Forced Labor of Germans in The Soviet Union - Reparations Forced Labor Disclosures From The Russian Archives

Reparations Forced Labor Disclosures From The Russian Archives

Since the fall of the USSR the Soviet archives have been accessible to researchers. The Russian scholar Pavel Polian in 2001 published an account of the deportations during the Soviet era, Against Their Will, Polian's study detailed the Soviet statistics on the employment of German civilian labor during the Stalin era. The study was published by Central European University Press.

In 1943 Ivan Maisky, the Soviet ambassador to the UK, was ordered by the Soviet government to form a task force on the issue of post war reparations from Germany. Maisky's report of August 1944 proposed the employment of German civilian labor in the USSR as part of war reparations. At the Yalta Conference the Soviet Union made it clear to the Western Allies that they intended to employ German civilian labor as part of war reparations, at this time the U.S. and UK did not raise any objections to the Soviet use of German civilian labor.

By the summer of 1944 the Soviet forces had reached the Balkans that had ethnic German minorities. State Defense Committee Order no 7161ss (Постановление № 7161cc ГКО СССР) of December 16, 1944 instructed to intern all able-bodied Germans of ages 17–45 (men) and 18-30 (women) residing within the territories of Romania (67,332 persons), Hungary (31,920 persons), Yugoslavia (12,579 persons), which were under the control of the Red Army. Consequently, 111,831 (61,375 men and 50,456 women) able bodied adult ethnic Germans from Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary were deported for forced labor to the USSR.

During the 1945 military campaign in Poland the Soviet Union interned suspected Nazi party members and government officials in camps in the Soviet-occupied areas east of the Oder-Neisse line. Persons held in these short-lived camps east of the line were subsequently transferred to NKVD special camps in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany or for the Soviet Union for forced labor By May 1945 the NKVD had selected for deportation to the USSR 66,152 German civilians who were considered suspected Nazi party members and government officials, as well as 89,110 able bodied adults(mostly men) for forced labor. In early 1947 the Soviets sent an additional 4,579 Germans from the Soviet occupation zone to the USSR as forced laborers.

The Soviets classified the civilians interned into two groups; the first Group A (205,520 persons) were "mobilized internees" who were able bodied adults selected for labor; the second Group D (66,152 persons) "arrested internees" were Nazi party members, German government officials, journalists and others considered a threat by the Soviets. Soviet records state that they repatriated 21,061 Polish citizens from labor camps which indicates that not all of the internees were ethnic Germans and some could have been ethnic Poles.

The Soviets sent about 3/4 of the laborers to the Donets Basin to work in the reconstruction of heavy industry and mines, and about 11% to the Urals heavy industries. The workers were housed in concentration camps under armed guard. The working and living conditions were harsh and according to Soviet records about 24% of those interned died. Forced labor turned out to be inefficient and unprofitable since many of the women and older men were not able to perform heavy labor. Repatriation started as early as 1945 and almost all were released by 1950.

Ethnic German civilians interned by USSR Soviet data from the Russian archives

Source of figures Pavel Polian-Against Their Will

Notes:

1. Country indicates the location where the persons were conscripted, not citizenship.

2. The 201,464 surviving internees were citizens of the following nations- Germany 77,692; Romania 61,072; Hungary 29,101; Poland 21,061; Yugoslavia 9,034; Czechoslovakia 2,378; Austria 199; Bulgaria and other countries 927.

3. Figures do not include German civilians interned in the Kaliningrad Oblast, the former East Prussia

4. Figures do not include "Forced Repatriation" and "Resettlers" Ethnic Germans from the USSR who had been resettled by Germany in Poland during the war. They were returned to the USSR.

5. Figures do not include military POW.

6. Still held 12/1949- Persons convicted by Soviet military tribunals and held in MVD prisons in the USSR

Thanks to the opening of the Russian archives, the fates of some of these civilians are now known. By late 1996, the German Red Cross had received from Russia 199,000 records of deported German civilians who had either been repatriated or died in Soviet captivity. For example, the records of Pauline Gölner reveal that she was born in 1926 in Wolkendorf in Transylvania, was arrested on January 15, 1945 and sent to forced labor in the coal mines of Chanchenkowo (Ukraine). She died there on February 26, 1949, 23 years old.

There is currently an ongoing research program in collaboration between Russia and Germany: