"Keine Kameraden": The Treatment of Soviet Prisoners of War in German POW camps during the Second World War

Symposium co-sponsored by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the German Historical Institute Washington.

On the occasion of the publication of volume IV of The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, which covers Camps and Other Detention Sites under the German Armed Forces, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and the German Historical Institute (GHI) are co-organizing a symposium that will examine the treatment of Soviet prisoners of war in German POW camps during the Second World War. Of up to 5.7 million Red Army soldiers captured, roughly three million died as a result of deliberate German policy, with death rates at times outpacing that of Jewish Holocaust victims. The event will feature two presentations and a scholarly comment, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with the audience.

Dallas Michelbacher (USHMM) will present key findings from volume IV of the Encyclopedia, with particular emphasis on the treatment of Soviet prisoners of war, a subject that has not been adequately addressed in the existing English-language historiography. Esther Meier (GHI Moscow) will present findings from the GHI Moscow’s research and documentation project project „Sowjetische und deutsche Kriegsgefangene und Internierte,” discussing German crimes committed against Soviet POW’s as well as the entanglement of German and Soviet history that is revealed in the biographies of prisoners. Edward Westermann (Texas A&M University - San Antonio) will deliver a comment.

Panelists

Esther Meier, German Historical Institute Moscow

Dallas Michelbacher, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, contributor to the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 (Vols 4 & 5)

Edward Westermann, Texas A&M University - San Antonio

Moderators

Jürgen Matthäus, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Richard Wetzell, German Historical Institute Washington

***Please note this is an in-person event only. The GHI requires masks to be worn for in-person events.  In addition, those attending must show proof of vaccination (or recovery from Covid-19 within the last 90 days).