Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union

Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union was considered by the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

to be part of German war reparations for the damage inflicted by Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

on the Soviet Union during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. German civilians in Eastern Europe were deported to the USSR after World War II as forced laborers. Ethnic Germans living in the USSR

History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union

The German minority in Russia and the Soviet Union was created from several sources and in several waves. The 1914 census puts the number of Germans living in Russian Empire at 2,416,290. In 1989, the German population of the Soviet Union was roughly 2 million. In the 2002 Russian census, 597,212...

were deported during World War II and conscripted for forced labor. German prisoners of war were also used as a source of forced labor during and after the war by the Soviet Union and the Western Allies

Forced labor of Germans after World War II

Forced labour of Germans after World War II refers to the Allied use of German civilians and captured soldiers for forced labor in years following World War II ....

.

Information about this was suppressed in the Soviet Bloc

Eastern bloc

The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

until the dissolution of the Soviet Union

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...

. Before that, however, it was known in the West through accounts released in West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

and recollections of the internees.

The use of German labor as reparations was proposed by the Soviet government starting in 1943, and the issue was raised at the Yalta Conference

Yalta Conference

The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...

by the Soviets. The USSR began deporting of ethnic Germans from the Balkans in late 1944, most the surviving internees had returned by 1950.

The NKVD

NKVD

The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....

took the lead role in it via its department, Chief Directorate for Prisoners of War and Internees' Affairs (Главное управление по делам военнопленных и интернированных, ГУПВИ, transliterated as GUPVI).

Reparations Forced Labor-Disclosures from the Russian archives

Since the fall of the USSR the Soviet archives have been accessible to researchers. The Russian scholar Pavel Polian

Pavel Polian

Pavel Markovich Polian is a Russian geographer, historian and sociologist, Doctor of Geographical Sciences with the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He authored over 300 publications. He is famous for his researches of history and geography of the forced migrations...

in 2001 published an account of the deportations during the Soviet era, Against Their Will, Polian's study detailed the Soviet statistics on the employment of German civilian labor during the Stalin era. The study was published by Central European University Press

Central European University Press

Following the founding of the Central European University by George Soros, Central European University Press was established in 1993. Its publishing program focuses on issues of Central and Eastern Europe, the past and present history, society, culture and economy of the countries of the former...

.
In 1943 Ivan Maisky the Soviet ambassador to the UK was ordered by the Soviet government to form a task force on the issue of post war reparations from Germany. Maisky's report of August 1944 proposed the employment of German civilian labor in the USSR as part of war reparations. At the Yalta Conference

Yalta Conference

the Soviet Union made it clear to the Western Allies

Western Allies

The Western Allies were a political and geographic grouping among the Allied Powers of the Second World War. It generally includes the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, the United States, France and various other European and Latin American countries, but excludes China, the Soviet Union,...

that they intended to employ German civilian labor as part of war reparations, at this time the US and UK did not raise any objections to the Soviet use of German civilian labor.

By the summer of 1944 the Soviet forces had reached the Balkans

Balkans

The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

that had ethnic German minorities. State Defense Committee Order no 7161ss

Order 7161

Order 7161 refers to the top secret USSR State Defense Committee Order no 7161ss of December 16, 1944 about mobilisation and internment of able-bodied Germans for works in the USSR...

(Постановление № 7161cc ГКО СССР) of December 16, 1944 instructed to intern all able-bodied Germans of ages 17–45 (men) and 18-30 (women) residing within the territories of Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

(69,332 persons), Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

(31,923 persons), Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

(10,935 persons), Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

(215 persons) and Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

(75 persons), which were under the control of the Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

. Consequently, 112,480( 61,375 men and 51,105 women) able bodied adult ethnic Germans from Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

, Hungary

Hungary

were deported for forced labor to the USSR.

During the 1945 military campaign in Poland the Soviet Union interned suspected Nazi party members and government officials in camps in the Soviet-occupied areas east of the Oder-Neisse line

Oder-Neisse line

The Oder–Neisse line is the border between Germany and Poland which was drawn in the aftermath of World War II. The line is formed primarily by the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers, and meets the Baltic Sea west of the seaport cities of Szczecin and Świnoujście...

