Romanian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union

 

There were a significant number of Romanian POWs in the Soviet Union during and after World War II, especially from 1943 on. These prisoners of war worked in various labor camps. Some were originally from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina^{[citation needed]}, which were occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, some were from Romania proper.

For example, 6,740 Romanians worked in the Spassky camp of Karlag, in Karaganda Oblast, Kazakh SSR, in Vorkuta, in Norilsk, and in other places.^{[citation needed]} Spassky camp nr. 99 was established in July 1941, and was the largest POW camp in the region. While most of those prisoners were German and Japanese, over 8,000 of them were Romanian POWs. Over 1,100 of those Romanian prisoners died at Spassky camp, due to the harsh conditions there.

An April 1946 report to Vyacheslav Molotov (see the wikisource reference) stated that in 1945, 61,662 Romanian POWs were repatriated, 20,411 took part in forming Romanian volunteer divisions, and about 50,000 more remained in labor camps. The last Romanian POW were freed in 1956. Some were arrested again by Communist Romanian authorities on their arrival in Romania "for waging war on the Soviet Union", and sent to Sighet prison.

On September 9, 2003, a granite monument was inaugurated at the Spassky camp cemetery by then-Romanian President Ion Iliescu. It bears the inscription "In memoriam. To those over 900 Romanian prisoners of war who died in Stalinist camps in central Kazakhstan in 1941–1950."

Bibliography

• A. Antonov-Ovseenko, "The Time of Stalin--portrait of a tyranny", Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1981. ISBN 0-06-010148-2
• (Romanian) Johann Urwich-Ferry, "Ohne Passdurch die UdSSR", printing house of the "Romanian-German studies group", München, 1976 - 1978 (in German) "Fără paşaport prin URSS. Amintiri", Editura Eminescu, Bucureşti, 1999.