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Stellungnahme eines Deutschamerikaners: The truth about the numbers of missing German POW’s is really quite simple now that the Russian archives are open to researchers. There are still 1,700,000 Germans missing from their families. The Soviets took a total of about 4,100,000 POWs east and west. About 600,000 died due to slave labor. Of the total amount 2,400.000 were Germans. From these, 450,600 died and the rest were sent home. Subtracting 450,600 from the 1,700,000 leaves us with 1,250,000 not accounted for. Approximately 100,000 – 200,000 died in the Polish and Yugoslavian camps. That leaves about 1,000,000 POWs that are missing which is the number that is quoted in Bacque’s book. Clearly, Bacque’s statistics were meticulously researched and are corroborated by the data in the Russian archives which until recently were closed to the west. The conclusions from all of this is that the numbers of deaths in the western camps, primarily American and French need to be revised upwards since heretofore these deaths were conveniently attributed to the Russians. Michael L. Reisch May 28, 2002 Carlisle Ma. USA |