. Persons held in these short-lived camps east of the line were subsequently transferred to NKVD special camps

NKVD special camps

NKVD special camps were NKVD-run late and post-World War II internment camps in the Soviet-occupied parts of Germany and areas east of the Oder-Neisse line. The short-lived camps east of the line were subsequently transferred to the Soviet occupation zone, where they were set up by the Soviet...

in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany or for the Soviet Union for forced labor By May 1945 the NKVD had selected for deportation to the USSR 66,152 German civilians who were considered suspected Nazi party members and government officials, as well as 89,110 able bodied adults(mostly men) for forced labor. In early 1947 the Soviets sent an additional 4,579 Germans from the Soviet occupation zone to the USSR as forced laborers.

The Soviets classified the civilians interned into two groups; the first Group A (205,520 persons) were "mobilized internees" who were able bodied adults selected for labor; the second Group D (66,152 persons) "arrested internees" were Nazi party members, German government officials, journalists and others considered a threat by the Soviets. Soviet records state that they repatriated 21,061 Polish citizens from labor camps which indicates that not all of the internees were ethnic Germans and some could have been ethnic Poles

Poles

thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...

.

The Soviets sent about 3/4 of the laborers to the Donets Basin

Donets Basin

Donbas or Donbass , full rarely-used name Donets Basin , is a historical, economic and cultural region of eastern Ukraine. Originally a coal mining area, it has become a heavily industrialised territory suffering from urban decay and industrial pollution.-Geography:Donbas covers three...

to work in the reconstruction of heavy industry and mines, and about 11% to the Urals heavy industries. The workers were housed in concentration camps under armed guard. The working and living conditions were harsh and according to Soviet records about 24% of those interned died. Forced labor turned out to be inefficient and unprofitable since many of the women and older men were not able to perform heavy labor. Repatriation

Repatriation

Repatriation is the process of returning a person back to one's place of origin or citizenship. This includes the process of returning refugees or soldiers to their place of origin following a war...

started as early as 1945 and almost all were released by 1950.

Ethnic German Civilians Interned by USSR

Soviet Data from the Russian Archives>

Country	Number
Former eastern territories of Germany and Poland	155,262
Romania Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...	67,332
Hungary Hungary Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...	31,920
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....	12,579
Soviet occupation zone in Germany	4,579
Total Interned	271,672
Repatriated by 12/1949	(201,464)
Died or "withdrawn"	(66,456)
Still Held 12/1949	3,752

Source of figures Pavel Polian-Against Their Will

Notes:

1-Country indicates the location where the persons were conscripted, not citizenship.

2-The 201,464 surviving internees were citizens of the following nations- Germany 77,692; Romania 61,072; Hungary 29,101; Poland 21,061; Yugoslavia 9,034; Czechoslovakia 2,378; Austria 199; Bulgaria and other countries 927.

3- Figures do not include German civilians interned in the Kaliningrad Oblast

Kaliningrad Oblast

Kaliningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia situated on the Baltic coast. It has a population of The oblast forms the westernmost part of the Russian Federation, but it has no land connection to the rest of Russia. Since its creation it has been an exclave of the Russian SFSR and then the...

, the former East Prussia

East Prussia

East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...

4-Figures do not include "Forced Repatriation" and "Resettlers" Ethnic Germans from the USSR

History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union

who had been resettled by Germany in Poland during the war. They were returned to the USSR.

5-Figures do not include military POW.

6-Still Held 12/1949- Persons convicted by Soviet military tribunals and held in MVD prisons in the USSR
Thanks to the opening of the Russian archives, the fates of some of these civilians are now known. By late 1996, the German Red Cross had received from Russia 199,000 records of deported German civilians who had either been repatriated or died in Soviet captivity. For example, the records of Pauline Gölner reveal that she was born in 1926 in Wolkendorf

Vulcan, Brasov

Vulcan is a commune in Braşov County in the centre of Romania, 16 km west of the county capital Braşov. It is composed of two villages, Colonia 1 Mai and Vulcan...

in Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

, was arrested on January 15, 1945 and sent to forced labor in the coal mines of Chanchenkowo (Ukraine). She died there on February 26, 1949, only 23 years old.

