How many Russian POWs died in German camps?

Between 140,000 and 500,000 Soviet prisoners of war died or were executed in Nazi concentration camps. Most of those executed were killed by shooting but some were gassed.

How many miles long was the battlefront of Operation Barbarossa?

The invasion along a 1,800-mile (2,900-km) front took the Soviet leadership completely by surprise and caught the Red Army in an unprepared and partially demobilized state.

How many German POWs did Russia have in World War II?

According to available Russian records, a total of 2.8 million German Wehrmacht personnel were held as prisoners of war by the Russians by the time World War II ended. By the end of 1946, a significant number of German POWs had been released; the Soviet Union prisoner of war number was less than Britain and France combined.

What was the role of the POWs in the Soviet Union?

The POWs were utilized as forced labor during the country’s wartime economy and the nation’s rebuilding efforts after the war. The Russian troops captured few Germans soldiers during the early months of the Soviet-German war. By early 1942, after the Battle of Moscow, the number of prisoners in the Russian POW camps rose to 120,000.

How many Russian prisoners of war were repatriated after WW2?

There were only approximately 6,000 that lived to be repatriated after the war. When the weak economic situation in Russia began to subside in 1943, the death rate in the prisoner of war camps reduced dramatically. Concurrently, the prisoners of war became a significant source of labor for the Russian economy severely deprived of a workforce.

What was the size of a POW camp in Russia?

The size of POW camps was usually smaller in European Russia (between 2,000 and 5,000 men) than in Siberia (up to 35,000 men). The number of prisoners in camps often fluctuated and POWs tended to be moved repeatedly between camps.