Page "Joseph Stalin" Paragraph 45

According to recent figures, of an estimated four million POWs taken by the Soviets, including Germans, Japanese, Hungarians, Romanians and others, some 580, 000 never returned, presumably victims of privation or the Gulags.

Soviet POWs and forced laborers who survived German captivity were sent to special " transit " or " filtration " camps to determine which were potential traitors.