The last known German soldiers to be released from the SU

[ML59]

His name is Andras Tomas....a hungarian private who was captured in 1944 and finally released from a Bolshevik mental hospital in 1999...upon his return to Hungary, he was promoted to sergeant-major (the highest NCO rank) and offically discharged

Bolshevik?? You still live in a past era.

[Ken S.]

I know this is an old post, but for the sake of anyone who is interested I believe "Dwrj" is the camp in this account:
https://www.hdg.de/lemo/zeitzeugen/robert-gehrmann.html

To contribute to this threat. This gentleman was stationed in Akarmara, Tkibuli, Kutaisi, Tkwarcheli and Dwrj. The other four names I was able to confirm their existence in the internet. However, I am having problems locating the last city since we are not sure about the spelling. It could be: Dwre, Dwrie, Dwerje. If any of you know of this lost city located in today's the Kingdom of Georgia, I would appreciate. He worked mostly in the mines but some other of the POW did some construction work around town. Ex: building highways, railroads, houses, etc. Some of the same type of work that German POWs did in the USA. This veteran is over 80 yrs old today. Another one of the POWs in those camps drew them and this gentleman has copies of those drawings. I secured myself a copy, too.

[Boricua63]

Dear Ken: thanks for commenting on my post. The city has many names. Yes, the POW Camp mentioned in that article, is one of the several camps where Papa Simons was.

[Boricua63]

When were the last German POW's released from the soviet union? I know most were there until the mid 50's but I have heard tales of some not getting out until the 70's? Was this concidered a war crime even though the Russians had no rules on keeping prisoners? Also what was done about it if anything?

Soviet Union had sent German Pows to Gulag Slave labour camps located in Siberia.

There is no record of no german pows lost in gulag system.

German pows were source of free labour to ussr

Not all of them. According to a former Russian POW survivor who I interviewed, the Russians sent the "Top Dogs of the Third Reich and the SS members" to Siberia. That is exactly as I said it. The rest of them, went through several Gulags. He was in Akamara, Tkwacheli, Kudais, and Jvari. They worked mostly on the mines and those who were not fit for such hard work, then worked building streets, or lighter work. Only the very old ones were either let go or kept at the camp. This gentleman is now 93.

Hope it helps.

[callenet]

The 4 last Flemisch volunteers were released from the camp POTMA in 15.02.1962.

They were convicted as war criminals (they had nothing to do) and not as POW this is why they got 'forgotten'.

Here an article i think from 1961 from 'The Freiwillig' magazine.

By pure accident I found this article (pdf) in Dutch mentioning the fate of Julien de Galan.

The source is the publication (?) Geraardsbergse association for local history and the author is is Marc VAN TRIMPONT. My knowledge of Dutch is limited so I'm not sure of the validity of the source, but hopefully it can be of interest for someone in the forum.

[Wim]

Hello Callenet,

This article is known to me and a very good one in my opinion.

Greetings

Wim