MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th May, 2021) Rare documents about Nazi crimes against Soviet prisoners of war in the Maribor concentration camp have been presented for the first time at the exhibition "Please Remember!.. STALAG XVIII D" in Moscow.
The project was prepared jointly by Russia's Victory Museum, and The Museum of the Stalag XVIII-D Nazi Concentration Camp and the Maribor International Research Centre for WWII in Slovenia.
"The main content of the exhibition is unique photographic materials related to Stalag XVIII, camp plans, portraits of prisoners and their registration cards with photos, fingerprints and personal data," Alexander Arsentiev, a scientist at the Victory Museum on Poklonnaya Gora in western Moscow, told Sputnik.
According to him, the Stalag XVIII D, translated as "Main Camp" from German, which was located near the Slovenian city of Maribor, was founded in spring 1941 to hold prisoners of war from Yugoslavia and the UK captured during the campaign in Greece and North Africa. Soviet prisoners of war began arriving at the camp in July 1941 and were placed in the so-called Russian Camp, which was built separately for them, and is the subject of the exhibition.
According to Arsentiev, no records on Soviet prisoners in the camp were kept during the transportation stage, which was conducted in very poor conditions, compared to non-Soviet prisoners.
"If the British were fed quite tolerably on the road, then Soviet prisoners of war were taken on long marches on foot in unequipped, and often open cars, which already caused a huge mortality rate," the scientist explained.
According to the data available to the Victory Museum, by the end of 1941, 3,982 soldiers and officers had been sent to Maribor. Even though 1,857 deaths are verified, the data are incomplete. To date, researchers have managed to retrieve the Names of some 3,000 of 5,000 dead prisoners of war in the camp, which existed until October 1942. The prisoners of war, who at that time remained able to work, were sent to other camps in Germany.
The exhibition presents the documents of the camp administration on the executions of Soviet prisoners of war, the rules of order, as well as the calculation of food for Soviet and non-Soviet prisoners of war that are not directly related to the Stalag XVIII D camp.
Regarding the latter, the relevant order shown at the exhibition is dated 1943. By this time, Soviet prisoners of war used in Germany for work were being better fed due to the high mortality rate of prisoners in previous years. However, even the improved ratio of a Soviet prisoner of war was poorer than the rations of non-Soviet prisoners, Arsentiev noted.
According to the materials presented at the exhibition, prisoners of war of other countries even received marmalade as part of rations, while that of Soviet prisoners consisted mainly of bread, amounting to 2,600 grams per week.
"The difference in diets was mainly due to meat and fat. Meat - 250 grams per week for non-Soviet prisoners of war and 200 grams for Soviet prisoners. Fat - 218 for non-Soviet and 130 [grams] for Soviet prisoners," Arsentiev specified.
In total, the exhibition presents more than 200 images of the camp and portraits of its prisoners. Documents from the regional archives of Maribor, the state archives of Slovenia, the Federal archives of Germany, the US Air Force war Museum, the library of Congress, the San Diego Air and space museum, the national library of New Zealand, the national air and space museum and the Smithsonian Institution were used in working on the exhibition.
In 1946, documents about Soviet prisoners of war in Stalag XVIII D were used as part of the indictment documents at the Nuremberg trials.
