No less incredible is the fate of Martin Sandberger, who commanded Einsatzkommando 1a (part of Einsatzgruppe A). Sandberger was, until his death in a Stuttgart retirement home on March 30, 2010, at the ripe old age of ninety-eight, the highest-ranking war criminal known to be alive. A doctor of law, he presided over the murders of some 14,500 Jews and communists and was sentenced to death in 1951; this was commuted to life imprisonment, and Sandberger was paroled in February 1958.

Landsberg Prison ceased to be used by the Americans as a war crimes facility in 1958 and is now maintained by the Bavarian Ministry of Justice.

The best book on the Battle of Königsberg is Isabel Denny’s The Fall of Hitler’s Fortress City (2007).

I am indebted to a number of books about the Soviet POW camps. The best of these are Stefan Karner’s Im Archipel GUPVI (1995) and George Schinke’s Red Cage (1994). The best book on returning German POWs is Frank Biess’s Homecomings (2006).

Edgard de Boudel is a fictional character based on two real French war criminals: Edgard Puaud and Georges Boudarel.

Helmut Knochen and Carl Oberg were pardoned by Charles de Gaulle and released in 1962. Oberg died in 1965, Knochen in 2003.

*Voinapleni = POW; bistra = hurry up; davai = go on, or all right; nichevo = it doesn’t matter; kasha = barley broth; klopkis = lice; kate = hut or barracks; pravda = truth; Voronezh is a Russian province.

*Saklutshonni = a convict, as opposed to a POW.

*Author’s translation.