The latest anti-Western MAGA conspiracy theory
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It's not a new conspiracy theory. It's many decades old.
It's just that CY seems to have stumbled upon this right now.It's a load of BS.
My own grandfather, who was a soldier on the east front in '45, rushed west west west at the end of the war because everyone wanted to be captured by the Brits or the Americans but not by the Russians. He was captured for a few weeks in a british POV camp and could then return home safely.
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Can't read the thread, but I second Klaus's answer. My dad was captured by the Soviets in may '45 near Prenzlau. His platoon commander was shot to set an example. After five days all captured soldiers had to march to Stargard, without food or water. About one third of them made it.
My father told they tried eating gras, which didn't digest (cellulose...). After two weeks in Stargard they were put on trains heading east.
My dad spent only one year in three lagers (one of which was Bobruisk in Byelarus).
He was lucky in the sense that he had the Belgian nationality and was transferred in 1946 to Romania and later on to Belgium.
Some of his companions only got back to Germany in 1956.
For correct understanding: the USSR NEVER-EVER talked about prisoners of war, they always called them war criminals. POW's fall under the Geneva conventions; war criminals don't. Think of them as cheap and expendable labour forces. -
Don’t doubt this conspiracy yarn has been around for a long time. Until now either I had never heard of it or, if I did, I paid no attention and wrote it off as crackpot coffee and doughnut shop gossip- which is what it is.
Further to what Wim and Klaus wrote, I agree. I knew and worked with German and Hungarian vets who experienced Soviet hospitality as POWs after the war. Went to school with Polish kids whose civilian parents experienced the same during the war. Also worked with a couple of German and Italian vets who experienced British and Canadian hospitality as POWs during and after the war. No comparison.