Soviet Antifascist Training of German Prisoners of War during and after WWII

• In Event: Propagating Soviet Socialism West and East during World War II

Abstract

This paper will examine Soviet attempts to conduct antifascist training amongst their German prisoners of war during and after WWII. It will discuss the role of exiled German communists and socialists and the Comintern to create propaganda materials that sought an end to the war. It will also examine how the antifascist program shifted after the war’s end to emphasize Soviet-German friendship and the refashioning of all four sections of an occupied Germany as well as the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Author

• Susan Grunewald, Southern New Hampshire U