Dimensionen eines Verbrechens: Sowjetische Kriegsgefangene im 2. Weltkrieg

Soviet prisoners of war in the Second World War

On June 22, 1941, the German Reich invaded the Soviet Union. By the end of the war, the Wehrmacht had captured around 5.7 million Red Army soldiers. Their treatment was criminal. Anti-Bolshevik and racist attitudes played just as much a role as the military and economic interests of the Nazi regime. More than three million Soviet prisoners of war lost their lives. Many of them were shot. Most of them died of hunger and disease due to completely inadequate supplies, especially up to the spring of 1942.

After 1945

In the Soviet Union, the survivors were confronted with the mistrust of the authorities. They were under general suspicion of treason and were socially disadvantaged for decades.

Today

Although the Soviet prisoners of war were one of the largest groups of victims of German mass crimes, they are hardly remembered to this day.

Exhibition concept

This exhibition offers an initial introduction to the topic. It aims to address the diverse fates of Soviet prisoners of war and make them accessible to a wide audience.

• Nine chapters provide a thematic overview up to the present day;
• twelve biographies present individual fates;
• a map of Europe shows selected camp locations and the number of victims;
• Two media stations complement the narrative: they allow visitors to research selected memorial sites and critically examine the sources of photographs.

The exhibition is bilingual: German/English.

Cooperation:

This temporary exhibition was developed by the Museum Berlin-Karlshorst in cooperation with the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation, the German War Graves Commission, the German Historical Institute Moscow and the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial, and its presentation in Weimar at the Museum of Forced Labor is an initiative of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation.

The Museum of Forced Labor offers educational services for the exhibition in cooperation with the Buchenwald Memorial.