This project focuses on the experiences of Soviet Jewish prisoners of war (POWs) in German captivity. Germany’s decision not to apply the Geneva Convention to Soviet POWs led to the death, from executions, starvation, diseases and cold, of between 2.5 – 3.3 million Soviet POWs. In a direct outcome of the Commissar Order and of Reinhard Heydrich’s order to the Einsatzgruppen, Jewish POWs were specifically singled out for execution. It is estimated that out of the 85,000 Soviet Jewish POWs captured by the Germans, only approximately 6,000 survived.
The purpose of this research is to describe the experience of the Soviet Jewish POWs; and more specifically, to look into the background and motives of several German camp commandants – some of them members of the SS and of the Nazi Party – who went against the general policy of execution of Jewish POWs and took actions to protect them.
The research is based on testimonies of the few Jewish POWs who survived, interrogations of German POW camps personnel which were conducted in the 1960s when Germany began in-depth investigations of the Nazi regime’s atrocities and extensive archival work. The initial findings will be published in one or two articles, and once completed, in a book.
The project builds on previous research which dealt primarily with the experience of Jewish POWs from western armies in German captivity, and resulted in the monograph, Jewish Soldiers in Nazi Captivity: American and British Prisoners of War during the Second World War (Oxford University Press, 2023).
Contact: Yorai Linenberg, Honorary Research Fellow, Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck, University of London.
