Vokietijos ir jos sąjungininkų karo belaisviai Lietuvoje 1944-1949 m.

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Vokiečių karo belaisviai; Raudonoji Armija; Paramilitarinė inteligentija; Represinė sistema; Policijos struktūros; Karo tribunolas; Specialios ligoninės; Darbo lageriai; German prisoners of war; Red Army; Paramilitary intelligentsia; Repressive system; Police structures; Military tribunals; Special hospitals; Labour camps.

ENAt the end of the war between the USSR and Germany, camps for German and its allies’ POWs were established in Lithuania. They were meant to guard the prisoners and use them for forced labour rebuilding destroyed cities or other objects. In the opinion of the Kremlin, the use of prisoners for forced labour in the Soviet Union was equal to German economic reparations – compensation for losses suffered during war. The West did not approve to this political position, but did not attempt to express a stronger disagreement with Stalin. The war prisoners although they were not sentenced remained doomed to oblivion and long years in captivity. From the aspect of the international humanitarian law, the leaders of the Soviet Union’s repressive agencies generally speaking kept to the 1929 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. However, in 1944–1946 due to very difficult economic and natural conditions the prisoners experienced many hardships: many of them fell ill, about three thousands died, most of them starved; the camp administration and heads of economic units used a badly paid labour force for their own purposes. Corruption, embezzlement and thefts were rampant; the Soviet authorities constantly violated the rights and freedoms of the prisoners of war. In the autumn of 1944 the Higher Council for Prisoners of War and the Interned of the NKVD of the USSR established the first camp for POWs in Lithuania – Vilnius camp No 195 with branches in the city environs. After the war in the summer and autumn of 1945 prisoners’ forced labour camps were established in Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Šilutė.At the end of 1945 there were five production camps in the country, one medical camp No 184 in Šilutė (Macikai) and two special hospitals – in Šilutė (Macikai) No 284 Stalininis režimas Lietuvoje 1944–1953 m. 2652 and in Kaunas No 1245. A total number of inmates was 31 402. The production camp consisted of the camp office and camp branches established near the town or in little towns in the county. At the beginning of 1946 there were a total of 35 camp branches that served a greater part of Lithuania from Panevėžys, Šiauliai, Klaipėda, and Šilutė as far as the Kaunas and Vilnius counties. There were no prisoner camps in the north-eastern and southern parts of Lithuania, i.e. in part of Aukštaitija and Dzūkija. For a very short time (1945 and 1946) there were several branches under the Soviet Lithuanian NKVD is eastern Prussia. All in all in 1944–1949 there were 92 709 inmates in POWs camps in Lithuania. The number of inmates changed every year: some were taken to the USSR (65.5 thou), still others were repatriated (23 thou); about 4 thousands died, and 722 escaped. When the mass repatriation in the Soviet Union started the last camp in Lithuania, the Vilnius camp, was closed at the beginning of 1949. [From the publication]

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