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INTRODUCTION

THE FATE OF SOVIET PRISONERS IN AUSCHWITZ

THE FATE OF SOVIET PRISONERS IN AUSCHWITZ

INTRODUCTION

On 22 June 1941, the German army started its invasion on the Soviet Union. During the offensive, its troops successfully moved over the western reaches of the country, from December onwards capturing the areas from around Leningrad (today’s St Petersburg) in the north, via the outskirts of Moscow in the east, to around Rostov in the south. In this time (from June to December), many units of the Red Army were destroyed or dispersed, or surrounded, and over 3.3 million of Soviet soldiers ended up as prisoners of war (POW).

A column of Soviet prisoners heading in an unknown direction. They are dressed in Soviet uniforms, long coats, and torn blankets. Some have characteristic pointy hats on their heads.

Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Archive (henceforth: A-BSMA)

A column of captive Soviet prisoners.

Germans' treatment of Soviet POWs constituted a violation of any international law conventions: they were forced to long marches to transit camps, or transported on train for many days without food or beverages. In POW camps, they were kept for a long time without any shelter, in catastrophic sanitary conditions, receiving inadequate amounts of food which resulted in chronic hunger. Such treatment resulted in critical physical condition of majority of the prisoners, diseases, and consequently high mortality in the camps. By early December 1941, around 1.4 million of Soviet POW lost their lives.


Such a vast number of victims, especially in the first period of war, resulted among others from the ideological (besides military and political) purposes of war assumed by the leaders of the Third Reich. One of them was to destroy Communism, the official ideology of the Soviet Union. On 30 March 1941 at a briefing of higher Wehrmacht officers Adolf Hitler straightforwardly explained that the war in the East would be a conflict of two opposing ideologies, and it shall result in the destruction of the Soviet state and Communism as they constitute a great danger for the future of Germany.

Excerpts from the speech of Adolf Hitler at the briefing of Wehrmacht high command on 30 March 1941 (based on the notes of General Franz Halder, chief of Army General Staff):

Our priorities regarding Russia: to smash the military forces, to liquidate the state. […] The struggle between two ideologies: devastating statement on Bolshevism: [which] equals antisocial criminality. Communism is an immense danger for the future. We need to abandon any camaraderie towards soldiers. Communists have never been and never shall be our brothers in arms. This is a war of extermination. If we do not accept this, we shall beat the enemy, but in thirty years we shall again confront the Communist foe. We are not conducting the war to preserve the enemy. […]


The struggle against Russia: the extermination of Bolshevik commissars and of the Communist elite.[ …]


We must combat the poison of disintegration. This is not a case for military courts. Troop commanders must know what is at stake. They must lead the fight. Troops must defend themselves with the same means that are used to attack them. Commissars and GPU personnel are criminals and must be treated as such. …


The struggle will be different than the one in the West. In the East harshness now means mildness for the future.

Commanders must demand sacrifices from themselves, win against their own doubts.

Source: Rotarmisten in Deutscher Hand. Dokumente zu Gefangenschaft, Repatriierung und Rehabilitierung sowjetischer Soldaten des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Herausgegeben von R. Overmans, A. Hilger und P. Polian, [ed. by.] Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, München, Wien, Zürich, 2012, pp. 123-125.

The instructions and orders of high commanders of Wehrmacht and the head of the RSHA (Reich Main Security Office) followed these guidelines. One of the most important was the order how to treat political commissars (the so-called Komissarbefehl) issued by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (German High Command, OKW) on 6 June 1941. Following its provisions, commissars, that is the political officers of the Red Army, shall not be treated as the core of the Soviet army, but as the “sources of the resistance” and as such being a threat to the safety of German soldiers. Consequently, their unconditional liquidation in the area of military operations was ordered, and should they be captured behind the lines, they were to be delivered to Sipo and SD (Sicherheitspolizei and Sicherheitsdienst, security police and security services) reporting to the RSHA.

