Глава "Советские военнопленные" только что названной книги:
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Russian Prisoners of War
Translated by Eilat Gordin Levitan
It is doubtful that with words alone we would be able to accurately convey the absolutely tragic state of the prisoners of war. The P.O.Ws that met their horrible deaths here in Glubokie.
We speak of the fate of 47,000 soldiers and officers of the Red Army who fell under German captivity. At the beginning there were a lot more. However, on the forced walk from the battlefield to Glubokie, 60% of them perished. Using various misleading tricks along the way, the Germans would torture and shoot them. If, for example, an exhausted soldier could not keep up with the quick moving column or convoy; or if one of the prisoners would cast a wrong glance; they would be shot. If a crust of bread was thrown to one of them by the women who stood by the road crying, without a doubt, if he stooped to pick up the bread, he was immediately shot.
Transporting them by military conveyors, they were crammed in and pressed so tightly in the boxcars, that they perished not only from starvation and thirst, but from suffocation. It was impossible to breathe in these improvised conveyances. The unconscious and dead were not even removed, they were taken, together with the living, to the designated destination. Consequently, the number of dead steadily increased. This inhuman circumstances were not accidental. The aim of the Germans was to deliver as few living prisoners as possible to the prison camps.
As a result of the tortures, the sufferings and deaths of prisoners, along the way, a "remnant" of 47,000 living men was brought to Glubokie.
They were driven from the train station to Berezvetch, to the prison barracks. The youth of yesterday, which days before was full of energy, who were only weeks before appeared as strong courageous fighters, heroes of the Soviet Union, were now famished, feeble and wounded, broken shadows of their old selves, with pale drawn faces. They were cruelly beaten for all to see. Openly tortured by tile Germans! Hunched over, they dragged themselves along the road like very old people; their dull gaze from their deeply sunken eyes was begging for food and drink. They languished to be free, to survive.... verbally begging for a piece of bread, or a little water, was forbidden. It was also forbidden for the civilian population to offer them any food or drink. And those, who upon seeing the unfortunate prisoners, were bold enough to throw them a crust of bread, were severely punished by the Germans for their "impertinence".
At the beginning, people didn't know that giving a prisoner a piece of bread or a little water to drink, was a crime. People were gallant enough to throw bread, vegetables and other food items to the passing prisoners. Immediately, announcements were posted ; “anyone caught giving bread to a prisoner, would be shot to death” Understandably, such an announcement frightened people off, and so they restrained themselves from helping the prisoners. There were some, whose pity for the wretched prisoners weighed so heavily upon them, that they could not keep themselves from secretly throwing the bread, thereby putting their lives in jeopardy. The extent of the length of the Germans' cruelty, is exemplified by the fact that when my seven year old son, in compliance with his mother's instructions, gave a piece of bread to a prisoner, the Germans noticed it and chased after the child. By a miracle of God, the child was able to hide in a closet, and the Germans were unable to find him. Incidentally, the Germans could not search for him too long, since they were accompanying the prisoners, and thus the child was saved!
The Germans brought the prisoners to Berezvetch and here they were "lodged" in specially arranged pits, which were “so-called” barracks. These barracks-pits were not covered on top, and when autumn arrived, followed by a cold winter, the prisoners, who suffered from hunger, thirst and German torture. In addition, that winter of 1941/1942, suffered from the bitter cold. After such a terrible journey, experiencing so much torment along the way, a new order of suffering began for the prisoners, a new chapter of tortures. In order to protect themselves from the cold, to warm themselves somewhat, they would huddle together, pressed tightly among themselves, to alleviate their suffering somewhat.
The barracks-pits were in such unsanitary condition, that it is hard to describe. There was no private place for the prisoners to relieve themselves._ The filth was so great, and the lice had reached such proportions that the gaunt, emaciated bodies of the prisoners, were devoured by the vermin. It was told that when a prisoner would take off his shirt, the shirt actually moved, because of the quantity of lice.... The stench, the malodorous air, was carried from the barracks-pits to a great distance enveloping the camp. Not a word was ever said by the “German master race” about taking the prisoners to a bath-house, or providing them with a change of clothing.
The prisoners in Berezvetch were fed "bread" - a mixture of some ground-up straw and "sawdust" (30% according to the testimony of the baker, Elihu Gordon). This was given in such a small portion that the prisoners would become swollen from hunger. When the Germans, on rare occasions, would bring into the camp some frozen rotten potatoes, and the prisoners would fall upon them, grabbing and clutching, the Germans would shoot into them for "failing to keep order!" The hunger was so oppressive that death punishment was not a deterrent. The shooting did not frighten the prisoners. Better death by a bullet, than the slow death by hunger. They grabbed the rotten, raw potatoes as though they were the best of delicacies. It is clear that such a "life style" in the camp, gave rise to disease. The strongest human being would succumb to it here! There was not even a talk of healing the sick. They either died of disease or were shot by their guards. Every morning, dozens, and even hundreds of bodies were scattered about. Bodies of those who died during the night. The Germans, by their cruelty, brought the prisoners to a state of inhumanity. When the portions of bread would be scattered, the prisoners would lift up their dead comrades, supporting them as if they were only sick, so as to get their portion of bread for themselves. When a German wanted to have fun, he would bring the prisoners a dead horse. The unfortunates would throw themselves upon the animal like beasts, tearing the putrid horse flesh. The stronger ones would grab the portions of the weaker ones.... At that the Germans would amuse themselves, and shoot several tens of prisoners for their "bad manners" and for not "restraining themselves"!
