Soviet POWs Captured by ϟϟ-Panzergrenadier-Division „Das Reich“

Wounded Soviet Sergeant captured by the Waffen-SS in the Battle of Kursk

Waffen-SS tankers giving first aid to wounded Soviets in the Kursk salient

Operation Citadel - the Battle of Kursk

SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Leibstandarte SS and Das Reich were the most successful units on the German southern wing on the first day of the offensive. The Leibstandarte SS were overrunning the first Soviet defensive belt in heavy fighting against Soviet Paratroops of 9th Guards Airborne Division. The Das Reich tore through the Soviet defences and pushed upwards of 65 kilometers into the southern sector of the bulge and captured numbers of Soviet troops, but the Wehrmacht got bogged down. More than 3 million Soviet prisoners of war died in German POW camps during WWII, about 60 percent of all Soviet prisoners. Similar death rates prevailed among German soldiers in Soviet captivity. German Wehrmacht prisoners had of course much higher survival rate than volunteers and conscripts of the Waffen-SS. It was actually more dangerous to be in a prisoner-of-war camp than to be on the Eastern front line as an infantryman. In fact, the poor conditions were not caused primarily by incompetence or lack of preparation: harsh treatment of prisoners was a matter of policy. The capturing government itself, not the Waffen-SS nor any other frontline organization, was responsible for what happened behind the front lines. The top photo shows a wounded sergeant of the Red Army lying on the ground. A Waffen-SS Panzergrenadier with a Soviet PPSh-41 submachine-gun slung across his back is apparently calling the medics to see his condition. The middle and bottom photos from the same occasion show Soviet prisoners captured by tankers of the Waffen-SS being treated on the battlefield by an SS-Scharführer of Das Reich. The photographer SS-KB Hermann Grönert served with Das Reich at Kharkov and Kursk. U.S. NARA.