Date of birth:

November 6th, 1876 (Berlin-Schöneberg/Prussia, German Empire)

Date of death:

March 11th, 1961 (Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany)

Nationality:

German

Oberstleutnant Johannes Gutschmidt (1876–1961) was a German officer who served in both the First and Second World Wars and is best known for the diary he kept as commander of POW camps on the Eastern Front. His notes are now considered a rare and important personal document about the treatment of prisoners of war, particularly Soviet soldiers.

Johannes Friedrich Paul Gutschmidt was born in Berlin-Schöneberg. During the First World War, he served as a captain and battery commander on the Western Front. He was wounded three times, received both the Iron Cross First and Second Class, and suffered a severe skull fracture towards the end of the war. In 1920, like many officers of the defeated Reichswehr, he was discharged from active service.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Gutschmidt was called back into military service. Between 1939 and 1944, he commanded several Durchgangslager (transit camps) for prisoners of war in France, Poland, and the occupied territories of the Soviet Union, including Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. In this role, he found himself in the midst of one of the greatest humanitarian catastrophes of the war: the mass imprisonment and systematic neglect of Soviet soldiers. Of the approximately 5.5 million Soviet prisoners of war in German hands, an estimated three million perished from hunger, disease, abuse, and forced labor.

During his service, Gutschmidt kept a comprehensive diary, comprising 474 double-page spreads. In it, he meticulously recorded his daily experiences, observations, and impressions of the camp administration. His notes are remarkable because they contain not only military and organizational details but also implicitly reflect the systematic neglect and suffering of the prisoners. Although he himself did not make overtly ideological notes, the diary shows how the combination of command structure, racial hierarchy, and logistical chaos led to mass deaths.

After the war, the diary remained in the family until it was transferred to the Military Archives in Freiburg in 1971. There, it fell into oblivion until its rediscovery in 2001 by historian Christian Hartmann. Since then, it has been considered a unique and valuable historical document, offering insight into both the daily practices of the German camp administration and the broader context of war crimes against Soviet prisoners of war.

Johannes Gutschmidt died on March 11, 1961, in his birthplace of Berlin-Schöneberg.

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• - BA-MA, MSG 1: 257