There is currently an ongoing research program in collaboration between Russia and Germany:

Deportation and Forced Labor of Soviet Germans

The ethnic German minority in the USSR

History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union

was considered a security risk by the Soviet government and they were deported during the war in order to prevent their possible collaboration with the Nazi invaders. In August 1941 the Soviet government ordered ethnic Germans to be deported from the European USSR. By 1942 about 1 million Germans had been banished to special settlements in Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

and Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

."Life in the special settlements was harsh and severe. Food was limited and the deported population was governed by strict regulations". Soviet Germans were not accepted in the regular armed forces but were employed instead as conscript labor, 316,600 Soviet Germans served as labor conscripts during World War II. The labor army members were arranged into worker battalions that followed camp-like regulations and received the GULAG rations. During the Stalin era the Soviet Germans continued to be confined to the special settlements under strict supervision, in 1955 they were rehabilitated but were not allowed to return to the European USSR. The Soviet German population grew despite the deportations and forced labor during the war;in the 1939 Soviet census the German population was 1.427 million by 1959 it had increased to 1.619 million.

The calculations of the West German researcher Dr. Gerhard Reichling (see below) indicate a total of 980,000 Soviet ethnic Germans were deported in the Stalin era, he estimated 310,000 died in forced labor. During the early months of the invasion of the USSR in 1941 the Germans occupied the western regions of the USSR that had German settlements. A total of 370,000 ethnic Germans from the USSR were deported to Poland by Germany during the war. In 1945 the Soviets found 280,000 of these resettlers in Poland and returned them to the USSR; 90,000 became refugees in Germany after the war.

Schieder Commission

The West German government sponsored Schieder commission

Schieder commission

Documents on the Expulsion of the Germans from Eastern-Central Europe is the abridged English translation of a multi-volume publication that was created by a commission of West German historians between 1951 and 1961...

during the 1950’s documented the population transfer of Germans from East-Central Europe after World War II. The head of the Commission was Dr.Theodor Schieder

Theodor Schieder

Theodor Schieder was one of the most influential German historians of the 20th century.Schieder was born in Oettingen and lived in Königsberg in East Prussia since 1934. In the interwar period Schieder became a part of a group of German conservative historians antagonistic towards the Weimar...

a rehabilitated

Denazification

Denazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...

former member of the Nazi party. In 1939 Schieder proposed the expulsion of millions of Jews, Poles, Russians and other nationalities from Eastern Europe in order to create "room" for German settlers

Lebensraum

was one of the major political ideas of Adolf Hitler, and an important component of Nazi ideology. It served as the motivation for the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany...

. His suggestions were later incorporated in the German Generalplan Ost

Generalplan Ost

Generalplan Ost was a secret Nazi German plan for the colonization of Eastern Europe. Implementing it would have necessitated genocide and ethnic cleansing to be undertaken in the Eastern European territories occupied by Germany during World War II...

. In 1952 Schieder was chosen by the West German government to head the Commission that would document the fate of the Germans from Eastern Europe.

The commission made estimates of the numbers of German civilians who died in the expulsions and those deported to the USSR for forced labor. The estimates made in the 1950’s by the Schieder Commission are still cited in current accounts of the expulsions and deportations. The figures published in the 2004 essay by Stefan Pauser are derived from the reports published by the Schieder commission

Schieder commission

.

The following is a summary of the estimates by the Schieder commission for forced labor only. The figures are rough estimates and are not based on an actual enumeration of the dead.

Former eastern territories of Germany- 218,000 German civilians were deported to the USSR and at least 100,000 to 125,000 died.

Romania-75,000 German civilians were deported to the USSR and that 15%(10,000) did not return.

Hungary- 30,000 to 35,000 German civilians were deported to the USSR and that death toll was 6,000.

Yugoslavia- 27,000 to 35,000 German civilians were deported to the USSR and that death toll was 4,500 to 5,000 .

German Search Service Estimates

In 1964 the West German Search Service under the direction of Dr. Kurt Bährens working with the German Red Cross

German Red Cross

The German Red Cross , or the DRK, is the national Red Cross Society in Germany.With over 4.5 million members, it is the third largest Red Cross society in the world. The German Red Cross offers a wide range of services within and outside Germany...

released figures estimating the number of German civilians deported to the USSR and the approximate number who died. The number of deported was derived by estimating the number of persons on the trains sent to the USSR, and are not based on an actual enumeration. The work of the German Search Service to trace the fates of civilians in eastern Europe was only partially successful. The figures for those deported and deaths were rough estimates and not always based on confirmed reports. The Search Service was able to confirm the deaths of only 49,542 of civilians deported, the others were reported missing and presumed dead.

