Investigations in Ukrainian archives

Since 1994 the German Red Cross Tracing Service has been trying to establish contacts with Ukrainian archives to get information about members of the German Army and civil internees, in order to clarify further fates. Ukraine having been a big theatre of war, it can be assumed that its archives contain a quite considerable amount of records concerning the above-mentioned groups of persons.

In relation with the research project of the German-Russian commission of historians dealing with Soviet Prisoners of War in German captivity and German prisoners of war in Russian captivity, the foundation of Saxonian memorial places (“Stiftung Sächsische Gedenkstätten”) in Dresden had made contacts with different archives in Kiev already in 2003. In 2004 an agreement was made with the Ukrainian State Committee of Archives concerning the accessibility of the corresponding archive materials, mentioning in accordance with the preceding talks the German Red Cross Tracing Service as competent institution for the clarification of fates of German prisoners of war and civil internees.

The first visit was paid in October 2005 by a delegation of the German Red Cross Tracing Service.

In April 2006 a co-operation agreement was signed between the German Red Cross Tracing Service and the Central Archives of the Security Service of Ukraine.

See photo: Dr. Hansjörg Kalcyk from the Tracing Service Munich, Ulrich Austermühle from the Tracing Service Coordination Bureau in Bonn, Sergej Mikolajewitsch Bogunow, director of the Central Archives of the Security Service of Ukraine and Sergej Kokin, deputy director.

These archives contain records about sentenced members of the German Army and at a small scale, records about sentenced German civil internees. Both groups are of very high interest for the work of the German Red Cross Tracing Service. According to the director, these records include round 20,000 persons.

Further negotiations included representatives of the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior and the Central State Archives of the highest authorities and the Ukrainian government as well. The corresponding basic agreements are under preparation. It is assumed that round 80,000 Germans died on Ukrainian territory.

  Photo from April 2006: POW cemetery of camp 235 in Winniza