How and what they fed the captured Germans in the USSR

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

War is a terrible period of tragedy, hardship and destruction. And one of its unsightly pages are prisoners of war. The Great Patriotic War was no exception: the Wehrmacht took prisoners of the Red Army, and the Red Army took German soldiers. At the same time, the Soviet side did not turn the existence of its captured opponents into a humanitarian catastrophe - in particular, they tried to feed them with dignity whenever possible. But the Germans themselves did not agree to eat everything from Soviet products.

For all the years of the Great Patriotic War, almost three and a half million servicemen of enemy states were captured in Soviet captivity. Moreover, 2 million 388 thousand of them were Wehrmacht soldiers. And not all of them returned to Germany after the end of the war - some remained on the territory of the USSR until 1950.

Their work consisted mainly of rebuilding the houses or infrastructure they had destroyed. And there were those who decided not to return and rebuild their lives already in the Soviet expanses.

It goes without saying that the Soviet government was faced with the question of the placement of the Germans, their treatment and, first of all, food supply. The peculiarities of organizing the life and activities of prisoners of war were outlined in a telegram signed by Chief of the General Staff Zhukov.

For example, daily nutritional norms were clearly defined: 600 grams of bread, 40 grams of meat and 120 grams of fish, 20 grams of sugar, 90 grams of cereals, 100 grams of pasta, 20 grams of vegetable oil, 600 grams of potatoes and vegetables, six grams tomato puree, 0, 13 grams of red or black pepper, 0, 2 grams of bay leaves, and 20 grams of salt.

However, there were problems with the provision of captured soldiers. If even in the first year of the Great Patriotic War there were not so many of them, then after the Battle of Stalingrad their number increased so much that sometimes there was not enough food to feed them, which, however, is not surprising, in those difficult conditions and the civilian population sometimes had nothing there is.

But some prisoners of war had to receive special food rations - for example, the wounded or those who fulfilled or exceeded the work plan.

Therefore, at a certain moment, the prisoners of war were able to use the money they earned to “shop” in the cafeterias that were opening on the territory of the camp, and also to go out to the city for additional food.

True, the Germans could use such "services" towards the end of the war and in the first post-war years, and before that they even had to beg. And angry at them, but that is why no less compassionate locals really gave the prisoners of war potatoes, bread, and sometimes a bowl of soup, not forgetting to scold them heartily.

But the Germans did not agree to eat all Soviet products. For example, many former Wehrmacht soldiers recalled with great displeasure, oddly enough, buckwheat porridge - it categorically did not suit them as a side dish.

Another unloved dish was fish soup: all because there was absolutely no fish pulp in its composition, and only heads and bones were boiled for the broth. The Germans considered such an attitude to cooking almost blasphemy.

When the prisoners of war began to go out into the city, they did not take mushrooms to get their food by gathering or fishing - apparently they were afraid of poisoning.

But it is strange to imagine that for the same reason they refused to eat the mushroom soup that the locals tried to give them. In fact, the Germans generally did not take mushrooms in any form - neither salted nor canned.

Another product that the Germans did not like was kvass. Accordingly, the prisoners of war refused to eat all dishes based on it, for example, okroshka. Eyewitnesses also recalled that the former Wehrmacht soldiers did not love all the fish that they liked in the Soviet expanses.

So, only in the most extreme cases did they agree to eat vobla - they did not like it so much that they even called it "dry death", because after consuming it, they were overwhelmed by a strong thirst.

However, there is evidence of what products the German prisoners of war loved and willingly bought or accepted from the hands of local residents.

This list includes such products as pork, white bread, sugar. As it turned out, the Germans also loved tropical fruits: there is a known case when one of the prisoners of war received a parcel from home, and in it, during a check, the NKVD officers found a whole coconut.