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German atrocities committed against prisoners of war during World War II

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During World War II, Nazi Germany committed a number of atrocities against prisoners of war. German mistreatment and war crimes against prisoners of war (POWs) begun in the first days of the war during their invasion of Poland; with estimated 3,000 Polish POWs murdered in dozens of incidents, However, it was the German treatment of the Soviet prisoners of war that became most infamous: Soviet POWs held by Nazi Germany, primarily in the custody of the German Army were routinely starved and subjected to deadly conditions. Of nearly six million who were captured, around three million died during their imprisonment.

Invasion of Poland (1939)

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Main article: German atrocities committed against Polish prisoners of war

During the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II, Nazi Germany carried out a number of atrocities involving Polish prisoners of war (POWs). The first documented massacres of Polish POWs took place as early as the first day of the war;[1] : 11  others followed (ex. the Serock massacre [pl] of 5 September).[2]: 31 [3] During that period, the Wehrmacht is estimated to have mass-murdered at least 3,000 Polish POWs,[4]: 121 [5]: 241  with the largest atrocities being the Ciepielów massacre of 8 September 1939 (~300 victims) and the Zambrów massacre of 13–14 September (~200 victims).[3] Most of those atrocities are classified as war crimes of the Wehrmacht.[6] In a prelude to The Holocaust, Jewish soldiers with the Polish Army were also more likely than others to be victims of various atrocities.[3][7]

Later, during the German occupation of Poland which lasted until early 1945, captured Polish resistance fighters were routinely executed by German forces.[8]

Western front (1940)

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Likewise, following the increased hostilities and German victories on the Western front, Germans carried out a number of massacres of the Western Allied forces, such as the Le Paradis massacre (97 victims)[2]: 24, 47–56  or the Wormhoudt massacre (81 victims).[2]: 56–63 

Invasion of Russia (1941)

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Main article: German atrocities committed against Soviet prisoners of war

In June 1941, Germany and its allies invaded the Soviet Union and carried out a war of extermination with complete disregard for the laws and customs of war. Among the criminal orders issued before the invasion was for the execution of captured Soviet commissars.[9]: 79  Although Germany largely upheld its obligations under the Geneva Convention with prisoners of war of other nationalities,[10]: 18 [11]: 235  military planners decided to breach it with the Soviet prisoners. By the end of 1941, over 3 million Soviet soldiers had been captured, mostly in large-scale encirclement operations during the German Army's rapid advance. Two-thirds of them had died from starvation, exposure, and disease by early 1942. This is one of the highest sustained death rates for any mass atrocity in history.

Soviet Jews, political commissars, and some officers, communists, intellectuals, Asians, and female combatants were systematically targeted for execution. More prisoners were shot because they were wounded, ill, or unable to keep up with forced marches. Over a million were deported to Germany for forced labor, where many died in sight of the local population. Their conditions were worse than civilian forced laborers or prisoners of war from other countries. More than 100,000 were transferred to Nazi concentration camps, where they were treated worse than other prisoners. An estimated 1.4 million Soviet prisoners of war served as auxiliaries to the German military or SS; collaborators were essential to the German war effort and the Holocaust in Eastern Europe.

Deaths among these Soviet prisoners of war have been called "one of the greatest crimes in military history".[12]: 568  The total number of the deaths of prisoners of war from the Soviet Union greatly exceeded deaths of prisoners from other nationalities.[11]: 235–236 [13]: 204  About 3.3 million Soviet POWs perished under German jurisdiction.[9]: 80  With regards to the mortality rate, it is estimated at forty three to as high as sixty three percent.[14]

German crimes against the POWs on the Eastern Front were not limited to those against the Soviet soldiers; Polish soldiers serving under Soviet command have also been victims of several massacres, with the largest atrocities in 1945 committed at Podgaje (~200 victims) and Horka (~300 victims).[15]: 23 [16]

Commando Order (1942)

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Main article: Commando Order

The Commando Order was issued by the OKW, the high command of the German Armed Forces, on 18 October 1942. This order stated that all Allied commandos captured in Europe and Africa should be summarily executed without trial, even if in proper uniforms or if they attempted to surrender.[9]: 79–80  Dozens of Allied special forces soldiers were executed as the result of this order.[17]

Italy (1943)

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Main article: Italian Military Internees

Following he days immediately following the World War II armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces (September 8, 1943), most of the Italian army refused to participate in the war and was subsequently interned by the Germans.[18] Some were victims of mass executions and massacres, perpetrated by the Germans.[19][20]: 311, 323  Some were subject to harsh forced labors or even sent to Nazi concentration camps.[20]: 311, 323 [21][22] Others were interned in the camps, where they suffered from the second highest mortality rate of prisoners in German captivity (six to seven percent).[11]: 235–236 

Aftermath

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First trials of Germans accused of crimes against prisoners of war took place in the Soviet Union while the war was ongoing; meanwhile, Western allies were still gathering information through the United Nations War Crimes Commission.[9]: 10–11 

Shortly after World War II, at the Nuremberg trials (in particular, during the High Command Trial), numerous German crimes against prisoners of war were found to be a direct breach of the laws of war (in particular, Geneva and Hague conventions).[9]: 61, 78–85, 144–145  Almost all of the German high commanders tried during that trial were found to be guilty of crimes against POWs.[9]: 150–153 

