Soviets conscripted by the Nazis

[Red Future]

I am trying to find experiences of the Soviet prisoners who were forced into reserve army battalions known as Ost battalions by the Germans and used as a cheap fighting force.Does anyone know more on this and if any escaped or what happened to them ??.

Note they were I believe separate from General Vlasovs "Russian liberation army" as they were unwilling

[Dimentio]

Those who came back alive where often rewarded with a ticket to a work camp, as a punishment for having surrendered to the Germans.

[ComradeOm]

I am trying to find experiences of the Soviet prisoners who were forced into reserve army battalions known as Ost battalions by the Germans and used as a cheap fighting force.Does anyone know more on this and if any escaped or what happened to them ??.

Note they were I believe separate from General Vlasovs "Russian liberation army" as they were unwillingYou sure about this? I know that under exceptional local circumstances some hiwis were given weapons and pressed into combat formations but this was never general policy. Typically conscripted Soviet prisoners were relegated to support or logistical roles only. As far as I'm aware those who did fight in the Ost Battalions were volunteers recruited (but not conscripted) from the prisoner population

[Red Future]

You sure about this? I know that under exceptional local circumstances some hiwis were given weapons and pressed into combat formations but this was never general policy. Typically conscripted Soviet prisoners were relegated to support or logistical roles only. As far as I'm aware those who did fight in the Ost Battalions were volunteers recruited (but not conscripted) from the prisoner population

Your probably right on this , I was thinking mainly if any were unwillingly conscripted into Ostlegion as a last measure in say 1945

[Partizani]

In Anthony Beevor's Stalingrad, he mentions ex-Red Army Don Cossacks who were originally as previously stated, purely for logistics. Carrying food, fuel etc. But as the Kessle closed around the 6th Army they took up arms knowing the future that awaited them. Beevor quotes from a German Officer who states that they fought fanatically. OstBattalions were used in the West mainly as they feared desertion on the East. Majority of them being Georgians. Conscripted? this is something i am not aware of from my study of the Eastern Front. However the conditions in the POW camps in the east were so horrendous that im sure it wouldnt take much persuasion to get them performing logistic operations at the front. Of course ANY former Red Army POW once returned to the Soviet Union was dealt with accordingly, usually spending up to 5 Years at work camps. This order was given so that troops at the front would not surrender (something that was not needed after the liberation of occupied territories revealed what the Fascists had done)