During its initial advance, the Wehrmacht captured vast numbers of prisoners – over 60,000, according to German records53 – in its pincer movement on Kiev alone. Partly because the number of surrenders was so huge, partly because Slavs were Untermenschen undeserving of even basic care, few preparations were made for their reception. Instead, the Wehrmacht herded hundreds of thousands of men into ‘cages’ – bare enclosures surrounded with barbed-wire.
