Soviet prisoners in the SS Auschwitz

The Soviet prisoners of war («Russisches Kriegsgefangenen Arbeitslager») labor camp: October 1941 — mid-March 1942

On the 25th of September the prisoner-of-war (POW) division of the OKW (Supreme Command of the Armed Forces) of Nazi Germany gave orders to hand up to 100 000 Soviet POWs over to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and the German Police Chief in Lyublino region.

In October 1941 on the ground of this order new groups of Soviet POWs began to be delivered to Auschwitz for the construction of a Soviet POW camp in Birkenau. Most of them were already emaciated and had been deported from the camps that were under Wehrmacht jurisdiction – Lamsdorf and Nuehammer. The prisoners of war were allocated to nine blocks — 1, 2, 3, 12, 13, 14, 22, 23, 24.

The blocks were surrounded by an electrified barbed wire fence. The sign over the gate said, “Russisches Kriegsgefangenen Arbeitslager.” They created a separate register to keep a record of the Soviet prisoners of war in the camp. In October 1941 it contained about 10,000 names. This camp existed till March, 1942…