The NKVD Special Camp No. 1 (german: Speziallager Nr. 1 Mühlberg) was a special camp operated by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

from 1945 to 1948, during the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

occupation of parts of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It was located 4 km to the east of Mühlberg, Brandenburg using the shacks of the former German run prisoners-of-war camp Stalag IV-B. The prisoners mainly consisted of members of the lower and medium ranks of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

, German military personnel, youth wrongly accused of belonging to the German

Werwolf ''Werwolf'' (, German for "werewolf") was a Nazi plan which began development in 1944, to create a resistance force which would operate behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced through Germany, in parallel with the ''Wehrmacht'' fighting in ...

resistance, and other persons who were regarded by the Soviets as being potentially dangerous like journalists, teachers, policemen, farmers, factory owners and politicians in addition to several arbitrarily accused people. Conditions in the camp were characterized by bad sanitary conditions, malnutrition and lack of basic medical service. The camp had over 21,800 prisoners during its existence, including 1,490 women and over 1,300 teenagers. At most, it held 12,000 prisoners at a time. In 1946, around 3,000 prisoners were deported to the

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. On 8 February 1947, a further 1,000 prisoners, mostly youth, were also deported to an NKVD Gulag camp in Siberia, the NKVD Camp No. 7503/11 in Anschero-Sudschensk. In summer 1948, two thirds of the prisoners were released. On 17 September 1948, the remaining 3,000 prisoners were transferred to another NKVD camp, Special Camp No. 2 in

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or sus ...

. From there, a part was released in 1950, the remaining prisoners were handed over from the Soviets to the East German Communist government and brought to Waldheim on 9 and 13 February 1950, only to be "convicted" in the infamous Waldheim Processes. The camp in Mühlberg ceased operations in 1948. More than 6,700 of the prisoners (among them 111 teenagers) died due to the bad conditions in the camp. They were all buried in

mass graves A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of executi ...

. Their relatives were not notified. The East German communist government forbade any commemoration. Only following the

Fall of Communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...

in 1989, memorials were erected. In 1992, a central memorial was erected, which is rebuilt with the assistance of the German War Graves Commission. On 6 September 2008, a name plaque with the names of all the victims was officially unveiled.

Literature

* Sigrid Drechsler: ''Im Schatten von Mühlberg.'' Kunstverlag Paris, Rudolstadt 1995. * Ursula Fischer: ''Zum Schweigen verurteilt. Denunziert, verhaftet, interniert. (1945–1948).'' Dietz, Berlin 1992, . * Jan von Flocken, Michael Klonovsky: ''Stalins Lager in Deutschland. 1945–1950. Dokumentation, Zeugenberichte.'' Ullstein, Berlin 1991, . * Herbert Hecht: ''Sibirische Glocken.'' Selbstverlag, Gernrode 2006. * Martina Hofmann: ''Eine Ausstellung über das NKWD-Speziallager Nr.1 Mühlberg/Elbe von 1945 bis 1948. Ein Beitrag zur Zeitgeschichte.'' 1994. * Initiativgruppe Mühlberg e. V. ''Kriegsgefangenenlager Stalag IV B, Speziallager Nr. 11 des sowj. NKWD.'' (Flyer). * Initiativgruppe Lager Mühlberg e. V. (Hrsg.): ''Totenbuch – Speziallager Nr. 1 des sowjetischen NKWD, Mühlberg/Elbe.'' Initiativgruppe Lager Mühlberg e. V., Mühlberg/Elbe 2008, . * Achim Kilian: ''Einzuweisen zur völligen Isolierung. NKWD-Speziallager Mühlberg/Elbe 1945–1948.'' 2. erweiterte Auflage. Forum Verlag, Leipzig 1993, . * Achim Kilian: ''Mühlberg. 1938–1948. Ein Gefangenenlager mitten in Deutschland.'' Böhlau, Köln u. a. 2001, (''Geschichte und Politik in Sachsen'' 17). This book contains the most comprehensive collection of historical and statistical facts on the NKVD special camp No. 1. * Erhard Krätzschmar: ''… von Wurzen über Mühlberg nach Sibirien … Betroffene erinnern sich. (Bittere Jugendjahre 1945–1950).'' Swing, Colditz 1995.
online
* Helmut Leppert: ''Odyssee einer Jugend.'' 8. Auflage. Initiativgruppe Lager Mühlberg e. V., Mühlberg/Elbe 2010. * Helma von Nerée: ''Erinnern, nie vergessen. NKWD-Lager Mühlberg/Elbe.'' Selbstverlag, Marsberg 2006. * John Noble: ''I Was a Slave in Russia: An American Tells His Story.'' New York: Devin-Adair, 1960. pp 46-59. * Siegfried Rulc: ''Unvollständige Chronik 1945–1950. Ein Tagebuch zur Werwolf-Legende.'' 2. Auflage. S. Rulc, Berlin 1996, . * Rolf Schneider: ''Mit siebzehn hinter Stacheldraht - von Mühlberg bis Sibirien.'' Wegberg 2005 * Elisabeth Schuster: ''Reite Schritt, Schnitter Tod! Leben und Sterben im Speziallager Nr. 1 des NKWD Mühlberg, Elbe.'' With a preface by

Joachim Gauck Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (; born 24 January 1940) is a German politician and civil rights activist who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in E ...

. German War Graves Commission/Scribeo-Verlag, Kassel 2004, * Paul Weisshuhn: ''Ich komme wieder! Erinnerungen eines Überlebenden. NKWD-Speziallager Mühlberg 1945–1948.'' Herausgegeben von Markolf Weisshuhn. Edition Noëma, Stuttgart 2003, .

External links

* , Brandenburgischer Bildungsserver
www.lager-muehlberg.org
web site on Stalag IV-B and Soviet special camp No. 1 (''in English'') {{Authority control NKVD NKVD special camps Mühlberg, Brandenburg Buildings and structures in Brandenburg