Prisoners of War (POWs)

Many soldiers, and some civilians, were captured during World War II and the military actions directly before the war. Among these POWs were Soviets, Americans, English, French, Czechs, and many others. Statistics of POW deaths usually concentrate on those of Soviet descent, making finding totals of victims difficult.

The Nazi regime held an especial hatred of Soviets, due to their Communist government. They began what was considered a war of annihilation against the Soviets, considering them sub-humans. Slavs and Jews were also included in the Soviet roundup, including Soviets with ‘Asiatic’ features. The POWs were considered the biggest threat, as they were linked in Nazi thinking to the ‘Jewish conspiracy’. They called the Soviet POWs ‘the Bolshevik Menace’ (1).

Rudolph Hoss, the Commandant of Auschwitz, wrote “The second-largest group (of prisoners), who were supposed to build a POW camp at Birkenau, were the Russian prisoners of war (2).”

There were approximately 5.7 Soviet POWs. Of these, about 1 million were released as ‘auxiliaries’ of the Army and the SS groups. Another half million escaped or were liberated by the Soviet Army. By January of 1945, there were 930,000 Soviet POWs remaining in German custody. 3.3 million Soviet POWs had been killed or died of circumstances before the end of the war (3).

Of the American and British POWs, there had been 231,000 taken prisoner. 8,3000 of them died. (4)

The difference between the Soviet POWs and the British and American POWs was their treatment. Most of the American and British POWs were kept in a separate section of the camp from other prisoners. They were allowed their uniforms, and were often provided medical attention and food. Soviets, on the other hand, were subject to harsher conditions, poor clothing, poor food, and hard labor. (5)(6)(7)

Many Soviet POWs were killed by gassing or shooting. The following two quotes were written by Rudolph Hoss in his memoirs:

“On that very same day the first execution of the war took place in Sachsenhausen. It was a Communist who refused to perform his air raid duties in the Junker aircraft factory in the city of Dressau. Plant security reported him and he was arrested by the State Police and brought to the Gestapo in Berlin for questioning. The report was presented to Himmler, who then ordered his immediate execution by firing squad (8).”

“I remember well and was much more impressed by the gassing of nine hundred Russians which occurred soon afterwards in the old crematory because the use of Block 11 caused too many problems (9).”

Those who weren’t killed with Carbon Monoxide, Cyclon-B gas, or Firing Squads were worked, starved, and neglected until they died.

Sources:

(1) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org (accessed April 13, 2011).

(2) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992, page 132.

(3) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org (accessed April 13, 2011).

(4) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org (accessed April 13, 2011).

(5) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org (accessed April 13, 2011).

(6) Levi, Primo, and Philip Roth. Survival in Auschwitz: the Nazi Assault on Humanity. Translated by Stuart Woolf. New York City: Touchstone: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

(7) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992.

(8) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992, page 98.

(9) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992, page 156.