Die Heeresgruppe Mitte - Ihre Rolle bei der Deportation weißrussischer Kinder nach Deutschland im Frühjahr 1944
Army Group Center - Your Role in the Deportation of Belarusian Children to Germany in the Spring of 1944
Author(s): Johannes-Dieter SteinertSubject(s): Military history, Recent History (1900 till today), Studies in violence and power, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), History of Communism, Fascism, Nazism and WW II, Migration Studies
Published by: Wiener Wiesenthal Institut für Holocaust-Studien
Keywords: Belorussian children as forced labourers; Army Group Centre; decision-making process; imprisonment; collaboration; Red Army; Wehrmacht;
Summary/Abstract: Based on German and Belorussian archives as well as on testimonies, this paper examines the deportation of Belorussian children as forced labourers to Germany by units of Army Group Centre in 1944. It analyses the decision-making process, the imprisonment of thousands of children, their deportation, employment in Germany, the role of Belorussian collaborators, and finally the liberation of the children by the Red Army. By focussing on the participation of German military units in deporting child forced labourers, the article sheds light on the contemporary and post-war web of lies to create and maintain the myth of the ‘clean’ Wehrmacht.
Journal: S:I.M.O.N. Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation.
- Issue Year: 3/2016
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 54-63
- Page Count: 10
- Language: German