Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum

Hello Oleg,

in the internet I have found this article:
The Five-Minute Trials in Russia - Prisoners of war become war criminals
from the archives of the Deutsche Zeitung rescued by Dikigoros
… One day in January 1950, the prisoner Hans Gummelt stood in the Workuta camp before a Soviet tribunal. Lieutenant Gummelt, Stukapilot, was accused of destroying the city of Vitebsk during the war.
In fact, Gummelt had dropped bombs on Russian troops in Vitebsk in a combat mission. The Soviets had nothing to reproach him for. But it was enough for the prosecution. The court met in a room of the camp.
Three Soviet officers sat at bare wooden tables, a little off an interpreter. The chairman of the court asked Hans Gummelt about his name and rank. Then the indictment was read to the German. The process took less than five minutes. Then the court disappeared through a door, apparently to give the impression that it was seriously advising on the sentence.
After five minutes, the Russians were back and announced the verdict: death by shooting. In those days, Lieutenant Hans Gummelt was followed by hundreds of other prisoners in the courtroom, the ritual repeated with machine precision, and the Germans were all condemned.
The Air Force Lieutenant Hans Gummelt had worked in the moor camp near the town of Gorky, in the town of Sverdlovsk and in Workuta - in the camp near the Arctic Circle, which was called the white hell by its inmates because of the grim working and living conditions.
The prisoners in this land of eternal frost, like most forced laborers, as well as Air Force Lieutenant Hans Gummelt, had to work in the mine. A returnee of the Federal Government Scientific Commission for War Crimes reported on working conditions in the bad years of Workuta 358 …

Regards
Leo