2023-09-03 16:05:00
In the Russian State Military Archive in Moscow, documents from the Gulag and the GUPVI, the Main Directorate for Prisoners of War and Internees, coexist in two large collections. In both, pages of the history of Brest are hidden.
On July 17, 1944, a giant column of German prisoners of war was led under escort along the main avenues of Moscow – 57,600 officers and soldiers, captured mainly on the territory of Belarus. The generals moved in front, and several watering machines walked behind the column, symbolically washing the asphalt of the capital. The elaborate “parade of the vanquished” was codenamed “The Great Waltz”.
At the end of the march, the Germans were returned to camps, of which there were many equipped in the country: almost 3.5 million prisoners of war appeared in the final lists. The conclusion of yesterday’s enemies in places not so distant brought an economic effect – through the use of labor.
The regulation on prisoners of war, adopted by the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR on July 1, 1941, gained relevance in the second half of the war. The document regulated the conditions of detention of those taken prisoner, their duties, rights, and interaction with the camp administration. The conditions for the use of labor, working hours, pay, etc. were determined. The regulation guaranteed the prisoners of war life and safety, medical care, established food standards and conditions in the camps.
After the Belarusian offensive operation, the need for places of inpatient detention increased greatly. As of November 1, 1944, 85 POW camps of various types operated in the USSR. The network of rear camps was expanded at an accelerated pace.
At the end of 1944, it was planned to organize 16 camps with a total number of 70 thousand people on the territory of Belarus, Poland and Latvia. In total, on the territory of the USSR, by the end of the year, rear camps could accommodate more than 900 thousand people.
The main goal was to involve them in the restoration of the economy destroyed by the war.
In Brest, there was no question about the location of the camp. After the liberation of the city in 1944, the houses of the former Jewish colony in 1st Minsk lane, where Soviet prisoners of war (“kriegsgefangenenlyager”) were kept during the occupation, were almost immediately moved in by new inhabitants – the Germans. If they knew at the beginning of the war that they were equipping the camp, including for themselves, they would have treated the organization of everyday moments with much more care.
By and large, all the camps of German prisoners of war resembled one another. They were a territory surrounded by barbed wire 2.5 meters high. From the inner and outer sides there were forbidden zones from 3 to 5 meters. On the territory there were buildings for living, a catering unit, a bathhouse, a headquarters, medical facilities, and warehouses. The sleeping quarters were equipped with wagon-type bunks, barracks inventory, water supply and lighting. Food and logistics went through the supply line of the NKVD troops.
The daily routine in the camp: getting up – 7.00, morning toilet – 7.00–7.25, building – 7.25 – 8.00, breakfast – 8.00 – 9.00, working hours – 9.40 – 14.00, lunch – 14.00 – 15.00, working hours – 15.00 – 19.40, dinner – 19.40 – 20.40, recreation and cultural events – 20.40-22.30, sleep – from 23.00.
In the archipelago scattered across the country, the Brest camp received No. 284. It occupied the territory up to the street. Brewery, some of the residents were evicted from there. Like other similar camps, the 284th was filled with a contingent of German soldiers and officers coming from the front-line prisoner-of-war camps or from other such stationary camps.
As of June 22, 1949, the staff of the 1st camp department of camp No. 284 with a filling limit of 1,500 people consisted of the leadership, the office, the political department, the accounting group, security, the outpatient clinic and the infirmary. In total, the staff list for the camp department provided for 35 personnel.
For the state of affairs – the implementation of the labor plan, discipline, the safety of the contingent – the head of the camp was fully responsible. He had deputies for general issues, regime and protection, operational work, political affairs, and supplies.
The camp in 1st Minsk lane was the main one in the city, but not the only one. The Germans were kept at the Kobrinsky bridge in the same as in the colony of Warburg, three houses on the present Masherova (then Moskovskaya St., 102, 102a, 104, 104a, 110, 110a – approximately in the place of the first high-altitude “book”). Another department was located at the corner of Karbyshev and Ordzhonikidze – in a spacious brick house of royal construction (it still stands now, the third floor was added later). The Germans were taken from here to carry cargo to a nearby transshipment base. A smaller building standing next to it, the future committee of the Komsomol of the railway, also belonged to the camp. According to eyewitnesses, the area surrounded by wire was well maintained, with flower beds. Those passing by could watch how the Germans sat on the benches after work, walking around. Unlike 1st Minsky Lane, here they were in full view of the townspeople, who could watch them like in a zoo. But the first interest soon passed, they got used to the captured Germans, they became commonplace in the interior of the city. The camp on Ordzhonikidze did not have towers, only a sentry stood at the entrance gate from Karbyshev. There was nowhere to run.
Vasily SARYCHEV
(To be continued)
#search #lost #time #German #prisoner #war #camp