Other Germans

I have written quite a bit on this blog about the plight of the Russian-Germans during World War II. A number of ethnic German civilians from outside the USSR also found themselves deported to various areas of the USSR to perform forced labor. Over a quarter of a million German men and women endured this fate. More than 66,000 of them perished in less than five years as a result.

According to Pavel Polian, Against their Will (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2004) the Soviet archives show the following figures.

Number of regisration cards of interned and mobilized civilians in GUPVI (Main Administration of POW Camps and Internees)

344, 671 (p. 267).

Mobilized German civilians sent to USSR Jan.-Mar.1945. (p. 266).

77,741 from Upper Silesia and East Prussia

67,332 from Romania

31,920 from Hungary

12,579 from Yugoslavia

189,572 subtotal

Added after filtration through NKVD camps 18,667.

208,239 Total

Arrested and interned foreigners in GUPVI (includes Poles and Japanese) March-May 1945 - 94,601. (p. 266).

These two catagories total a little over 300,000. But, not all of them were ethnic Germans. Out of those mobilized 10,983 ethnic Poles were repatriated by 1 Oct. 1946. Another 15,597 arrested Poles were repatriated by Feb. 1946.

As of 20 Dec. 1949 the Soviets still held 5,554 civilian Japanese and 7,448 Poles in GUPVI camps and had repatriated 3,968 Japanese and 6,942 Poles since 1945. (Polian table 1.7, p. 293).

Polian thus gives the number of ethnic German civilians sent to forced labor camps in the USSR as forced laborers as 272,000. (p. 293).

The number of recorded deaths among these internees by1949 was 66,468. (p.295). Thus about a quarter of the German civilians shipped from Central Europe and the Balkans to the USSR died in four years.

Interestingly enough no rehabilitation can legally be granted by the Russian government to people repressed outside the USSR. In all cases the point of deportation is considered the legal location of such acts not the destination within the USSR. (Polian, p.297).