of the internees were ethnic Germans and some could have been ethnic Poles. The Soviets sent about three-quarters of the laborers to the Donets Basin to work in the reconstruction of heavy industry and mines, and about 11% to the Urals' heavy industries. The workers were housed in concentration camps under armed guard. The working and living conditions were harsh and according to Soviet records about 24% of those interned died. Forced labor turned out to be inefficient and unprofitable since many of the women and older men were not able to perform heavy labor. Repatriation started as early as 1945 and almost all were released by 1950. Ethnic German civilians interned by USSR - Soviet data from the Russian archives Source of figures Pavel Polian-Against Their Will Notes: 1. Country indicates the location where the persons were conscripted, not citizenship. 2. The 201,464 surviving internees were citizens of the following nations- Germany 77,692; Romania 61,072; Hungary 29,101; Poland 21,061; Yugoslavia 9,034; Czechoslovakia 2,378; Austria 199; Bulgaria and other countries 927. 3. Figures do not include German civilians interned in the Kaliningrad Oblast, the former East Prussia 4. Figures do not include "Forced Repatriation" and "Resettlers" Ethnic Germans from the USSR who had been resettled by Germany in Poland during the war. They were returned to the USSR. 5. Figures do not include military POWs. 6. Still held 12/1949- Persons convicted by Soviet military tribunals and held in MVD prisons in the USSR Thanks to the opening of the Russian archives, the fates of some of these civilians are now known. By late 1996, the German Red Cross had received from Russia 199,000 records of deported German civilians who had either been repatriated or died in Soviet captivity. For example, the records of Pauline Gölner reveal that she was born in 1926 in Wolkendorf in Transylvania, was arrested on January 15, 1945 and sent to forced labor in the coal mines of Chanchenkowo (Ukraine). She died there on February 26, 1949, 23 years old. There is currently an ongoing research program in collaboration between Russia and Germany: Deportation and forced labor of Soviet Germans during WW2 The ethnic German minority in the USSR was considered a security risk by the Soviet government and they were deported during the war in order to prevent their possible collaboration with the Nazi invaders. In August 1941 the Soviet government ordered ethnic Germans to