GERMANY: Chill from the East

Last January, officials of the West German government announced that some 400,000 German prisoners of war were still held in the Soviet Union. Western Allied officials thought this figure too high, but agreed that at least 225,000 and perhaps as many as 250,000 German P.W.s had yet to be accounted for by the Russians. Recently the flow of returning prisoners had been stepped up, and German families eagerly scanned the lists of returnees.

Last week, from Moscow, came news that chilled the hearts of thousands. All German prisoners of war in Russia, said the Soviet radio, had now been returned to Germany.

The Germans were almost too stunned to speak. By the most conservative estimate, the Russians still had not accounted for more than 200,000 prisoners of war. Socialist Leader Kurt Schumacher expressed in one word the feelings of millions: “Monstrous.”