The grim fate of Soviet POWs

30st August 1941: For those captured in the summer of 1941 the chances of survival were slim

German troops search a Russian Prisoner of War.

Although there is argument over the extent to which regular Wehrmacht units were aware of the activities of the Einsatzgruppen, few were ignorant of the treatment of the hundreds of thousands of Soviet prisoners of war coming into German custody.

The German High Command had anticipated that they would take …