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X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.historikertag.de/Bonn2025/programm/soviet-prisoners-of-war-in-world-war-ii-case-studies-from-ukraine-and-georgia/
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DTSTAMP:20250325T072335Z
DTSTART:20250916T140000Z
DTEND:20250916T154000Z
SUMMARY:[Historikertag 2025] Soviet Prisoners of War in World War II. Case Studies from Ukraine and Georgia
DESCRIPTION:During World War II, up to 5.7 million Soviet soldiers and officers – men and women – were taken prisoner by the Wehrmacht. More than three million of them died due to inhumane captivity conditions or were murdered. Among the French POWs, the second largest group in German captivity, the mortality rate was 3%. These figures clearly show that the German treatment of the Soviet POWs was fundamentally different from that of the POWs from the Western allies. Germany denied Soviet POWs any protection in accordance with the Geneva Convention.
Within the Soviet group, in turn, the responsible German authorities categorised the POWs according to social, racial and political criteria, thus using the multiethnic character of the Red Army for Germany’s war aims. The panel discusses hierarchies in the camps and the POW’s survival strategies. What markers existed in captivity to demonstrate national identity and which increased the chances to survive? Who was killed and who was recruited for the SS or Wehrmacht?
Those who survived had to go through a so called “filtration process” and were questioned by the Soviet Security Services. The session focuses on individual fates of (former) POWs and gives evidence of the prisoners’ agency during and after the war. All presentations are based on a broad range of sources such as Soviet “filtration” and criminal files, Wehrmacht documents, memoirs, letters and other documents from Ukraine, Georgia, Germany and other countries. By compiling data from different sources, the session opens up new avenues for research on the entanglement of German, Soviet, Ukrainian and Georgian history.
Whereas Western scholarship has often generalised the history of Ukrainian and Georgian POWs as part of a broader Soviet experience or even viewed all Soviet POWs as “Russians”, the Ukrainian and Georgian historiography has faced significant changes, particularly in distancing itself from Soviet interpretations of the past.
The session consists of three contributions of 20 minutes each and a discussion of 30 minutes.
Der Beitrag Soviet Prisoners of War in World War II. Case Studies from Ukraine and Georgia erschien zuerst auf Historikertag 2025.
LOCATION:Hörsaal 3
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