‘Victory or Siberia’: Imaginings of Siberia and the Memory of German POWs in the USSR

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the memory of German prisoners of war (POWs) from the Second World War in the USSR. The article first identifies the trope of Siberian captivity, which it refutes using two digital humanities methods: geographic information system (GIS) mapping and text analysis. The article then raises a series of factors, covering both experiences, memoirs and novels of First World War captivity in Russia and also Nazi propaganda, to show a long-standing association between Siberia and German captivity in Russia and the Soviet Union. Finally, the article explores West German politics and memory culture to argue ultimately that the trope of Siberian captivity persisted as a result of West German anti-Communist policies and an attempt to displace blame and complicity for the war. While German memory changed between the 1950s and the present and although scholars have worked to expose many misrepresentations of the war that started in West Germany in the 1950s, this is the first study to examine the idea of Siberian captivity and its links to POWs in the USSR.