Excerpts from the so-called Commissar Order (Kommissarbefehl) issued by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht on 6 June 1941, and containing “Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars”:

In the battle against Bolshevism, the adherence of the enemy to the principles of humanity or international law is not to be counted upon. In particular, it can be expected that those of us who are taken prisoner will be treated with hatred, cruelty, and inhumanity by political commissars of every kind. Therefore, the line troops must be aware that:


  1. In this battle mercy or considerations of international law is false. They are a danger to our own safety and to the rapid pacification of the conquered territories.
  2. The originators of barbaric, Asiatic methods of warfare are the political commissars. So immediate and unhesitatingly severe measures must be undertaken against them. They are therefore, when captured in battle, as a matter of routine to be liquidated with firearms. …

I. Theatre of Operations

They are to be separated from the prisoners of war immediately, i.e. already on the battlefield. This is necessary, in order to remove from them any possibility of influencing the captured soldiers. These commissars are not to be recognised as soldiers; the protection due to prisoners of war under international law does not apply to them. Once they have been separated, they are to be finished off. …

II. Behind the Lines

Commissars caught in the wake of suspicious activity behind the lines are to be handed over to the Einsatzgruppe or Einsatzkommando of Security Police and SD.

Source: Rotarmisten in Deutscher Hand. Dokumente zu Gefangenschaft, Repatriierung und Rehabilitierung sowjetischer Soldaten des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Herausgegeben von R. Overmans, A. Hilger und P. Polian, [ed. by] Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, München, Wien, Zürich 2012, pp. 318-321; S. Datner, Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu na jeńcach wojennych w czasie II wojny światowej, Warszawa 1964, pp. 122-123.

As mentioned earlier, over 3 million of Soviet soldiers became prisoners in the first months of the war. The command of German army and the command of the RSHA were aware that there must also have been political commissars and Communist activists among so many prisoners of war. For this reason, orders to find them in POW camps and liquidate were issued. A special role in this campaign was played by the “Operational Order No. 8” issued on 17 July 1941 by the head of the RSHA, Reinhard Heydrich. It included guidelines for Sipo and SD units sent to POW camps consisting on commanding officer and 4 to 6 functionaries. Their task was to find not only commissars, but also representatives of the Communist intelligentsia, functionaries of the Bolshevik party, people holding key posts in state administration and economic institutions, as well as all Jews. Afterwards they were transported to the nearby concentration camps, to be killed. One of the camps where prisoners of war were taken to and murdered was Auschwitz.

Operational Order No. 8 of Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the RSHA, of 17 July 1941, with instructions for Sipo and SD (K_ommandos and Einsatzkommandos in the document) units, to run purges (Säuberung_) in the camps for Soviet POWs:

I enclose guidelines on purges in prisoner of war camps, where Soviet soldiers are detained. The guidelines were designed together with the OKW’s Department for Prisoners of War. […] Heads of prisoner and transition camps have been notified by the OKW.


Please delegate immediately a single unit consisting of a commander and 4–6 people to [each] prisoner of war camp.

They report directly to the head of Sipo and SD and received special training to fulfil their tasks. They are acting within the camp according to the guidelines of the head of Sipo and SD. Camp commanders, and especially intelligence officers in the camps are obliged to cooperate most closely with the units. […] The units must use their expertise, and follow their own conclusions and intelligence obtained. That is why they should embark on the tasks only once they have gathered appropriate material.


First of all, they should identify: all major state and party functionaries, especially professional revolutionaries, functionaries of the Comintern, all higher party officials on central and local level, all people’s commissars and their deputies, all former political commissars of the Red Army, holders of key posts in central and local administration, senior economic officials, Soviet-Russian intellectuals, all Jews, all who are known as instigators or fanatical Communists. …


Executions shall not take place in the camp or in its nearest vicinity.

Source: “Traktowanie jeńców w świetle dokumentów”, in: Biuletyn Głównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce, vol. V, 1949, pp. 129–131.