the number of the transferred copies of documents former reference control of the Wehrmacht/German management on the Affairs of the Soviet prisoners who died in custody in Germany, medical documents (x-rays, temperature sheets), personal documents, prisoners, military cards and personal cards. Thanks to the transfer of documents will be able to find out the fate of Soviet prisoners of war, return them a name and a biography.
the Transfer took place on 6 may at the press center of TASS in Moscow. The Ambassador of Germany in Russia géza Andreas von Geir gave the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation for international cultural cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoi flash drive, on which was written these documents.
Later, the German side is planning to transfer and other documents. As noted in the message of Embassy of Germany in Moscow, “given the large number of Soviet soldiers and officers who fell during the Second world war in German captivity and the fact that often one person has got some personal Affairs, it is expected that the project will be studied a few million of personal documents”.
As stated Shvydkoi, “everyone returned from the nothingness of the person, each name is a very important act. The phrase “the missing” is always and still knocking at the hearts of the people because of obscurity the people return to history, return to family, return to the historical memory, without which we are dead. This project is very important for all Soviet people who survived the tragedy of captivity and come back from there today, and for the Germans, because this is a joint Russian-German project”.
According to the special representative for international cultural cooperation, “the outcome of the 75th anniversary of relations between Russia and Germany – the reconciliation of the peoples who 75 years ago for life and death fought on the battlefields of Europe”.
Greetings on the occasion of the transfer of the documents published by the foreign Ministers of Russia and Germany Sergey Lavrov and Heiko Maas.
“the Development of fruitful archival cooperation between Russia and Germany, the consequent promotion of research in the framework of this new joint projects will help preserve the historical truth and will become a significant contribution to the process of reconciliation of the peoples of our countries”, – said Lavrov.
Heiko Maas said that “despite the heavy legacy of the Second world war, we, with profound humility, was able to verify that reconciliation between people is possible. For that, I want to wholeheartedly thank the people of Russia”.
the intergovernmental project “the Search and digitization of unknown data about the fate of Soviet and German prisoners of war and internees during the Second world war” was initiated in a joint statement, the then Federal m��foreign Minister of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergei Lavrov on 22 June 2016, the day of the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union. The aim of the project is to find out the fate of people and provide relevant documents and information to relatives and for historical research and memorialization. Source work is conducted in German, Russian and international archives.
the German side implementation is entrusted to the National Union of Germany on care of military graves, who is coordinating the project on behalf of the Federal Ministry of foreign Affairs. The German historical Institute in Moscow (Institute of Foundation. Max Weber) is working all the archives in cooperation with Russian partners. He manages in a database in Germany found documents and data on Soviet prisoners of war, as well as reports information about Soviet prisoners of war. Memorial of the concentration camp Flossenburg in coordination with the Federal archive of Germany in the framework of the project supervises the data in the online database Memorial Archives.
From the Russian side the project is engaged in Management of the Ministry of defense of the Russian Federation on perpetuating of memory of victims at protection of Fatherland. Among the project partners – the Federal archival Agency, the State military archive and the “electronic archive” Corporation. The last deals with the jurisdiction of the Russian Internet database HBS “memorial”, in which the provided data and documents.
during the Second world war more than five million Soviet soldiers and officers were taken prisoner by the Germans, over three million died as a result of the terrible conditions of detention or have been killed.
