ...

In the GSVG, one driver of a garbage truck leaving the unit on a German street accidentally hooked a German grandfather who was riding a velisiped ..... grandfather died ...... building in the parade ground ... the poor guy drove his head down in the middle of the parade ground .. Kompolka yelling from the rostrum pointing at him ........ Old German ... senior citizen !!!!!!!! during the war he was a tankman in the SS Dead head off !!!!!!! several times it was hit and burned in the Tiger !! Captured !!!!! went through all the horrors of the Soviet camps !!!! miraculously half-dead returned home !!!!!! So what!!! And so!!!!!!!! 40 years later, at the doorstep of his own house in his hometown, he perishes under the wheels of a Soviet trolley !!!! 
HOW IT'S CALLED???? 
Silence, the polkan wipes his forehead and is touched by the bass: 
I call it - RETURN!

The award found its hero.

[Swed]

They came for slaves - they left with coffins.

[Motorist]

according to the historian, “a quarter or a third” perished

I do not claim that Overmans is not a historian. Well, maybe the historian is “a quarter or a third”, the rest is a person with low social responsibility ...

Aw! Where are the numbers ?!

[poquello]

From the point of view of West Germany, they were martyrs in the struggle against communism.

in fact, this says it all, from the point of view of the "allies" the fascists were heroes, they took out their packs at the end of the war and saved them from court

[Zomanus]

Well, how would they attack us in order to take our lives.
Therefore, we were entitled, by the right of the winner, to share with their lives everything that we liked.