Soviet POWs in the Polish Territories during World War II
According to various estimates, between 4.5 and 5.7 million Soviet POWs were taken captive by the Germans between June 1941 and the end of World War II.
Their tragedy is one of the topics that are still waiting to take a place in the memory of Europeans. After the Jews, these POWs were the second largest group subjected to deliberate mass extermination. They would die of starvation, cold and diseases in hundreds of POW camps in the Third Reich and the occupied territories. At least half a million died on the territory of current Poland.
Fugitive Soviet POWs sometimes found shelter in the formations of the Polish Underground Movement. They were the largest group of foreigners taking part in the Warsaw Uprising. However, some of the POWs were remembered by the Poles by their dishonourable behaviour, deciding to serve the Germans in the units pacifying the Warsaw Uprising or in extermination camps. They also joined Soviet partisan units, rightly perceived as a vanguard of communism.
The aim of this volume, written by Polish historians, is to cast more light on this complicated topic.