DBWI: German POWs returned

Hello,

last night I saw a documentary about the Russian-German relationship till 1980. It was frightening.

We all know that when german chancellor Adenauer travelled to Moscow to get the last german POWs home he was bluntly told, that because of the damage done by fascist aggression there are no POWs left in the Soviet Union, only war criminals. And those would remain in custody until the damage done to the Soviet Union was repaired. And they also said that the Soviet Union would be more advanced if WW II had not happened and this loss of advancement would be included into the payment the Germans had to do.

And afterwards the german POWs would be given to the other nations of the Warsaw Pact that had suffered because of fascist aggression.
Adenauer was soon removed from office and his replacement, I do not remember his name right now, but he was a man with a lot of anger (some say because his son was one of the POWs), set Germany on a course to militarism. And even Franz Josef Strauss, who was considered a hothead, was removed from office. In the end, Germany was dotted with fortifications.

Then this documentary moved forward to 1975, where they showed a speech given by General secretary Breshnev, who said that the Germans still had not paid in full and therefore he asked the government of the GDR to sent "volunteers" to continue the work of the war criminals who by now where nearly all dead.

In this documentary there was also hinted that the KGB kidnapped people close to the border between the FRG and the GDR and sent them to the Soviet Union and this nearly led to war when they kidnapped a group of US servicemen having a party.

Then they showed a memorial service in a small german town. All german towns have a marker, just like a gravestone, where the name "Berlin" is written and the distance to the german capital. Besides this marker there was the memorial for the Missing POWs. It was a statue of a shackled human and on the wall behind him where the names of the missing POWs from this town. Besides this wall was a second wall with the name of a city of the GDR and on this wall where the names of the missing POWs and people sent to the Soviet Union of this city in the GDR.

I know that the russians are very angry at the germans but when I saw this memorial service I saw a lot of anger, too.

They showed some veterans from the German Volunteer Brigade who fought in Vietnam side by side with the US Army. They proudly presented their cyanide capsules. North Vietnam had said that they would turn any captured German soldier over to the Soviet Union and therefore the german soldiers carried at least 3 cyanide capsules each.

As not all documents are released does anybody know if its true that during the Tet-offensive at least one battle between the VC and the Germans was a quarter is neither asked nor given affair, with only one soldier left alive at the end?

Then (1977) Germany was an armed camp with the cities close to the border with the GDR turned into Fortresses and nearly all germans had at least military training. And to see that every company had a weapons locker with enough guns for its employees, including RPGs and machine guns - I shuddered.

They even showed some military maps of this time. If the Warsaw Pact had gone for the Fulda Gap it would have been virtual suicide. Germany was armed to the teeth and some former high ranking members of NATO clearly showed how frightened they were.

According to a Professor for political science the Soviet Union would have never taken part in the Marshallplan. But he made a study that showed that if the Soviet Union had released the German POWs and opened trade relations with the FRG and allowed some freedom to the people of the GDR that the Soviet Union would have far more prospered.

So, what do you think: Was the Soviet Union justified in what they did or would it have been better to release the POWs?

And how would the world look if they had released the POWs?

And looking back now, do you think that the relationship between Germany and Russia will cease to be cold or should I ask this question in a few decades?

Real Life information:
In East Germany the so-called Betriebskampfgruppen hat access to military style weapons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Groups_of_the_Working_Class
 
Of the German POW's that were captured, many were just executed by NKVD, MGB and eventually KGB firing squads and their remains dumped into the rivers near the gulags where they were held. We now know from now-released Soviet records that Stalin--upon reading reports of the atrocities at Auschwitz-Brikenau against Soviet POW's--ordered the regular killing of German POW's as retribution for the Holocaust. Ferdinand Brandner and his team at Junkers who eventually went to the Soviet Union after the war said they never saw the German POW's, mostly because Brandner's group--because of their status as aeronautical engineers--were treated fairly well in the Soviet Union, even if the security around them were extremely tight and were never sent to any place near the gulags where the German POW's were held.
 
Some good ideas!

but he was a man with a lot of anger (some say because his son was one of the POWs), set Germany on a course to militarism.

Not a chance. Germany was occupied and not allowed to have an army. It was allowed in 56 only as it was sen as an easy way of getting troops for the cold war. Any German leader pushing for militarism would have been eliminated by American / English / French / Soviet / Pole and so no secret services.
 
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