These German estimates (see below) from 1965 are still cited in some English language sources
Forced Labor of German Civilians-Estimate by German Search Service in 1964>

Description	Number Deported	Death Rate	Dead & Reported Missing
A. "Reparations Deportees"	375,000	45%	169,000
B. Forced Labor in Kaliningrad Oblast Kaliningrad Oblast Kaliningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia situated on the Baltic coast. It has a population of The oblast forms the westernmost part of the Russian Federation, but it has no land connection to the rest of Russia. Since its creation it has been an exclave of the Russian SFSR and then the...	110,000	45%	50,000
C. "Forced Repatriation" and "Resettlers"	300,000	37%	111,000
D. Civilians held as POW	45,000	22.2%	10,000
E. "Forced Service"	26,000	.4%	100
F. Klaipėda Klaipeda Klaipėda is a city in Lithuania situated at the mouth of the Nemunas River where it flows into the Baltic Sea. It is the third largest city in Lithuania and the capital of Klaipėda County.... (Memel) residents	10,500	9.5%	1,000
G. "Convicted POW"	7,500	9%	700
Total	874,000	39%	341,800

Source of figures: Kurt W. Böhme - Gesucht wird - Die dramtische Geschichte des Suchdienstes Süddeutscher Verlag, München 1965 Page 274

Notes:

A. Reparations Deportees ("reperationsverschlepte") Ethnic German civilians conscripted as reparations for damages caused by Germany during the war. Origin- Former eastern territories of Germany and Poland -233,000; Rumania 80,000: Hungary 35,000 and Yugoslavia 27,000. Most of the survivors were released by 1950. This is the category of deportees listed above in the Russian archive statistics.

B. Forced Labor in Kaliningrad Oblast

Kaliningrad Oblast

- German civilians interned in the former East Prussia

East Prussia

, most of the survivors were released by 1948. They are not included in the Soviet statistics listed above.

C. "Forced Repatriation" and "Resettlers" ("Zwangrepatierte"/"Vertragsumsiedler") Ethnic Germans from the USSR who had been resettled by Germany in Poland during the war. They were returned to the USSR. They are not included in the Soviet statistics listed above.

D. Civilians held as POW- The Soviets classified these persons as POW and were held in POW camps, they were ethnic Germans from Poland.They are not included in the Soviet statistics listed above.

E."Forced Service" ( "Zwangsverpflichte") -6,000 skilled workers and former POW accompanied by 20,000 family members were conscripted for work in the USSR under contract for five years. They were held under favorable conditions and were released by 1958. The civilian workers are included in the Soviet statistics listed above.

F. Klaipėda

Klaipeda

Klaipėda is a city in Lithuania situated at the mouth of the Nemunas River where it flows into the Baltic Sea. It is the third largest city in Lithuania and the capital of Klaipėda County....

(Memel) residents- Ethnic Germans who remained in Klaipedia after the war. They were deported into the USSR,They are not included in the Soviet statistics listed above.

G. "Convicted POW" (Strafgefengene) POW convicted of war crimes and held in Soviet prisons. They were released by 1955.
They are not included in the Soviet statistics listed above.

1974 German Federal Archive Report

In 1969, the Federal West German government ordered a study of expulsion losses to be conducted by the German Federal Archives

German Federal Archives

The German Federal Archives or Bundesarchiv are the National Archives of Germany. They were established at the current location in Koblenz in 1952....

which was finished in 1974 and published in 1989. The study estimated a total of 600,000 deaths caused by what they call "crimes and inhumanites" in the eyes of West German law, including 300,000 in forced labor. Their definition of crimes included confirmed deaths caused by military activity in the 1944-45 campaign as well as deliberate killings and estimated deaths due to forced labor. They claimed that report was only was intended to provide historical documentation not as a basis for criminal charges in the future. However in Poland and Czechoslovakia, during the Cold war

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

, these charges were viewed as an attempt to seek revenge and revert to pre-war borders.
The following is a summary of those deaths that they attributed to forced labor. The figures are rough estimates and not based on an actual enumeration of persons deported and those that died.

Deported from Former eastern territories of Germany and Poland for forced labor in the USSR- Over 400,000 civilians deported to USSR of whom they estimated about 200,000 died. The author of the study based these figures on the German search service report which is mentioned above.This is the category of deportees listed above in the Russian archive statistics.

