Soviet Prisoner of War Camps in Ukraine as Places of Memory of Nazi Crimes

• In Event: Legacies of WWII and the Holocaust in Ukraine: New Research, Archival Discoveries, and Local Memory

Abstract

During the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, scholars estimate that more than 200 sites of imprisonment for Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) were established. Within these camps, more than a million captured Red Army soldiers perished due to starvation, disease, hard labour, and executions. This tragedy unfolded in full view of the local population and left a profound and lasting trauma across generations. However, in the postwar period, the commemoration of Soviet military captivity remained largely neglected – both during the Soviet era and in independent Ukraine. Many mass graves and former camp locations have been either abandoned or have disappeared under modern urban development.

In this paper, I will analyse the circumstances that influenced the situation with memorialisation in the post-war history of the former Nazi camps for Soviet prisoners of war in Slavuta, Vinnytsia, Lviv, and Poltava. Key factors include the exhaustiveness of historical information about the camp, its location (and economic value of the site for urban development), the engagement of local community, and the presence of other victim groups (for instance, in Poltava, Jews were shot on the camp grounds).

Author

• Tetiana Pastushenko, Inst of History NASU (Ukraine)