Suppressed Terror: History and Perception of Soviet Camps in Germany

The twenty-first book, Suppressed Terror: History and Perception of Soviet Special Camps in Germany by Bettina Greiner, is a path-breaking exploration of the special prison camps established by Soviet forces in their eastern occupation zone of Germany.  Until recently, this topic was almost impossible to evaluate because of the paucity of reliable evidence. First-hand accounts of survivors of the camps were not enough to put together a well-rounded history.  Greiner, a researcher based at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research, has drawn on a wealth of declassified documents to show exactly how the camps functioned and what role they played in Soviet policy in Germany and in Europe more generally.