Take (No) Prisoners! The Red Army and German POWs, 1941–1943
Journal: The Journal of Modern History
Year: 2016

The ProblematicFrom the outset of the German-Soviet war (1941-45), Soviet soldiers, commanders, political officers, and police agents killed captured Germans.Investigation into the reasons and extent, the perpetrators and dynamics of these war crimes was hampered from the start. 1 One obstacle was that alleged Soviet atrocities were part of German propaganda well before the Wehrmacht's attack on June 22, 1941.The "Commissar Order" of June 6, 1941, decreed the execution of Soviet political office