Order 7161

Order 7161 refers to the top secret USSR State Defense Committee Order no 7161ss (Постановление № 7161cc ГКО СССР) of December 16, 1944 about mobilisation and internment of able-bodied Germans for works in the USSR. (The "ss" after the number is the Russian abbreviation for "top secret".) The order was part of the organisation of forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union since the ending period of the World War II.

The order instructed to intern all able-bodied Germans of ages 17–45 (men) and 18-30 (women) residing within the territories of Romania (69,332 persons), Hungary (31,923 persons), Yugoslavia (10,935 persons), Czechoslovakia (215 persons) and Bulgaria (75 persons), which were under the control of the Red Army.

The information about this development was suppressed in the Soviet Bloc until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but was generally known in the West based on statistics and recollections of the internees.

The implementation of the order was assigned to the NKVD via its department, the Main Administration for Affairs of Prisoners of War and Internees (with Russian abbreviation GUPVI).

See also

• POW labor in the Soviet Union

References

• Павел Полян, Не по своей воле... (Pavel Polian, Against Their Will... A History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR), ОГИ Мемориал, Moscow, 2001, ISBN 5-94282-007-4
• Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa./ Bearb. von T. Schieder. Bd. 1–5. Wolfenbattel, 1953–1961
• Die Deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. Bevolkerungsbilanzen fuer die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50. Wiesbaden, 1958
• Rhode G. Phasen und Formen der Massenzwangswanderungen in Europa. // Die Vertriebenen in Westdeutschland. Bd. 1. Kiel, 1959.
• Karner, Stefan, Im Archipel GUPVI. Kriegsgefangenschaft und Internierung in der Sowjetunion 1941-1956. Wien-München 1995.
• Sharkov, Anatoli, GUPVI Archipelago: Prisoners of War and Internees on the Territiory of Belarus: 1944--1951(in Russian) (2003), Minsk, Belarus, ISBN 985-463-094-3