Despite the trial, German public's awareness of the war crimes committed by its regular army (Wehrmacht), did not arise until the late 90s (see myth of the clean Wehrmacht).[9]: 197–198 

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Datner, Szymon (1962). Crimes Committed by the Wehrmacht During the September Campaign and the Period of Military Government. Drukarnia Univ.
  2. ^ a b c Chinnery, Philip D. (2018-04-30). Hitler's Atrocities Against Allied PoWs: War Crimes of the Third Reich. Casemate Publishers. ISBN 978-1-5267-0189-3.
  3. ^ a b c Sudoł, Tomasz (2011). "Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu na jeńcach polskich we wrześniu 1939 roku" [Wehrmacht crimes against Polish prisoners of war in September 1939] (PDF). Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej. 8–9 (129–130). Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 December 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  4. ^ Snyder, Timothy (2 October 2012). Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-03297-6. Archived from the original on 2 June 2023. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  5. ^ Böhler, Jochen (2006). Auftakt zum Vernichtungskrieg: die Wehrmacht in Polen 1939 (in German). Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. ISBN 978-3-596-16307-6. Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  6. ^ Sudoł, Tomasz (2011). "Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu na jeńcach polskich we wrześniu 1939 roku" [Wehrmacht crimes against Polish prisoners of war in September 1939] (PDF). Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej. 8–9 (129–130). Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 December 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  7. ^ Krakowski, S. (1977). "The Fate of Jewish Prisoners of War in the September 1939 Campaign" (PDF). Yad Vashem Studies. 12: 300.
  8. ^ Majewski, Piotr M. (2004). "Największa bitwa miejska II wojny światowej". Biuletyn IPN (in Polish). 8–9 (43–44): 55. ISSN 1641-9561.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Hébert, Valerie Geneviève (2021-02-12). Hitler's Generals on Trial: The Last War Crimes Tribunal at Nuremberg. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-3267-1.
  10. ^ Keller, Rolf; Kozlova, Daria; Latyschew, Artem; Meier, Esther; Quinkert, Babette; Winkel, Heike; Keller, Rolf; Keller, Rolf (2021). Dimensionen eines Verbrechens: Sowjetische Kriegsgefangene im Zweiten Weltkrieg: Katalog zur Ausstellung = Dimensions of a crime: Soviet prisoners of war in World War II: exhibition catalogue. Deutsch-Russisches Museum Berlin-Karlshorst. Berlin: Metropol. ISBN 978-3-86331-582-5. OCLC 1284831303.
  11. ^ a b c Gerlach, Christian (2016). The Extermination of the European Jews. New Approaches to European History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9781139034180. ISBN 978-0-521-88078-7.
  12. ^ Hartmann, Christian (2012-10-31), "Wehrmacht im Ostkrieg: Front und militärisches Hinterland 1941/42", Wehrmacht im Ostkrieg (in German), Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, doi:10.1524/9783486702262/html?lang=de, ISBN 978-3-486-70226-2, retrieved 2024-11-19
  13. ^ Moore, Bob (2022-05-05). Prisoners of War: Europe: 1939-1956. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198840398.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-187597-7.
  14. ^ Edele, Mark (2016-06). "Take (No) Prisoners! The Red Army and German POWs, 1941–1943". The Journal of Modern History. 88 (2): 342–379. doi:10.1086/686155. ISSN 0022-2801. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Piotrowski, Tadeusz (23 January 2007). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918–1947. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-2913-4. Archived from the original on 2 June 2023. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  16. ^ Woszczerowicz, Zuzanna (2022). "Recenzja: Zbigniew Kopociński, Krzysztof Kopociński, Horka – łużycka Golgota służby zdrowia 2. Armii Wojska Polskiego". Zeszyty Łużyckie (in Polish). 57: 257–260. doi:10.32798/zl.954. ISSN 0867-6364.
  17. ^ "British commandos | Raids, Training, World War II, & Normandy Invasion | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2024-11-19.
  18. ^ "The Forgotten Italian Military Internees of WWII | the Stillman Exchange". Archived from the original on 2018-06-17. Retrieved 2018-04-14.
  19. ^ Muraca, Ilio (2008). "E quei generali marciavano, marciavano e morivano". Patria Indipendente (in Italian). No. 9. Roma. pp. 21–23. ISSN 0031-3130.
  20. ^ a b Megargee, Geoffrey P.; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, eds. (2009). The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum encyclopedia of camps and ghettos, 1933-1945. Bloomington : [Washington, D.C.]: Indiana University Press ; In association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. ISBN 978-0-253-35328-3. OCLC 244567181.
  21. ^ Sula, Dorota (2010). "Jeńcy włoscy na Dolnym Śląsku w czasie II wojny światowej" (PDF). Łambinowicki rocznik muzealny (in Polish). 33. Opole.
  22. ^ Borek, Paweł (2004). "Obóz jeńców włoskich w Białej Podlaskiej wrzesień 1943 – czerwiec 1944" (PDF). Podlaski Kwartalnik Kulturalny (in Polish). No. 2. Biała Podlaska. pp. 14–17. ISSN 1234-6160.
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