Russian Prisoners of War Liberated By Advancing U.S. Troops

Identifier:

041191

Collection Number:

A&M 3904

Title:

Russian Prisoners of War Liberated By Advancing U.S. Troops

Date:

ca. 1945

Description:

Information on back of photo reads: "Liberated Russians cluster around a Ninth U.S. Army soldier, carried high on their shoulders, for cigarettes, which they had not seen in many months. When the American finally convinced the Russians that he had no more, they "chaired" him and carried him around the yard before their former prison, the Nazi Stalag 326, south of Bielefeld. The first U.S. troops reached Stalag 326 April 2, 1945. Nine thousand Russian prisoners of war were liberated but thousands were at the point of starvation. Tubercular patients numbered 1,350. in vast mounds all around the camp, 30,000 Russians, most of them starved to death, were buried in heaps of 500. Major Gregory Matviev, who was captured in Sebastopol in 1942, reported that hundreds died daily of starvation and "about 50 were shot every other day for no reason at all.""

Acquisition Source:

Webb, Barry H.

Acquisition Method:

Acquired

Medium:

print

Projects:

West Virginia History OnView