In the period immediately following its defeat in the Second World War Germany was faced with many problems: rebuilding itself after the destruction of the war, re-establishing a political infrastructure, and coming to grips with its Nazi past. Although these were critical issues, perhaps one of the most serious was the matter of the millions of prisoners of war taken by the Soviet army and expellees that were driven out of eastern German territories in the wake of the Soviet push in the spring of 1945. Both of these issues were at the forefront of postwar German society, in particular the question of the POW's. The absence of millions of German men and subsequent reintegration process into the two post-war societies had tremendous political ramifications for both the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic. Politically, the former POWs were crucial pieces in the emergence of postwar German politics. In both the East and the West, returning prisoners of war were used to the political advantage of their respective governments
[...] In particular, former POWs played an immense role in the rearmament of East Germany via the paramilitary Alert Police or People's Police. Many joined not out of any real communist zeal, but out of necessity. In his book, The Russians in Germany, Norman Naimark describes the options that some of these men had, some cases, POWs already on their way home at the transfer station in Frankfurt-Oder were offered a choice of working in the mines in the Erzgebirge or joining the Alert Police.”[11] Another description in Biess's piece describes how some POWs in Russia were simply offered release in exchange for their service in this new (East) German military[12]. [...]
[...] One incident mentioned in Biess's piece had former prisoners of war yelling that they “were only hungry and that many of us perished” and that they did not “want to have a thing to do with the Russians”[15]. Despite episodes like that, these meetings did play an important role in the creation of the SED's political agenda. Biess writes, publicly demonstrating the transformation of former soldiers of Hitler's army into ideal antifascist citizens, the conferences assumed a larger symbolic importance for all (East) Germans[16]”. [...]
[...] Frank Biess, in his doctoral dissertation, describes these men as those, were too sick and exhausted to be deported into labor camps inside the Soviet Union.” Similarly, the same applied to the first POWs to be returned from Russia proper.[4] Used as slave labor, German prisoners of war played a key role in the rebuilding of such cities as Leningrad and Minsk, which were left devastated in the wake of four years of war. Contrary to popular belief, German POW's did not spend all their time languishing behind the barbed wire. [...]
[...] Not until there was closure on the matter could many of these people accept the finality of the conflict. The matter of the last remaining POWs took on national prominence in West Germany throughout the 1950's. The return of the last remaining prisoners of war became somewhat of a national obsession. There were all sorts of remembrance weeks, prayer weeks, and other events of that nature. The issue played an immense role in unifying most of the German political spectrum against a common enemy: communism. [...]
[...] War Stories: The Search for a Usable Past in the Federal Republic of Germany. Berkley: University of California Press Naimark, Norman M. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation 1945-1949. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: Simon and Shuster Warburg, James P. “Adenauer's Visit Appraised: Trip Viewed as a Surrender Rather than as a Triumph”, The New York Times 19 September William L. [...]
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