In labor camps and prisons in Poland and In North East Prussia Kaliningrad Oblast

Kaliningrad Oblast

- Over 200,000 held by Poland and 110,000 by USSR in northern East Prussia. Overall they estimated more than 100,000 persons perished. The report mentioned that ethnic German citizens from pre-war Poland, who collaborated with the Nazi occupiers, were considered "traitors of the nation" and sentenced to forced labor. They are not included in the Soviet statistics listed above.

Deported from Yugoslavia for forced labor in the USSR- About 27,000 to 30,000 civilians deported to USSR of whom c. 4,500 died. . This is the category of deportees listed above in the Russian archive statistics.
The German Federal Archives

German Federal Archives

The German Federal Archives or Bundesarchiv are the National Archives of Germany. They were established at the current location in Koblenz in 1952....

study did not provide figures for Romania and Hungary.

Study by Gerhard Reichling

The West German researcher Dr. Gerhard Reichling published in 1986 a study of German forced labor based on his own calculations. The figures were rough estimates and are not based on an actual enumeration of the dead. Dr. Kurt Horstmann of the Federal Statistical Office of Germany

Federal Statistical Office of Germany

The Federal Statistical Office of Germany is a federal authority of Germany. It is a part of the Federal Ministry of the Interior of the Federal Republic of Germany....

wrote the forward to the study, endorsing the work of Reichling. Reichling was an employee of the Federal Statistical Office who was involved in the study of German expulsion statistics since 1953.
Forced Labor of German Civilians-Estimate by Gerhard Reichling in 1986>

Description	Civilians Deported	Dead
Deported from Eastern Europe to USSR 1945-1950	600,000	224,000
"Forced Repatriation" and "Resettlers"	310,000	110,000
Soviet Germans Deported in USSR 1941-1942	700,000	210,000
German laborers in post war Poland 1945-1950	100,000	36,000
Total	1,710,000	580,000

Source of figures: Dr. Gerhard Reichling, Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen, Teil 1, Bonn 1986 (revised edition 1995). Pages 33-36

Notes:

A. Deported from Eastern Europe to USSR 1945-1950 – This is the category of deportees included in the figures of German Search Service study of 1965 and also listed above in the Russian archive statistics.

Total deported 600,000. (Germany 400,000; Danzig 10,000; Czechoslovakia 30,000; Baltic States 10,000; Hungary 30,000; Romania 80,000; Yugoslavia 40,000).

Total Dead 224,000 (Germany 160,000; Danzig 5,000; Czechoslovakia 4,000; Baltic States 5,000; Hungary 10,000; Romania 30,000; Yugoslavia 10,000).

B. "Forced Repatriation" and "Resettlers" – Soviet ethnic Germans returned to the USSR that are also included in the figures of German Search Service study of 1965, but not included in the Soviet reparations labor listed above.

C. Soviet Germans Deported in USSR 1941-1942 – These figures are Reichling’s estimates and are not included in the above mentioned German Search Service study of 1965 and are also not included in the Soviet reparations labor listed above.

D. German laborers in post-war Poland 1945-1950 – These figures are Reichling’s estimates and are not included in the above mentioned German Search Service study of 1965 and also not included in the Soviet reparations labor listed above. Ethnic German citizens from pre-war Poland who collaborated with the Nazi occupiers during the war were sentenced to forced labor.

Technical Experts

The Soviet Union exploited the technical expertise of the German specialists who were resident in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany and held as POW in the USSR. In October 1946 the Soviet NKVD

NKVD

forcibly deported from East Germany "a few hundred" selected German experts to work in the USSR. They were held under favorable conditions and most were released by 1948. They worked in the aviation industry and the development of submarines. A selected few remained in the USSR during the 1950's including German scientists who worked in the Soviet Union on the development of ballistic missiles, Helmut Gröttrup

Helmut Gröttrup

Helmut Gröttrup was a German electrical engineer and assistant of Wernher von Braun in the V-2 rocket-project. Gröttrup was responsible for the guidance system....

was among this group. They were not directly involved in the missile program but were only consulted by Soviet engineers.

Prisoners of War

Main articles: German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union

German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union

Approximately two million German prisoners of war were held in the Soviet Union during World War II and in the years that followed. Most of them were captured during the great advances of the Red Army in the last year of the war. In the first months of the Soviet-German war, only about 26,000...

, POW labor in the Soviet Union

POW labor in the Soviet Union

Systematic POW labor in the Soviet Union is associated primarily with the outcomes of the World War II and covers the period of 1939-1956.This form of forced labor was handled by the Chief Directorate for Prisoners of War and Internees Affairs of the NKVD, established in 1939 Systematic POW labor...

