foreign
The best estimate when combining all records both former Soviet and German loss records
is that 3 million German POWs were taken by the USSR and up to 1 million died in Soviet captivity.
The attrition rate was staggering for example of the 95 000 Germans to surrender at Stalingrad
on January 30th 1943 only 5,800 would be alive to return home by 1956.
But why would so many die after being captured? What were the conditions like in the gulag
system for the Germans? Why was there different treatment for prisoners? Why did the Soviets
hold many of these men for so long? How did Eric Hartmann survive and why did they keep him alive?
Hello I'm Colin Heaton former soldier Marine Corps Scout sniper history professor historian and book
author and we will answer these questions and other issues on this segment of Forgotten History.
During the Yalta Conference in the Ukraine held from February 4th to the 11th 1945 Joseph
Stalin Winston Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt discussed the future of Europe when the war was
over. Stalin made several promises which he would never honor primarily that the Eastern European
nations liberated by the Red Army would be allowed to hold free and fair elections, but Germany would
be de-Nazifified and divided into occupation zones by the British French Americans and the Soviets.
Stalin also agreed to join the United Nations but he wanted every Soviet POW to be handed over
even if liberated by the Western Allies and all Germans captured east of the Oder-Neisse line the
river 100 miles east of Berlin established at Yalta would fall in the Soviet hands.
Hartmann's unit Jagdgeschwader 52 was ordered to fly their aircraft West out of Czechoslovakia to avoid
Soviet captivity but Hartmann and 212 victory ace Colonel Hermann Graf the commanding officer and
another Diamond's recipient refused to abandon their ground crews and their families marching
West. They surrendered to an American armored reconnaissance unit of the 90th Infantry Division
at Pisek on May 8, 1945 but following his orders the American captain agreed to hand the Germans
military and civilians over to the Red Army unit that was also there. The only Germans able to
remain with the Americans were those two badly wounded to be of any use to the Soviets. Life in
the gulags was harsh and severe, food was limited poor in quality and the prisoners suffered under
strict regulations. According to data from the Soviet archives by October 1945 687, 300 Germans
remained alive in the gulags. An additional 316,600 Soviet Germans served as slave labor. One of these
Germans was Luftwaffe Major Erich Hartmann who was listed as a valuable high-profile prisoner and
for good reason. Hartmann and Graf were two of only 27 Germans to be awarded the Diamonds to the Oak
Leaves and Swords to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and the Soviets knew exactly who they were.
Both were favorites of Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering and were highly publicized in the media.
In fact the Soviets knew Hartmann by name and his call sign used in battle. Upon his capture Hartmann
was placed on trial and of his 352 victories the Soviets themselves confirmed at least 325 of them
and charged him with war crimes. This labeled him as a common criminal without any International
protections. Stalin allowed the Soviet Union to remain a signatory to the Hague Honventions but
like Japan they never signed the Geneva Convention of 1929. This stripped any International Red Cross
inspections of prison camps and no monitoring of the work and health conditions prisoners were
subjected to. The Germans experienced long hours of hard labor, were minimally fed and given no medical
or dental treatment. Punishments were severe for even the smallest infractions. Sentenced to 25
years of hard labor Hartmann endured the gulags at the coal mine in Shakti then to Novacherkassk
and then to Perco in the Ural Mountains. Many Germans interviewed who survived spoke about
the variety of tortures executions and cruel treatment but Hartman would not be killed.
In fact Stalin had special orders of protection for him although he did not know it.
He was interrogated if not tortured dozens of times some being more painful than others as
Hartmann stated during his interviews with me and recorded in my book The German Aces speak volume
2 quote. "What they hoped to get from me I still do not understand. Maybe I was a curiosity. I had met
Hitler more than once. I was a diamonds holder akin to a three-time hero of the Soviet Union. I was
like a rare exotic zoo animal to them," end quote. Shakti was a particularly gruesome gulag. Men died
by the hundreds every month especially during the long cold winters. They also had cave-ins poison
gases coming from the mine; there were no safety precautions for structural Integrity in the mine
or any safety gear for the workers. This was because there was always a supply of bodies to
take their place and the labor was free. Some men were starved to death as a form of torture and
being a senior officer in Shakti Hartmann went on a hunger strike to protest the abuse. In response
the guards beat him and due to their orders from Moscow force-fed him to keep him alive being a
famous prisoner. Punishments often were as diverse as they were illogical. As stated by Hartmann
quote, "You have to understand this crazy system. If you were to steal something they really did
not punish you. It was expected, not a problem. But if you said something bad about Stalin or even
Khrushchev later then you might get shot. It was an insane system." Hartmann was not fed often, about
once per week if lucky and when fed he was given the leftovers that were fed to the dogs. In defiant
protest he went on several hunger strikes but the orders from Moscow were to keep him alive so once
they force fed him for 27 days straight. Hartmann was so well respected by his fellow prisoners one
day the inmates rioted, broke into the office where he was being tortured and took the camp commander
who was a colonel and his two senior officers both majors as hostages, as well as a woman doctor. The
rebellion saw another 18 guards taken hostage by the Germans and the local villagers joined
the Germans in their defiance, hating the NKVD and GRY men as much as they did. The colonel was forced
to call his superior and repeat the prisoners' demands. Two days later 200 soldiers arrived
with the general and they were met by the locals who supported the Germans. Eventually the demands
were met and they received the same food as the guards. Hartmann was transferred to Novachekassk
for being a problem because he was highly respected and a natural leader. The stories of
abuse were rampant. Some prisoners were beaten to death some were shot but most were simply worked
to death. In some camps farther east in Siberia one form of punishment was to strip a man naked
and to tie him to a tree or a wooden pole then the millions of hungry newly hatched mosquitoes would
be allowed to feed on him until he died which was less than two days on average. Tens of thousands
of these prisoners simply disappeared never to be heard from again, not even their fellow prisoners
knowing what happened to them. Once Hartmann was continuously asked to sign confession
Ppapers written in Russian and he refused. As punishment he was beaten and was not fed for
three weeks while locked in a metal box for nine months. Hermann Graf was beaten also and endured
similar treatment and then he received the letter that his wife had divorced him. Many men received
such letters and that was the final straw for most of the men. They just gave up and signed the papers.
Hartmann also received bad news. His son Peter had died from pneumonia shortly after the war
but he was lucky that his wife Ushi stood by him knowing his strength and he was permitted to read
a handful of the over 400 letters she sent during his ten and a half years in captivity. Hermann Graf
finally signed the papers and was released on December 25th 1949 being labeled "mentally
deficient." Hartmann could have possibly joined him had he also signed the confessions, but he refused
and would not return home till October 1955. They offered to send him home if he worked as a spy for
the new KGB but again Hartmann refused. Then things changed. This was after West German Chancellor
Conrad Adenauer negotiated a deal with Nikita Khrushchev after Stalin died on March 3, 1953. The
Soviets needed trade agreements and the prisoners especially high value persons such as Hartmann,
Lieutenant General Hans Bauer and Field Marshall Ferdinand Shoerner, also a Diamond's recipient
just to name a few were useful bargaining chips. Khrushchev was somewhat more politically astute
than Stalin and he knew a good deal when he saw one. As a result the last Germans still known
to be alive were released in 1956. Erich Hartmann retired as a colonel from the West German Air
Force and he died on September 20th, 1993. He is buried next to his beloved Ushi who survived him.
We hope you enjoyed this segment of Forgotten History. Please click like and subscribe for free
and please stay tuned and be engaged and informed. Send us comments if you have questions or even
show ideas and we will respond to all requests and comments as soon as we can thank you.