Labour deployment of Soviet prisoners of war
Well over 5 million Soviet soldiers were taken prisoner by the Germans. The exact number of victims cannot be determined to this day - it is at least 2.6 million and probably up to 3.2 million.
During the Second World War, prisoners of war of various nationalities were deployed in agriculture, forestry, industry and construction work in almost every town. The use of prisoner of war labour was an important pillar of the German war economy. The treatment and labour deployment of Soviet prisoners of war was carried out in disregard of the provisions of the International Geneva Convention of 1929. Brutal treatment, inadequate care and poor working conditions led to a high death rate.
Due to the general labour shortage, the "Wehrmacht" (German armed forces) and the labour administration planned to bring up to one million Soviet prisoners of war into the German Empire in the summer of 1941. However, the National Socialist leadership was sceptical about this for ideological reasons. In August 1941, Hitler set the maximum number of Soviet prisoners of war in the Reich at 120,000. They initially had to work in road construction, national cultural work, quarries, the "Reichsbahn" (German state railway) and the “Wehrmacht”.
After the failure of the Blitzkrieg strategy in autumn 1941, increased conscription into the “Wehrmacht” and the increased demand for weapons and ammunition led to threatening shortages in the war economy. As a result, Hitler ordered the "large-scale deployment" of Soviet prisoners of war, who were now also employed in the defence industry, mining and agriculture. By 1944, the number of Soviet prisoners of war deployed for labour in the Reich had risen to more than 650,000.
Responsibility for labour deployment lay with the Prisoner of War base camps. From August 1941, the Bergen-Belsen, Oerbke and Wietzendorf camps set up more than 500 work details. On 1 December 1941, their administration was transferred to the camps XI A Altengrabow, XI B Fallingbostel, X A Schleswig, X B Sandbostel and X C Nienburg, which set up further work details until the end of the war. In total, there were around 2000 work details with Soviet prisoners of war in Lower Saxony and Bremen.
Initially, the Soviet prisoners of war were not paid a wage. From mid-November 1941, they received a small wage, which was credited by the POW camp administration and offset against necessary purchases such as work clothes or soap.