Heinrich Himmler looks at a young Soviet prisoner of war during an official visit to Shirokaya Street Concentration Camp in Belarus on August 15, 1941. You had to be a hard man to look Himmler in the face like that. This is standing for what's right, this is a single man who, after losing so much, stands up and stares
Himmler himself.
https://preview.redd.it/wktmqueftr8g1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a00659b9eb82431afa3061c4d5c4bffd4b14c1e2
Pig farmer VS greek god
Of around 8 million Soviet military casualties, 3.3-3.5 million Soviet soldiers died as POWs. Not due to flashy operational or tactical brilliance by the Wehrmacht as combat casualties, but as dispirited captives, starved and abused by a supposed signatory of the Geneva.
It's important to understand that even if they had wanted to—and they didn't particularly try—the Germans physically didn't have the capacity to feed the 3.5 million prisoners they had at the beginning of 1942. They simply weren't prepared for that number of prisoners.
That's roughly the entire Red Army in the western districts at the start of the invasion.
Yes they could've. They already fed the population of approximately 80 million Germans. A few more millions, was an easy-peasy. However, Soviets didn't ratify Geneva convention of 1929. thus Germans has no obligation to treat fairly Soviet POW and neither could Soviets be then blamed for disrespecting German POW rights after the war (even though they were respectfully better, since the total lethality rate of Soviet POW was around 65%, while German POW rate was 13%). It's the example of phrase: (Marcy is) Neither asked, nor given.
Ironically contrary to Nazi fearmongering and propaganda, the Soviets broadly treated German POWs much better, keyword is broadly, abuses would've undoubtedly have occurred on the scene/upon capture among other areas yet POWs overall were able to be repatriated after the war. Its absolute hypocrisy that the narratives of German victimhood are still lingering on yet they were the ones that started the war, started mass aerial bombings, mass murdered and abused civilians.
Well, that's also mostly true, also due to the fact that majority of POW after the war weren't in camps, but rather in cities and villages, pretty much forced to rebuild what was destroyed. Camps were usually reserved for SS Waffen and some Wehrmacht troops (especially those in Siberia).
Hard to feed soviet POWs when they employ scorched earth tactics and burn all the food stores and grain. Also, if you recall, the German Whermacht had a major issue with logistics as they deepened the push further into the Soviet lands. I think they were close to starving themselves. Its just common sense that whatever livestock and food they could scavenge would be used to feed their offensive, rather than feeding prisoners and allowing their own troops to fall to starvation, malnutrition and disease, which ultimately happened anyways. The germans bit off way more than they could chew and the first casualty of that error was their logistical operation, which is why the Soviets starved first, with the germans following closely after. Noone was winning that type of situation, regardless of how much planning had been prepared.
The comparison of mortality rates is not entirely accurate, as most Soviet prisoners of war were captured by the Germans at the height of the war in 1941-42, while most German prisoners of war were captured after the end of the war in 1945.
I am sorry and I really don't want to sound disrespectful, but I can't truly grasp how important is the timing of people being captured.
The difference in resource constraints when you are at war and when you are not.
Yet the Germans were able to 'somehow' raise rations of Soviet POWs by around 1942, when they also started to shift towards mass utilization of slave labor for their war economy. As far I know, the point of the Germans not being to facilitate their survival is absolute BS, considering that allied/western POWs and occupation zones had more substantial rations.
it's one of the ways the Geneva convention was made for, to prevent armies from being able to do too much war.
This is bs lol Soviet pows were some of the first victims of Holocaust
When a genocidal pig farmer meets Soviet courage and resilience
Majority of Soviet POWs did not survived German captivity. Meanwhile majority of German POWs survived Soviet captivite. Yet some people still repeat Nazi and Cold War era propaganda that Soviets did not value human life.
Also during German invasion of USSR more than 15 millions of Soviet civilians were killed.
During Soviet advance westwards not even single million Germans was killed.
And yet anti-Soviet propaganda keeps yapping, how Soviets behaved badly in Berlin
Even less. The Soviets raped and pillaged Germany - no question. But the roughly 250000 people that died during that time is actually quite low compared to up to 20 million Soviets that died due to German occupation.
You pretend like American and British solders did not pillaged and raped Germany.
France too.
It has happened, we actually studied it in university depending on our sources. But the system was totally different
Although especially French Troops were known for the brutality and hunger for young girls
Yeah but it is more important to stand up to nazis before they are in a position to do this.
It's a shame how Soviets treated their own POWs after the end of the war. Those guys already went through hell in German captivity.
Quote: This topic is very close to me. My dad's uncle, Nikolai, was drafted into the Soviet army when he was 18 years old, and he ended up in the Brest Fortress in the spring of 1941. On the very first day of the war, he was captured before he even realized that the war had started. As a prisoner of war, he was transported to Germany and held in a labor camp. In those years, German citizens actively used the slave labor of prisoners of war, and they made requests for them in the prisoner of war camps. Thus, Nikolai and several other prisoners worked as slaves on a German Frau's farm for almost three years. He was only released in 1945 by our troops. After being checked, he returned home to the Urals. He did not spend time in Soviet prisons or camps. However, being held captive was not considered participation in the war at that time, so Nikolai did not receive any veteran benefits. He worked without any repression or restrictions, just like everyone else on his collective farm. Everyone had different fates. This is the real story of my relative
In light of the above, Article 22 only criminalizes surrendering to a enemy that is not caused by a combat situation, i.e. surrendering in order to avoid the risks associated with being in the ranks of the fighters (being killed, wounded, etc.).3)
As can be easily seen from the above, the legislation of the USSR did not punish for the capture not associated with treason to military duty.
The fate of prisoners of war.
At the end of 1941, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense No. 0521, a system of filtration camps was established for the verification of those released from captivity.
The following categories of individuals were sent there for verification:
1st category: prisoners of war and encircled soldiers;
2nd category: ordinary police officers, village elders, and other civilians suspected of treasonous activities;
3rd category: civilians of military age who had lived in enemy-occupied territories.
Their fate is clear from the following document:
“Report on the verification of former encircled and former prisoners of war as of October 1, 1944.
One of the most shameful chapters of history I would agree.
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How it feels when you end classes earlier than your friend
Not really. When USSR liberated half of Europe, they took control of mostly devastated territories. The last hunger in Eastern Europe happened in the winter of 1945/46.