, and Forced labor of Germans after World War II

Forced labor of Germans after World War II

Forced labour of Germans after World War II refers to the Allied use of German civilians and captured soldiers for forced labor in years following World War II ....

Forced labour was also included in the Morgenthau Plan

Morgenthau Plan

The Morgenthau Plan, proposed by United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr., advocated that the Allied occupation of Germany following World War II include measures to eliminate Germany's ability to wage war.-Overview:...

draft from September 1944, and was included in the final protocol of the Yalta conference

Yalta Conference

the Soviet Union and the western allies employed German POW labor up until 1949

Forced labor of Germans after World War II

Forced labour of Germans after World War II refers to the Allied use of German civilians and captured soldiers for forced labor in years following World War II ....

German POWs were impressed into forced labor during and after WWII by the Soviet Union. Russian sources list 2,571,600 German military taken prisoner and the deaths of 450,600 these POW including 356,700 in NKVD

NKVD

camps and 93,900 in transit. These figures are disputed by sources in the west that give a higher number of POW captured and estimate losses may be higher than those reported by the USSR. Richard Overy

Richard Overy

Richard Overy is a British historian who has published extensively on the history of World War II and the Third Reich. In 2007 as The Times editor of Complete History of the World he chose the 50 key dates of world history....

puts total number of German POW captured by the USSR at 3,300,000 The research project by Rudiger Overmans determined that 363,000 German POW died in Soviet custody In addition, Overmans believes that, it seems entirely plausible, while not provable, that one million German military personnel reported missing actually died in Soviet custody;

Sources

Павел Полян, Не по своей воле... (Pavel Polian
Pavel Polian
Pavel Markovich Polian is a Russian geographer, historian and sociologist, Doctor of Geographical Sciences with the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He authored over 300 publications. He is famous for his researches of history and geography of the forced migrations...

, Against Their Will... A History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR), ОГИ Мемориал, Moscow, 2001, ISBN 5-94282-007-4
Pavel Polian-Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR Central European University Press 2003 ISBN
Kurt W. Böhme - Gesucht wird - Die dramtische Geschichte des Suchdienstes Süddeutscher Verlag, München 1965
Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa./ Bearb. von T. Schieder. Bd. 1–5. Wolfenbattel, 1953–1961
Die Deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. Bevolkerungsbilanzen fuer die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50. Wiesbaden, 1958
Rhode G. Phasen und Formen der Massenzwangswanderungen in Europa. // Die Vertriebenen in Westdeutschland. Bd. 1. Kiel, 1959.
Karner, Stefan, Im Archipel GUPVI. Kriegsgefangenschaft und Internierung in der Sowjetunion 1941-1956. Wien-München 1995.
Sharkov, Anatoli, GUPVI Archipelago: Prisoners of War and Internees on the Territory of Belarus: 1944—1951(in Russian) (2003), Minsk, Belarus, ISBN 985-463-094-3
Gerhard Reichling. Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen, Bonn 1995, ISBN 3-88557-046-7
Ivan Chukhin, Interned Youth, a history of the NKVD Camp 517 for interned female Germans, Padozero, Karelia
Karelia
Karelia , the land of the Karelian peoples, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden...
The Expulsion of 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War, Steffen Prauser and Arfon Rees, European University Institute, Florense. HEC No. 2004/1 (The section "The "expulsion" of the German speaking minority from Yugoslavia" contains info on their deportation to the SU for forced labor)

External links

Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR Partial preview of the book at Google Book Search
Google Book Search
Google Books is a service from Google that searches the full text of books that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition, and stored in its digital database. The service was formerly known as Google Print when it was introduced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October...
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/cab_195_3_transcript.pdfTranscripts of UK War Cabinet
War Cabinet
A War Cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers. It is also quite common for a War Cabinet to have senior military officers and opposition politicians as members....

discussions] Provided by The National Archives. The meetings of May 18, 1945, and June 11, 1945 discuss the provisions made for slave labor in the Yalta protocol, and the value to be extracted from the workers.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Reparations Forced Labor-Disclosures from the Russian archives

Deportation and Forced Labor of Soviet Germans

Schieder Commission

German Search Service Estimates

1974 German Federal Archive Report

Study by Gerhard Reichling

Technical Experts

Prisoners of War

See also

Sources

External links