Soviet prisoners in the SS Auschwitz

The first Soviet prisoners of war in Auschwitz concentration camp: July, 1941

The first Soviet prisoners of war were brought to Auschwitz in July 1941 and killed within a few days.

The exact number of these prisoners is missing. They had never been registered. Presumably there had been a few hundreds of them and they fell into the category of ‘political officers and commissars’. Nowadays, judging by the uniform of these prisoners, the researchers believe that they used to be tankmen.

Only the memoirs of the former prisoners who witnessed their stay in the camp along with the memoirs of Rudolf Höss (the camp’s commandant) bear record of their tragic fate.

The prisoners of war were allocated to block №11 and were executed by shooting or beaten to death within the following days.