page_title: German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war
section_title: General internment system for Soviet prisoners of war
hierarchical_section_title: German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war / General internment system for Soviet prisoners of war
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. An der Sowjet-Front: 1600 Gefangene, vielfach Ukrainer, die zwischen Luck und Wlodzimierz gekämpft hatten, gehen zur Sammelstelle. PK - Lachmann - Scherl Bilderdienst 6573-41 "Fr." OKW Juni 1941 ADN-ZB/Archiv II. Weltkrieg 1939-45 Nach dem Überfall der faschistischen deutschen Wehrmacht auf die Sowjetunion am 22.6.1941. Sowjetische Soldaten, die während der Kämpfe zwischen Luzk und Wlodimierz in den ersten Kriegstagen in deutsche Gefangenschaft gerieten, auf dem Weg zur Sammelstelle. Aufnahme: Lachmann
context_page_description: During World War II, Nazi Germany engaged in a policy of deliberate maltreatment of Soviet prisoners of war, in contrast to their treatment of British and American POWs. This policy, which amounted to deliberately starving and working to death Soviet POWs, was grounded in Nazi racial theory, which depicted Slavs as sub-humans. The policy resulted in some 3.3 to 3.5 million deaths.
  During Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, and the subsequent German–Soviet War, millions of Red Army prisoners of war were taken. Many were executed, arbitrarily in the field by the German forces or handed over to the SS to be shot, under the Commissar Order. Most, however, died during the death marches from the front lines or under inhumane conditions in German prisoner-of-war camps and concentration camps.
context_section_description: In the summer and autumn of 1941, vast numbers of Soviet prisoners were captured in about a dozen large encirclements. Due to their rapid advance into the Soviet Union and an anticipated quick victory, the Germans did not want to ship these prisoners to Germany. Under the administration of the Wehrmacht, the prisoners were processed, guarded, forced-marched, or transported in open rail cars to locations mostly in the occupied Soviet Union, Germany, and occupied Poland. Much like comparable events, such as the Pacific War's Bataan Death March in 1942, the treatment of prisoners was brutal, without much in the way of supporting logistics.
  Soviet prisoners of war were stripped of their supplies and clothing by poorly-equipped German troops when the cold weather set in; this resulted in death for the prisoners. Most of the camps for Soviet POWs were simply open areas fenced off with barbed wire and watchtowers with no inmate housing. These meager conditions forced the crowded prisoners to live in holes they had dug for themselves, which were exposed to the elements. Beatings and other abuse by the guards were common, and prisoners were malnourished, often consuming only a few hundred calories or less per day. Medical treatment was non-existent and an International Red Cross offer to help in 1941 was rejected by Hitler. The Soviet government ignored offers of help from the International Red Cross as well as prisoner exchanges from the Axis forces.
  Some of the Soviet POWs were also experimented on. In one such case, Dr. Heinrich Berning from Hamburg University starved prisoners to death as "famine experiments". In another instance, a group of prisoners at Zhitomir were shot using dum-dum bullets.
caption: Red Army soldiers, captured between Lutsk and Volodymyr-Volynskyi. June 1941
exif: {}