German World War II prisoners of war returning home, 1955

In 1955, German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer arrived in the USSR to establish diplomatic relations. The issue of the return of Hitler prisoners was acute. In total, nearly 2.5 million Germans were in camps in the Soviet Union.

[magnuswalker]

90, 000 German prisoners were taken at Stalengrad only 6, 000 returned home.

[tommyt]

A ten year prison sentence just for being a soldier who had nothing to say about where they were sent is a crime against humanity.

[guntersambale]

"Returning home???" As foreigners in their own countries...the good, the bad and the ugly...

[bobertjones]

I'm sorry, the fortunate ones made it to the FRG ( West Germany). The unfortunate ones went from a fascist state, to a communist prison camp to a state police controlled communist state of deprivation, curtailed freedom and piss poor automobiles.

[jaysigma]

My grandfather was 6 years a POW by the Red Army and released in 1951, just to be a pressed worker for the Red Army at minimal wages. They escaped Eastgermany with my then 16yo mother.
My grandmother was one of the rape-victims by the Red Army... no one talks about these crimes.
When these men returned home... they often just had a photograph of their wives and children.... and 10 years later found them being remarried, the kids didn't recognize them... I know a case where a former POW refuse to go back, stayed in Siberia and married a russian women. He said he didnt want to find his life in pieces.

[Brendan-qj]

I often wonder if men would willingly go to war if they knew their fate at being a prisoner of war.

[cornelkittell]

The Soviets didn't release all the German prisoners. I know someone that was born in the USSR because her grandmother went to live with her grandfather who had been a German soldier. They had a village in the far east that was made up of all Germans. She didn't learn Russian until see went to grade school.

[christiaanandresaaiman]

I am from South Africa. I followed German history closely. I dont think what was done to these men, were right.

[tendaimunyoro]

27million Russians killed by the Wermacht and the SS, it was amazing and unusually compassionate that the Russians scared by that kind of brutality didnt exact fatal revenge on the captured Germans and decided to intern them instead, Luftwaffe aces were also locked up under these conditions for over 10years in Russia .
Its a terrible story from a human perspective but there is no glory for the vanquished

[Sam-nbev]

The two world wars were mass bloodbaths unimaginable in scale and inhumanity. I just hope that we as humans have learnt our lessons but it doesn't appear to be so.

[Liberty-rnwy]

The comment that prisoners would have preferred the GDR (communist East Germany) over the FRG (West Germany) is utterly ridiculous.

[GhenAurwin]

Damn lucky, whoever survived The Eastern War.

[joszoet]

Where victory ends...The old man came home..

[johnnyredux]

Did any German prisoners write books about what happened to them, and comrades, after the war??

[nathanielcarreon]

They can only blame one person who misled them/followed him blindly in the first place

[randomobserver]

I assume the Soviets figured they were entitled to keep them since no formal peace with Germany had yet been issued, but still. The Western Allies only made peace by various proclamations in the late 40s and early 50s, and we'd repatriated the POWs more or less before 1950.

[andywilson]

Two countries revealed as barbaric in the conduct of their war against one another. The consequences were entirely predictable.

[Maria-buj]

Tristezas povo foram atraz conversa errada pena ❤ japassou

[sfred]

Seems unfair that the war was over in 1945, yet they weren't released until 10 years later.

[patrickcorliss]

Many returning soldiers face the same demons unemployment not knowing where they belong patz