Operation Ossawakim

Thousands of German skilled workers are taken to the Soviet Union without warning

Meeting at Yalta in 1945 to thrash out the post-war settlement, the Allies agreed that they would impose forced labour on Germans as a means of extracting reparations for it having started the Second World War. Once the war was over, each of the Allies began competing to see who could recruit the most talented German scientists, technicians and engineers. The Western powers secured documents, laboratories and materials in their zones, but also in Thuringia – a part of the Soviet zone of occupation that had initially been occupied by US troops. They also secured skilled workers such as nuclear physicists and rocket specialists. Some of this was achieved voluntarily, while in other cases pressure was applied, for example by first placing the specialists in detention. Although Stalin initially ordered that “special construction offices” be set up in East Germany to put the specialists to work, he later decided to transfer personnel and material to the Soviet Union in order to gain access to the technologies he needed.

A surprise operation code-named Operation Ossawakim saw armed soldiers knock on the doors of the homes of over 2,000 German aerospace, nuclear, chemicals and optics specialists, informing them that they – together with their families – would be transported to the Soviet Union. The workers were followed by the inventory of entire companies, which was dismantled and packed into goods trains. Most of the German workers transported to the Soviet Union were very well treated and spent between four and eight years working there. Many did not return until 1958.