The hunger in the camp reached such a degree, that there were cases where the prisoners permitted themselves to eat the flesh of their dead comrades. Some of Yesterday's Heroes, normal thinking human beings, were transformed by the German's murderous actions, into cannibals!
Every evening, the sounds of gun shots or machine guns reverberated throughout Berezvetch. The Germans shot the prisoners during the night. The issue of escape was a difficult one for the prisoners. Not because of the guards, but because of their own physical weakness and the injuries which they suffered from regular beatings by the Germans.
There were some cases of prisoners fleeing from the camp. After escaping they would come running into town in small groups, where they would be given civilian clothing to change into, and in this way they would be saved. One of the prisoners, Ivanov, fled to the Ghetto, and there, in due time, he organized a group of 18 youths, who went into the forest as partisans.
Special commendation was earned by a truly small proportion of the populace, they were ready to sacrifice themselves for the fate of the imprisoned. People would "innocently" bring wood to a point not far from the camp, and when the patrols failed to notice them, they would throw food, clothing and other things over the fence. Whoever was lucky enough to catch the clothing, would immediately change and flee. They would thus save themselves. There were cases of peasants, from nearby villages, who would remove prisoners from the camp, under bales of hay and straw. They would then provide them with food, clothing and even weapons. These prisoners later joined the partisans. However such cases were extremely rare.
Among the prisoners there were also traitors, which made it even more difficult to flee and to receive any help in one form or another. The Germans appointed these traitors as the "seniors" in the camp! They were supposed to be a sort of police who would watch the other prisoners. These traitors, who sold their souls, took revenge upon the prisoners, as much as the Germans did. They informed on them, and in front of the eyes of their "lovely bosses" the Germans, they would beat their fellow prisoners "black and blue"! The Germans derived great pleasure from this, and they would laugh and make merry. The traitors won the trust of the Germans to such an extent that they were even given weapons with which they themselves killed prisoners.
Of the 47,000 Red Army prisoners brought to Berezvetch, almost none were left alive, except for the few who had managed to flee. The Germans annihilated them in Berezvetch's Concentration Camp, where over 50 pits remain, a testament to German brutality and barbarism! Many of those who perished were true heroes, who till their very last breath did not forsake their humanity. Here it is worthwhile mentioning one of the Jewish prisoners, Captain Raskin, whom the Germans, for some unfathomable reason, wanted to keep alive. He was wounded at the time that there was a shooting of the prisoners. When a German officer brought a doctor to him to give him medical aid, Raskin refused. The German officer turned to him with the following words: "Herr Captain! Your wound must be bandaged. You are losing blood and you will die!"
The Captain straightened himself, his vigorous face became even more serious, and with an angry, almost shouting voice, he answered him: "Herr Officer, better to die than to be bandaged by the hands of a German doctor!" Trembling from head to toe, he added: "The Germans have put the world into enough bandages! They've tied her up so that she has ceased breathing. The day is not far off when the world will free herself from your chains and the gruesome hour of reckoning will come when you will pay!" Thereby the noble countenance of the Captain became very distorted, for it was apparent that he was in great pain! He collapsed, blood gushing all over him. Several hours later he died!
This sight so affected those present, that many of them swore revenge for the blood that had been shed! And indeed, that night a group of prisoners choked the German sentry to death and fled. The Germans hunted them all down, and murdered every last one of them. The fields were covered with dead bodies. Only the above-mentioned Ivanov, who came to the Ghetto and from there went to the partisans, managed to save himself.
Near the pits of the prisoners in Berezvech, a grave draws a special attention. It is the common grave of the eight members of the prominent family of Chaim Kozliner of Berezvech, who through the cruelty of the German murderers, perished at the start of the occupation. They were killed because they were "guilty" of giving food and water to the war prisoners. May their souls be entwined in the vine of everlasting life!
http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Hlybokaye/hly032.html#Page53Суть. Точная дата начала работы лагеря здесь не называется. Но из контекста ясно следует, что оно относится к лету, т. е. к июлю-августу. К моменту поступления пленных в лагерь были уже сооружены бараки без крыш, которых не были доделаны и зимой. Всего было отправлено в лагерь 47 тыс., но 60% из них погибли еще до прибытия в лагерь (от голода, жажды, издевательств охранников, многие умерли из-за огромной скученности в ж. д. вагонах). В лагерь (первоначально?) прибыло, следовательно, тысяч 20. По железной дороге пленных доставляли до станции Глубокое, а далее, видимо, пешими колоннами, до Березвеча. Но это место темное. Дело в том, что там тоже проходит железная дорога, есть платформа. Почему до нее не довозили и на ней не останавливались, непонятно.
Населению было запрещено под страхом расстрела давать пленным, которых вели колоннами через город, воду и еду. 8 человек, семья Козинера, за это были расстреляны.
Бежать из лагеря удалось буквально единицам, из которых названо имя Иванова, который создал в гетто подпольную молодежную группу, потом ушел с ней к партизанам. Из других источников следует, что из жителей гетто, ушедших в партизаны, осталось в живых после войны 100 чел. Возможно, среди них имелся в виду и Иванов, и кто-то еще из бежавших из лагеря пленных.
Существенно также упоминание о капо из перебежчиков, которым администрация лагеря доверяла оружие и которые, видимо, участвовали в расстрелах, которые были, похоже, обычным делом.
